Re: prototype questions for developer vote

[Christoph <debian@waterf.org>]

When I brought one or two of these issues mentioned by Bruce up on the
Board for voting, Bruce panicked and got that "I decide everything" motion
passed (an emergency motion!) and decided that he had the powers to
issue instructions to register a non-profit etc. He seemed to have full
support from the rest of the board and so I did not try to make a motion
on something important again. 

I am kind of amazed that these issues are now to be handled by the
developers.
These are issues that the Board should deal with. Why did you not bring
those things up for vote so that they would be decided? How do you expect
the Board to work if you are always acting alone and do not give the board
room to work? Now you expect a huge number of developers to discuss these
things? How long will that take? And how much more trouble will it cause?

The conspiracy theories are not difficult to construct, Bruce, given this
pattern of behavior. The developers actually had the impression that the
Board was set up to make decisions. Yet BOD did not have that power and
was never able to asserts it decisionmaking role that others assumed it
had. It was run by you and you basically determined what was going on. I
remember one situation especially when you threatened to throw me off the
board and YOU would no longer support ME since I nailed you down on
promises made before when I supported you when Dan Quinlan wanted to kick
you out out of the project (He got pacified with the Vice-Presidency). It
is the Chairmans role (Ian Murdock) to run the Board but he never said a
word in this situation.

Then these moodswings (I resign, I dont resign)  which seem to result in
people giving you what you want to keep you around. That is sick. 

I think we should get rid of Bruce as a president. The project will be
fine for awhile without anyone making decisions from above and we might
finally recuperate from this back and forth. When I look at the Project I
see good progress, except for these eruptions that disturb the peace again
and again with these threats of resigning. I cannot see any benefit of
his actions for the regular work of the project lately. We need to have
stability in leadership if we have leadership at all.

I do not mind Bruce being on the board and participating like anyone else
to the best of his abilities. But this mess must end fast.

Perhaps the best thing, Bruce, is if you take a vacation from the
Debian Project for 1 or 2 months and let things develop around here. I
have seen enough other people also caring a lot about the Project and I
think we will be fine without President for awhile and I would say even
without a BOD (if it should turn out to be dysfunctional as well). Linux
is after all a grass-roots phenomenon. After some time the emotional
hot air will hopefully be cleared out and maybe be can all get back to
making Debian fun again.