On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 10:21 AM, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 10:31 AM, w9ya <w9ya@qrparci.net> wrote:
> 1 - I maintain an offshoot version of archlinux, derived from faunos, called
> "shackstick". It is used and is becoming quite popular amongst the ham radio
> community. It is packaged as a whole and the user does NOT download packages
> or even is part of the arch linux community, so NO votes are taken. Yet it
> uses over 25 of my packages that would seem to otherwise be without votes.

Just to point out a flaw here. Users of these packages are not
ArchLinux users. They are shackstick users. So votes don't make sense
for ArchLinux. These packages would not make sense in an ArchLinux
repo, on an ArchLinux server, for use by 1 or 2 ArchLinux users, and a
few hundred users of another distribution. So, in the case you have
outlined, the voting is working perfectly as intended.

A valid point IF the voting system was in some form of mandatory issuance. At it is currently constituted however, it is used by exactly how many users ? Since using the voting system requires several steps for the user to go through, and is NOT required, so I think it is a BIG stretch to suggest that the numbers have any significant meaning. Heck do we even (truly) KNOW how many users are voting, do we ? So far, I would doubt it is used by any significant user base !!

i.e. Goggle earth is a VERY important program, and if archlinux has 5000 users (Let's say that is the number as I have no idea what it really is...) then am I to believe that only approx. 8 percent of the users have any use for it and therefore the others are NOT using it ?

Further do we have ANY idea how many of the packages in the extra repo are being used as a percentage of user base ? <- i.e. Is there another metric being used than we can point to as a basis for statistical analysis ?

Anyways, I *know* that with the very little sleep last night I am NOT in the best of moods, and you guys are getting the brunt of that. *** However, we should all endeavor to remember that the imperatives of the TU system were specifically designed to be ENTIRELY different than those of the dev-based work. As such, I hope we all can at least agree that the TU system merely becomes more like a chore than the fun thing it was designed to be because (after all,) it would ONLY be a dev-light training ground instead of the all encompassing environment that archlinux has perfected and NO OTHER distro can say it has. And thereby NO OTHER distro can point to the success of it's user community contributing like arch can say with a well earned pride. i.e. Users can work at many different levels, goals, work styles, desires and the current TU system should be able to accommodate them !!

Really, I am quite serious about this, NO OTHER distro offers this uniquely styled resource. And it was able to be styled because the people that came before and set this up asked what the goals were FIRST, and then were able to properly gauge what solutions might work best.

i.e. Please do not seek to solve one problem and with the consequences mess up this source of fun, enjoyment and pride. Put a straight jacket on a problem that might be solved another way is to put unneeded restrictions that WILL have negative consequences on a system that was designed to be encompassing.

Best regards;

Bob Finch