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.

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