Re: A summary of some open discussions

[Jean Louis]

* Brandon Invergo <brandon@gnu.org> [2020-01-06 15:06]:
> 
> Ludovic Courtès writes:
> 
> > As a side note: I think authority is not something one should take for
> > granted.  We’re a group of volunteers, and each one of us has just as
> > much authority as the others consent to give them.
> 
> No.  When you join an organization, you implicitly or explicitly agree
> to work within the existing structure of that organization.

That is exactly so, and one need not know the structure of governance
of the organization. One can just know about the individual agreement
between the person and organization. When saying organization, it need
not be incorporated entity. Many groups and especially software
projects are not incorporated.

> There is nothing inherently wrong with trying, within those
> confines, to effect change in the organization.  However, to say
> that as a volunteer one can simply start doing things differently,
> against the existing structure, because one's opinion changes
> amounts to subversion.

Exactly.

> In this case, the existing structure is that Richard is the leader of
> the project.  Richard granted me authority to appoint new maintainers
> for existing projects.  That authority is not contingent upon the
> consent of other volunteers, because that simply is not how the project
> is structured.
> 
> I will remind you that GNU is not a government.  "Consent of the
> governed" arguments do not make sense in a voluntary organization.  In
> fact, consent is reversed from that of governments: the volunteers
> participate at the consent of the organization.

Exactly, thank you. Group of few people with bad intentions are trying
to take over GNU project by imposing and by pretending it is some kind
of government. While in the same time they run similar project like
Guix, which is certainly not governed by its volunteers. Volunteers do
not have finaly say in Guix.

How about moving away attackes from GNU and continuing with
contributions to Guix?

Jean