Many people wondered what all the fuss has been about banning and censoring people from Debian in recent years. The answer? Dirty politics. Nominations for Debian Project Leader were announced on Saturday, 7 March and the next day, outgoing leader Sam Hartman attacked another would-be candidate with false accusations of trolling.
The candidate has chosen to share his platform publicly. Do you think this would make Debian a more friendly place for everybody?
Subject: nomination and platform
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2020
From: a volunteer
To: debian-vote@lists.debian.org
Dear Fellow Developers,
I'm running for DPL again this year. This is my nomination.
I have a clear platform and I can deliver what I promise.
In August 2018, while dealing with a number of extraordinary situations in my life outside Debian, I politely informed people that I was resigning from the GSoC team. I had planned to take a rest. It was completely appropriate at that time. From Debian's point of view, there was nothing more to it than that.
A few weeks later, as I departed on my vacation in September 2018, a vacation I really needed at that time, I received some emails from certain people in Debian. To quote Sam Hartman, it felt like a "Campaign of Harassment".
Linus Torvalds took a widely publicized vacation, nobody attacked him for that. Why can't Debian Developers take a vacation too?
My policy therefore is that if you vote for me as DPL, I will end the experiments started by previous DPLs. Then I will immediately try to have my vacation again. While I'm on vacation, you won't hear from me. Its a new experiment:
How does the project survive when the DPL goes walkabout?
I may well head off to the outback for some indeterminate period of time, free from any concerns about Coronavirus and DebConf's foray into middle east politics.
While I'm on holiday, I'll prepare a constitutional change that protects the rights of all Debian Developers to have holidays without interruptions. Any decisions made while a Developer is on vacation, at Christmas, in hospital or otherwise unavailable will be null and void. This is retrospective from the beginning of the project, therefore any previous communications sent while Developers were on vacation, at Christmas or late on a Sunday night are also null and void. I feel that is good for every Developer and the project as a whole.
That is my platform and I'm confident that it can be delivered.
