Hey, I would like to propose that we cut the gordian knot.

[C. Florian Ebeling]

Well spoken, Jordan!

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 2:55 PM, Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh at apple.com> wrote:
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_knot)
> Having just read jmpp's request for "a bit more time" to sort out a voting
> process, I must confess to feeling more trepidation than assurance.  To be
> completely fair, he does note several times that he and the rest of the
> moribund portmgr team would like to move quickly, but given the degree to
> which that group has also demonstrated itself to be overworked and less than
> involved in the day to day affairs of MacPorts, anything which delays a
> solution also runs the risk of blunting some of the current enthusiasm
> should said "process" end up dragging out longer than anticipated (which, as
> experience amply suggests, it invariably does) and I honestly don't think we
> can afford that at this late stage.
> I would therefore like to suggest that we simply ratify the following list
> rather than dragging out a lengthy "voting" process for a set of positions
> which, from a certain angle, might even be viewed as largely ceremonial
> since there is no real "power" afforded by membership in the portmgr team.
> Volunteers will always choose to follow (or not) such a group on the basis
> of the credibility of its individual members rather than any fancy paper
> hats they may be wearing, and the sooner we simply slam those hats on some
> credible heads and say "Thank you!  Get started!", the sooner we can all get
> back to discussing the real question of how to get to where we need to go
> next.
> As a courtesy to the outgoing portmgr team, I would also be perfectly happy
> to see them be the official "ratifiers" of this new team, assuming it passes
> their sniff test and they're also willing to do so in the next day or two,
> otherwise I would be just as happy with a statement along the lines of "if
> there are no significant, well-argued objections in the next 72 hours,
> they're it!  Quick, before they change their minds!" :-)
> Portmgr (subject to individual acceptance, of course - we still haven't
> heard from two of the four):
> Ryan Schmidt
> Bryan Blackburn
> Rainer Mueller
> Joshua Root
> [Note:  Any subset of the above would also be acceptable - 4 is not some
> magic minimum number, for all the reasons I've already outlined]
> Release engineering team:
> Ryan Schmidt (interim or longer, if he wants it)
> Julio Biason
> I'm really not trying to undercut anyone here, least of all jmpp, but
> seriously folks - we've been suffering from a leadership/directional vacuum
> for quite some time now and I don't think we need to bog down the only
> solution to be offered in quite some time by getting all constitutional
> about it or saying "hey, wait, let's all think about this for awhile and
> engage in lengthy discussion!"    That might have been a good plan of action
> about a year ago, and I would be also more than happy to see the "new
> portmgr" establish a framework for elections and term limits and all the
> other checks and balances that they might wish to create for future
> generations, but what we need right now is an immediate "interim government"
> and some long overdue action on the release engineering front.
> Any objections?
> - Jordan
>
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>



-- 
Florian Ebeling
florian.ebeling at gmail.com