On Fri, 3 Apr 2026 at 09:24, Guus der Kinderen
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi Flow,
>
> Thanks for following up. I want to make sure I understand the value you see
> in making tallies accessible to members specifically, because I'm not
> immediately seeing what it adds over publishing outcomes only.
>
> The concern driving this proposal is that vote counts create an uncomfortable
> experience for applicants, effectively ranking accepted members by how many
> people voted against them. That concern applies equally whether the audience
> is the general public or fellow XSF members: the applicant still ends up with
> a visible score attached to their membership.
>
> I can see a general argument for transparency to the membership
> (accountability of the voting body, trust in the process) but I'm not sure
> tallies specifically are what delivers that. Knowing that someone received 30
> yes and 5 no votes doesn't tell us much without knowing who voted which way
> and why.
A middle-ground here is also to just remove the "no" tallies (even
knowing they can be calculated). All we (and the bylaws) care about
for admission is the number of approvals being above the necessary
threshold ("Members shall be admitted upon the affirmative vote of a
majority of the Members of the Corporation voting. "). A 'no' is just
a lack of approval, but there are many reasons someone might not give
approval other than "I am actively against this person becoming a
member".
For example, a member might vote "no" for an applicant they do not
recognise as participating in the community, and maybe that is their
personal threshold for giving approval. If this member votes "no", it
doesn't mean they are necessarily *against* the applicant if
sufficient other members approve (maybe the applicant works with XMPP
in projects that don't overlap with our hypothetical member).
Calling it a "no" vote makes it feel like "actively against", while I
suspect the majority of such votes are the "lack of approval" kind
(more like a +0 than a -1).
In summary, if people are against removing the published tallies
entirely, a side proposal is to replace the "Yes" and "No" columns
into a single "Approvals" column.
And in fact, now that I've written this email, I just looked up the
latest minutes for reference and it seems Alex has already implemented
this (compare
https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Meeting-Minutes-2026-03-05#Announcement_of_Voting_Results
with
https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Meeting-Minutes-2025-03-06#Announcement_of_Voting_Results
). Not sure if I missed a discussion of this change already.
I think the newer approach is better, and consistent with our bylaws
(possibly more consistent, because they do not describe negative votes
for membership at all). Thanks Alex!
Regards,
Matthew
