Steve's blog

Raphaël Hertzog writes about the Condorcet voting system that we use in Debian. He then goes on to consider whether we could use the system to help us elsewhere - could we track MIA developers by checking their voting records? This strikes a chord with another idea I've heard recently: make voting in the DPL election mandatory for active DDs.

I expect that even suggesting such a thing may appal some of us - forcing volunteer DDs to do anything is not likely to be popular, and I admit I have misgivings about it myself on that front. However, I can also see the attraction of the idea. The DPL election is a very(!) well publicised event that happens regularly every year, and is something that most DDs are likely to care about. Asking the project secretary after the polls close for a list of DDs that have not voted might be a good way of picking up on those who have stopped paying attention to Debian issues.

Comments? :-)

21:02 :: # :: /debian/issues :: 4 comments

Comments

Re: Using votes to help detect MIA Debian developers?
wrote on Tue, 07 Mar 2006 22:09

What's the point of embracing democratic principles if you make voting mandatory? Voting is not democracy; voting is one way of exercising the freedom of choice that democracy is meant to uphold. Democracy must include the freedom to choose not to vote at all.

Re: Using votes to help detect MIA Debian developers?
Aigars Mahinovs wrote on Tue, 07 Mar 2006 22:59

While making voting mandatory could be contraversial (while simple vote of "NOTA" over all others could suffice as an expression of activity), it would be quite ok to get the list of the DD's that did not vote and then ask them whether they are still interested in Debian. Those that do not reply in 3 months and show no other significant activity could safely be assumed as MIA.

Re: Using votes to help detect MIA Debian developers?
JanC wrote on Wed, 08 Mar 2006 11:12

In Belgium voting for government elections has always been mandatory (with some exceptions for people who can't vote for various reasons). It doesn't prevent you from voting "blanco" or even making your vote illegal if you want that, as long as you show up at the voting local.

Re: Using votes to help detect MIA Debian developers?
EddyP wrote on Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:03

I think that using the voting to detect MIA DDs is a great idea.

If one does not want to vote for any, just choose "none of the above"

I have seen too many bugs not closed due to MIA DDs which were thought to be active with NMUs present.

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