Re: Accounts -- to be active or not to be

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj <alarfaj0 at yahoo dot com> wrote:
> --- Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com> wrote:
> > Without unnecessary complications, there is no easy manner in which you
> > can really filter serious vs. single-commit-per-year-now-I-can-vote people.
> > As such, we can only abide by people's honor, commitment and word which
> > are all prerequisites for attaining a CVS account to begin with.
> 
> 10,000 years of human history tell me the honour system doesn't work. If I'm
> planning to run for core, I could get, say, 20 of my friends to all sign up
> with Arabeyes and make a single CVS commit, and they would all vote for me in
> the elections, and I would win even if everybody else hated me like poison.

If you were to do that then you really want the position :-)  I'm not sure
what people think 'core'ites do, but its ALOT of behind the scenes grunt
work if you ask me with some occasional policy decisions.  Upto this point
'core' hasn't had the pleasure to move forward away from the minor issues
that keep it bogged down (admin'ing the server, mailing-lists, etc).  In
short, yes - what you describe can in fact happen and I'm not sure we can
as a collective do anything about it sans being more selective in whom gets
CVS access and why which is somewhat counter-productive in reality.
Arabeyes exists to propel Open Source and Arabic, for us to refuse
potential volunteers seems rather ironic.  Strapping people to a lie-detector
is not an option and so what we are left with is people's shear honesty and
word -- that's all we can bank on.

Any ideas on how this (and similar) scenarios could be avoided or protected
against in a deterministic systematic manner (read automated :-) ?

> Thats not the worst part of it. The worst part is that soon you will have
> "camps" budding up within Arabeyes. So you will have X and his buddies,
> Y and his gang, and before you know it we're engaged in the pettiest (sp?)
> stupidest bickering, much akin to parliaments in the real Arab world I might
> add ;)

This is one of the key arguments against elections - if this indeed happens
and I sooo genuinely hope it doesn't then we made a mistake along the way.
This also needs to be looked out for and addressed ASAP - turning a blind
eye to such things is fatal.

Everything we've tried to do has so far been simple, fair and low-key.  We
don't want to make this a focus - its NOT.  This annual hurdle is a shear
necessity like brushing one's teeth - no one jumps out of bed and runs to
the sink looking forward and gleefully goes at it -- it simply needs to
happen and we need to keep focus on the things that matter more and most.
Arabeyes' focus and reason for existence is noted in its mandate and is very
apparent in its need for results - the elections are the radiator fluid
needed to keep us going (note, I avoided alot more important car parts to
make that silly analogy ;-).

--- Muhammad Alkarouri <malkarouri at yahoo dot co dot uk> wrote:
> My personal suggestion is that we use the honour system, with some
> qualifications. Anybody committed in last 6 months can run and anyone
> committed in last 12 can vote (the suggestion) + the list of runners
> and voters are to be announced before hands. Any person who should
> not be able to run and/or vote is disqualified by core, possibly after
> a complaint by a member, _before_ voting actually occurs.

This is problematic and not systematic (I can't script this ;-) - meaning,
people need to get involved and this costs time and effort (remember we
are here to develop and arabize).  As noted, we should not really turn
this into a full time hobby - we need something simple, practical
and fair while at the same time being proactive in protecting the overall
interests of this project.  What you note above, beyond the cost/time
factors, could also be abused yet its an option nonetheless.

Other thoughts/opinions and most importantly suggestions ?

Salam.

 - Nadim



		
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