[haiku-development] Re: [proposal] removing waddlesplash from #haiku IRC channel operators
- From: Paweł Dziepak <pdziepak@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2015 14:10:43 +0200
On 8 July 2015 at 08:20, Adrien Destugues <pulkomandy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,
Recently waddlesplash decided to make the #haiku IRC channel require
authentication with nickserv, apparently as an attempt to reduce "trolling"
in there.
The channel is known to largely derive into offtopic discussions. It is
also the main landing point for people looking for support, as we bundle
Vision preconfigured to join it in every Haiku install. It is an easy way
to reach the Haiku community and get in touch with the developers.
Requiring Nickserv authentication makes the default Vision setup not work
anymore (you can join the channel, but you can't talk). It also prevents
several well-known active people on the channel from contributing, and this
results in making the Haiku project look like a closed community which is
not welcoming to new people, and even trying to remove existing members
from the community.
But more importantly, these changes were made without a discussion here
first. It is an important change of policy and should have been discussed
and submitted to a vote if there was not a strong agreement in either
direction. I think it is not acceptable that people can bypass this
decision process (there could be exceptions for emergency measures, but
this is not one). So, I suggest waddlesplash's permissions for changing
access modes on the IRC channels are revoked.
It would be pretty easy to write a similar, serious-sounding mail proposing
revoking commit access if one breaks the build and doesn't fix the problem
in, let's say, 3 hours. What would be the point of such policy though? I
mean, aside from trying to reduce number of contributors to 0. Do we really
want to say now that each decision one makes must be discussed with the
other members of the project otherwise if there are objections someone
would propose revoking some of your powers? Sure, there are things that
need at least ack from the others, but the line is not always clear and we
can't punish people for minor mistakes even, especially if they did it in
good faith. If we tried to discuss everything first it would take ages to
do anything.
I agree that in this particular case there shouldn't be any doubts that any
action should be discussed beforehand and I definitely don't agree with
making #haiku only for registered users. So what? The change like this can
be always reverted and waddlesplash, hopefully, will be more careful next
time. No need for any "disciplinary committee" or spanish inquisition
(well, I certainly didn't expect such reaction). One may even argue that
proposals such as this are more harmful to the community than temporary
restrictions in access to the IRC channel.
Paweł
PS IMO the biggest problem with trolls aren't the trolls themselves, but
the fact that for some people it is impossible to ignore them.
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