[maemo-community] Election process referendum

[From: Dave Neary]

Hi Graham,

Graham Cobb wrote:
> I obviously had exactly the opposite assumption from you: I had assumed that 
> in the absence of a proposal to the contrary, the same rules as last time 
> would be in place.

The karma rule was explicitly waived last time, not removed. By fiat, I
might add (me, as it happens).

> ... the karma requirement, which was dropped after
> protest the last time around, is being raised again at the last minute...
> ... this new proposal to re-instate the 25-points rule ...
> ...if the council is proposing to 
> re-instate the 25-points rule...
> ...I am willing to consider a suggestion to re-instate the 25-point 
> rule...

Nice (albeit incorrect) framing & repetition.

The 25 point rule is not being reinstated, it was waived last time. Not
the same thing.

> Karma has moved from just measuring developer contribution to a wider measure 
> of contribution to the Maemo community.  That certainly makes it more 
> suitable to use as a basis than it was, but it still effectively excludes 
> users of the Maemo community (consumers rather than contributors).  Maybe 
> that is the way it should be: maybe the council **should** represent 
> contributors rather than users, but we should at least get the opinion of the 
> users on whether they care.

I did some tests on the voting data last year - of people who had a
karma of 3 (that is, 9000 people who created a maemo.org account, and
never did anything else) the vast majority (I don't have exact figures,
but it was over 95% - I can work them out again if people are
interested) didn't vote.

For those worried that their vote wasn't secret, let me reassure you - I
can get one binary piece of information from the database, voted or
didn't vote. Like the election register.

And my perception of the council was exactly what Graham says here: it
is supposed to represent contributors, not users.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
maemo.org docsmaster
Email: dneary at maemo.org
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