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I stand behind Debian to do votes in secrecy. During the RMS issue, I've seen many people who did not have their ferocity under control. This went as far as peo

I stand behind Debian to do votes in secrecy. During the RMS issue, I've seen many people who did not have their ferocity under control. This went as far as people wanting to have the "others" removed from the Debian project. People not being able to cast their vote without having to fear repercussions is justification enough for secret votes.

svnpenn 5y ago
If you can't justify your vote, then maybe you shouldn't be voting. Anonymous voting should be enjoyed by the masses, never the ones representing them.
- blueflow 5y ago
  Your justifications are useless if they aren't being listened to, which was the problem back then. A huge lack of empathy and understanding.
- mcosta 5y ago
  Justification doesn't work whe the other side is just yelling white supremacy
- pavon 5y ago
  Debian developers are not representatives. They were not elected, and they are not representing anyone's opinion other than their own. The elected positions in Debian are mostly administrative and any decision requiring voting goes to the developers as a whole, not just the elected officials.
- lelanthran 5y ago
  > If you can't justify your vote, then maybe you shouldn't be voting. Sorry, wrong in every possible sense of the word. The only true way for an individual to be free from the consequence of placing their vote is for voting to be anonymous. Any argument that a voter must face direct repercussions for their vote makes voting pointless. > Anonymous voting should be enjoyed by the masses, never the ones representing them. Well, since the debian voters are not, as far as a I know, elected by voters themselves, they are not representing anyone.
AcerbicZero 5y ago
I agree with you in spirit, but I believe open voting is a better "ideal" system; Debian as a group just doesn't have the time/motivation to deal with the issues inherent in open voting, and I can't blame them for that.
Gollapalli 5y ago
Is there a good rundown over what people were actually getting mad about with RMS? RMS has done a lot for free software, and while I think the whole GNU/Linux naming pasta is a bit silly, what RMS did with emacs, gcc, and copyleft is genuinely heroic in terms of accomplishment and impact. So far as I can tell, it's "RMS defended Marvin Minsky" and "RMS said something about sex with teenagers not being super terrible many years ago". Also, was the Minsky thing related to Epstein? Because if so, it's hard to blame Minsky for falling victim to a international intelligence operation that also ensnared presidents, financiers, and movie moguls, all of whom are far more shrewd and worldly than any mathematician has a right to be. And the right thing would be to blame the foreign power that was doing the ensnaring, IMHO.

svnpenn 5y ago

If you can't justify your vote, then maybe you shouldn't be voting. Anonymous voting should be enjoyed by the masses, never the ones representing them.

blueflow 5y ago
Your justifications are useless if they aren't being listened to, which was the problem back then. A huge lack of empathy and understanding.
mcosta 5y ago
Justification doesn't work whe the other side is just yelling white supremacy
pavon 5y ago
Debian developers are not representatives. They were not elected, and they are not representing anyone's opinion other than their own. The elected positions in Debian are mostly administrative and any decision requiring voting goes to the developers as a whole, not just the elected officials.
lelanthran 5y ago
> If you can't justify your vote, then maybe you shouldn't be voting. Sorry, wrong in every possible sense of the word. The only true way for an individual to be free from the consequence of placing their vote is for voting to be anonymous. Any argument that a voter must face direct repercussions for their vote makes voting pointless. > Anonymous voting should be enjoyed by the masses, never the ones representing them. Well, since the debian voters are not, as far as a I know, elected by voters themselves, they are not representing anyone.

AcerbicZero 5y ago

I agree with you in spirit, but I believe open voting is a better "ideal" system; Debian as a group just doesn't have the time/motivation to deal with the issues inherent in open voting, and I can't blame them for that.

Gollapalli 5y ago

Is there a good rundown over what people were actually getting mad about with RMS? RMS has done a lot for free software, and while I think the whole GNU/Linux naming pasta is a bit silly, what RMS did with emacs, gcc, and copyleft is genuinely heroic in terms of accomplishment and impact. So far as I can tell, it's "RMS defended Marvin Minsky" and "RMS said something about sex with teenagers not being super terrible many years ago". Also, was the Minsky thing related to Epstein? Because if so, it's hard to blame Minsky for falling victim to a international intelligence operation that also ensnared presidents, financiers, and movie moguls, all of whom are far more shrewd and worldly than any mathematician has a right to be. And the right thing would be to blame the foreign power that was doing the ensnaring, IMHO.