[FFmpeg-devel] [VOTE] FFmpeg leader

Diego Biurrun diego
Sat Oct 2 19:02:07 CEST 2010


On Sat, Oct 02, 2010 at 03:07:06AM +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 01, 2010 at 04:55:37PM -0700, Jason Garrett-Glaser wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 4:07 PM, Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at> wrote:
> > >
> > > due to the growing disagreements between root at mphq and me, i and at least one
> > > of the roots as well believe a vote about my position should be held.
> > > Every developer with svn write account as of 1. october 2010 is allowed to
> > > vote. The vote will end at 8. oct 0:01 UTC 2010.
> > >
> > > Please vote either
> > > A. I trust michael and wish him to continue to lead the ffmpeg project
> > > B. I distrust michael and wish him to step back
> > >
> > > Iam not sure if this should be a absolute or relative majority based vote
> > > but i will probably step back if either majority against me is reached.
> > 
> > C.  I want michael to stay our leader, but to abide by the same rules
> > as everyone else.  That is, Michael should be a prime minister, not a
> > dictator.
> 
> I always tried to abide by the spirit of the rules.

The "spirit" is a malleable thing that is open to interpretation.

I believe a productive and fun work atmosphre is not only about the
rules, but also about adopting the habits that everybody else shares.

> Thus please tell me exactly which rule ive where broken, and iam sure this
> can be reseolved through discussion but i dont see how a vote could resolve
> that.

You do not write proper commit messages.
You do not always add license headers to files.
You do not always add multiple inclusion guards to headers.
You do not format your code in K&R style.
You commit API changes without prior discussion.

Some of these things violate the letter of the policy, some of them
violate my interpretation of the spirit of the policy.  Now you can
argue that some of these things do not, but this is besides the point.

Some (most?) people around you care about these points, or they care
about another set of criteria that overlaps more or less with yours.
It would be polite and reasonable to try to accomodate them.  They
also make an effort to accomodate you.

It all boils down to what sort of leadership style you want.  Do you
wish to have everybody follow the rules you set unilaterally?  Do you
want to be exempt from rules?  Do you wish to lead by good example?
Do you want to accomodate others as well?

These are an honest questions.  I can even live with any answer to them,
what I do not like is that currently I perceive a difference between
the leadership style you believe/want to exercise and the one you
actually do exercise.

Diego



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