debmob
Debian: mob rules?
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In order to avoid further embarrasing situations like the latest one which has driven a DD away from all non-vital work, I offer the following guide to new maintainers:
- If you are in favour with the mob, you may do whatever you please because the mob can use its majority and overrule any pesky consensual agreements after you break them.
- If you are out of favour, you should follow the published procedures in private (neutralisation by secrecy).
- If you are out of favour and there is any uncertainty which published procedures apply, the mob will say the ones you choose are the wrong ones (neutralisation by bureaucracy).
- If you are out of favour and you follow unarguably the right procedures in public, the mob will attack your reputation until you stop (neutralisation by personal attack).
- If you are out of favour and you follow unarguably the right procedures to their conclusion, your request may not be given serious consideration and will almost always be refused (neutralisation by power).
- If you are out of favour and you undertake direct action, some of the mob will start calling for a procedure to expel you (neutralisation by ejection).
Seriously, the ubuntu PR to d-d-a irritated me. I like ubuntu, but they have ...
...their own dev and announce lists. There looks to be a mob baying for Andrew after he posted a satire of it, with the (sadly common) dirty tricks like republishing private messages, but where's the sanction against the other off- topic poster? To me, it looks like the mob is still motivated by Andrew's totally valid objection back last August when debian broke past tradition and sent insincere condolences to those bereaved by a death, as now Andrew describes in public. After that, there were people using the charity pledgebank site to call for people to killfile Andrew. I'd not be surprised if there was some whining about expulsion then too.
I still believe that the press release Andrew disliked was tasteless and offensive in the extreme. DDs who knew the deceased should be invited to make a dedication, but I'm sickened that my family could be the subject of a press release describing them and saying they "have our sympathy" from hundreds of gracks they don't know. It would feel a bit like a creepy privacy invasion on top of any grief.
Is debian an intolerant place where anyone with beliefs different to the mob is slowly driven out? It feels like it's getting worse. When I criticised some early sexist practices of debian-women in 2004 (ones which were more women- only than pro-women), I was "only" flamed pretty badly. Last year, I saw at least one DD calling for my expulsion during my campaign to stop a certain UK debian retailer claiming all UK-resident DDs are members of their business.
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