Rob Weir wrote on Fri, Sep 02, 2011 at 08:14:31 -0400: > On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Christian Grobmeier <grobme...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Shane there are some intrinsic differences between a DL and posting into a > >> forum. However, reading this entire thread I get the feeling that some of > >> the current practices on the forum may be unacceptable to Apache / the > >> project. However in this case, I would suggest that: > >> > >> 1) we adopt an evolutionary approach -- that is get the forums moved and > >> then make any changes. > >> > >> 2) we constitute a small group with forum experience *and* ASF experience > >> do > >> a specific task of reviewing current practices against Apache norms and > >> practices, then draft some change guidelines for feeding to the forums, and > >> an impact assessment of their implementation. We can then feed them into > >> the ooo-dev list for comment and if needed vote on their adoption. > >> > > > > Actually - reading this thread - I think running an support forum of > > this kind is something we haven't done before at apache (or at least > > to my knowledge). That being said we probably need to rethink of what > > we have done in the past. > > > >> This would address such issue as: > >> (i) Do we allow the forum moderators use the forum itself to discuss forum > >> management or must this be done on ooo-dev > > > > In tradition, all ASF related matters - code, users etc - are > > discussed in public on the dev list. The user lists has been utilized > > to do support to users. Now there is an forum in addtiion to a list. > > The credo is:"if it happened on list, it didn't happen". Ok, the board > > is not on list - so it didn't happen. I think management of the board > > can also happen on the board as Terry suggested (i think he did). > > > > That logic doesn't really work. The fact that it is not a mailing > list (and therefore "it didn't happen") is not magical permission to > do things in a project that would otherwise not be allowed. For > example, could we create a forum for project-level fundraising, for > paying developers, for developing code not under ALv2 and for selling > CD's of AOOo, and argue that this is OK, because, "the board is not on > list - so it didn't happen"?
You're taking the phrase too literally. "If it didn't happen on-list, it didn't happen" means: things that didn't happen on-list cannot constitute a PMC decision. You can't vote for a release or a committer on any place other than the list. If the PMC were to meet at a convention center and hand out pamphlets claiming that the foundation rips off third world countries in order to manufacture feathers, the Board would probably step in.
