#24: Allow other Fedora Groups to use the voting system
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Reporter: nigelj | Owner:
Type: enhancement | Status: new
Priority: major | Milestone: Release 0.5.0 (F14 Target)
Component: General | Version: trunk
Resolution: | Keywords:
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Changes (by pfrields):
* cc: pfrields (added)
Comment:
I'm very concerned that Fedora not fall into the morass of Debian-style
voting for everything. The ability to set up ad-hoc elections to decide
any random issue would tend to upset what is supposed to be meritocracy at
every possible level. I'm not saying democratic voting is inherently
evil. It's useful when you have an election about people, as opposed to
policies or ways to operate. I see three main problems with voting on
operations:
1. It avoids accountability. Team leaders are there to lead, which means
listening to the group, establishing consensus, and making calls where
needed knowing that you can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time.
2. It removes the need, and the ability, to justify arguments. If voters
simply put in +/-1 with no context provided, there's no way to judge hard
vs. soft opinions, nor how important that matter is to the voter.
3. It tends to be anti-meritocracy. We have a fairly open account
process, so it's easy to obtain and hold group membership without daily
involvement in the work of that group. Group membership is a switch --
it's on or off, without an indicator of how involved a particular user is.
It's therefore very easy for uninvolved people who have a strong opinion
to upset the will of other people who are heavily involved (and invested).
When we vote for people, these concerns are balanced out by the personal
aspect -- a lengthy discussion about a particular person would be counter-
productive, as opposed to issues that concern voters. But for issues and
policies, voting should be avoided wherever possible in favor of a more
meritocratic process -- consensus-building and informed, sensitive team
leadership.
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