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  • From: "Sergey A. Lipnevich" <sergey AT sourcemage.org>
  • To: sm-discuss <sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] voting process
  • Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 03:57:39 -0500

Jeremy,

I think we're getting somewhere. Please see below.

Jeremy Blosser (emrys) wrote:
If you can find a way to eliminate political peer-pressure in any human
environment, you would probably be a Nobel candidate. Pressure doesn't
have to be real to be perceived, and even when it is real the person
providing the pressure isn't necessarily aware of it (ie, malice isn't
necessary).

I no longer argue with this, but my question is: is it really that bad that you want to conceal your opinion? I honestly want to know what kind of pressure would compel you to hide your vote. From these sources: http://lwn.net/Articles/105375/, http://www.producingoss.com/, the prevailing model for FOSS projects, especially younger ones according to Karl Fogel, is benevolent dictatorship. So the truth is, when you came to participate, you should've expected these pressures, but now you want to escape from them somehow. Is this realistic?

Maybe you feel you are immune to peer pressure and such, and that's great
for you. You asked for specific examples of pressure, and while I'm not

I don't know how I feel because I'm not sure what we're talking about. I do not, however, feel that my opinion is unduly influenced by another SMGL contributor. Recently I felt being in minority more often than I like, but isn't that part of many discussions?

particularly opposed to open voting myself, I can say that as a very new
developer I would have been hesitant to vote for any TL who wasn't the
incumbent, due to lack of real familiarity with the project. However, the
project guidelines required me to vote. Voting "abstain" is an option, but
again, as a new developer if I had to vote openly I would definitely have
felt implicit pressure to vote for a candidate (and not abstain), even if
that vote was not informed, to assert that I was serious about being
involved in the project. Is that an entirely rational position to take?
Not really. But human nature isn't always rational.

So how is this "political pressure?" You feel new in the project, you don't know who's worthy of your vote, and who has what kind of agenda. It's perfectly fine in my opinion. In this case maybe we should think about not taking privileges away from people who don't vote, and that would give you a fair way out.

The important things are:

1) people are comfortable enough to participate in the voting process
2) we can provide reasonable assurance the results presented accurately
reflect the votes cast

Well, can't we get there using an easier path? To achieve 1, let's not pressure people to vote. To achieve 2, let's disclose individual votes after the process is completed.

Sergey.




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