Re: polarization (Was :Eleven good candidates)

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

Chema Celorio <chema celorio com> writes:

> Ali Abdin wrote:
> [....]
> > Now I think we might see some polarization (where people go and vote for
> > somebodyt just because they trust the judgement of the GNOME hackers)
> 
> I agree with you Ali.
> 
> I think it was somewhat ditstatefull that Owen, Havoc & Maciej came
> up with "Here is my list". It is not the same to saying "Vote for
> Foo Smith, he has this and that abilities and would make a good
> board member"

That's right. In addition to picking 11 great people, I tried to pick
a well-balanced collection of people with different skills and
interests. Since I have met many of the candidates in person and know
nearly all of them from working with them closely, I thought people
might be interested in whom I recommend. In fact, a number of people
personally asked me to share my list.

But all that notwithstanding, I DON'T want people to just blindly vote
for my list (or anyone else's) without thinking. I want people to
think about it, taking my advice into account or not, and decide for
themselves. 

> Talk about polarization ...
> 
> Owen's 11 candidates are in Havoc's List [*1]
> Maciej's 11 candidates are in Havoc's List
> Maciej's and Owen's lists share 10 candidates between them. [*2]

You could assume this is some kind of evil conspiracy. I think a more
likely explanation is that Havoc, Owen and I all know many of the
people running and have similar (but not identical!) views on who
would make good board members.

> Sorry guys, but I don't think this was apropiate.

I'm sorry, but I disagree. And in fact, no one objected to Mathieu's
list or Miguel's list (the latter posted before nominations even
began) so I thought people would be OK with posting of endorsements.

> Chema
> 
> [1]* Havoc sumited a list of 14 candiates
> [2]* Ok, you could argue 9, but I am assuming Maciej's is
>      voting for himself too which is expected.

I was on my own list actually, I just didn't write a blurb on myself,
since I've already told people why I think they should vote for me.


But actually, the weirdest thing I get out of this message is the
impression that I am some sort of establishment figure and that the
posting of my list will unfairly bias the minds of many voters.

I'm really nobody special. While I was there in the early days of
Gnome, I was a very peripheral figure until just under a year ago
(George remembers me as the first person he had a flamewar with on a
Gnome mailing list :-), having spent most of my time hacking on Guile
and other projects. 

While I hope I have earned some measure of repsect by having decent
opinions, technical and otherwise, and by helping the community in
what ways I could find, I'd rather people not make such a huge deal of
it. I'm just trying to do my best to serve the Gnome and broader Free
Software communities. I know we are all trying to do our best, and one
day it could be any of you.


So in conclusion, I encourage all the voters to inform themselves,
consider their votes carefully, and vote their conscience. In the end,
that's really what this election is about.

 - Maciej