Greetings, some might have noticed that I'm quite pissed about this topic! Don't you have better things on your todo lists? E.g. how do we get more members? Shame on you to have such a topic at all! Robert Schweikert wrote on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 10:43 PM (shortened):
This would then explain why we end up with only 200 and some odd votes of 500 members for the board elections.
Aha ... so you checked who voted? Did you ask or even think about why some of the members didn't vote?
As probably anyone who is a member of some club or association knows, there is always some condition, often a fee, that assures continued membership in said club or association. No I am NOT proposing a membership fee for openSUSE. However, I am proposing that we come up with a mechanism to prune our list of members and that there is no such thing as a "free" (as in I don't contribute) life time membership.
Your proposal is similar to the idea of paying to be a openSUSE member. I would have to pay with my ideas and time to stay in this "exclusive club"! And if someone thinks that the way I do "my job" is not sufficient - you simply revoke the membership!
I propose the following guideline: On even years of membership anniversary (that would be year 2, 4, 6...) a member gets an automated e-mail.
Automated mails will end up in a spam folder an will be ignored!
If the e-mail bounces and there is no other means to contact the person than the person is removed as a member.
So ... if there is a problem with the users host then you don't care and revoke!
If the person does not respond within two weeks, another e-mail is sent. If after 2 additional weeks no response is received the person is removed as a member.
Great ... no more vacations, never get sick, do not work in countries where you can't have access to your "private" mails. And make sure that the so important crap mails don't end up in your spam folder!
A response to the received e-mail should include a short list of areas in the project where the member was active during the past two years.
What the fsck! You are not my boss - I do not have to send you a work report!
This can be verified by the membership team. With the response and verification membership continues.
I hope you hand out black uniforms with skulls on the collar and take pictures of those poor bastards. Since when did openSUSE became a prison? You are not really suggesting that we have to do that? Would you like to have to send a list of users (including name, mail and address) which you have "turned" to use openSUSE just to show that you "participated"?
I realize I am proposing more work for the membership committee, sorry. However, I would hope that this is not too much of a burden. With maybe 300 or fewer active members there would be on average less than 1 verification e-mail per day sent. In addition this is spread out based on anniversary date of membership, thus the additional verification should be small.
IMHO you didn't think about "your" solution at all.
Why would we as a project want to do this? IMHO, it is important that our members are active and contribute to the project. There is nothing gained for us as a project to accumulate a large number of members when the members are not active in the project and do not contribute.
Let me quote the "examples" for becoming a member: --8<-- Contributions include (but are not limited to) the following: Code and packaging Wiki editing Bug reporting and triaging Translation Continued user support on any communication medium Giving openSUSE Talks/Presentation and/or promoting openSUSE Help openSUSE as an Ambassador -->8-- And this is only the "example"! IMHO this also includes: wearing openSUSE merchandise (payed with hard money) and convincing other people to use openSUSE! How the hell do you want to check this? Do I have to send you pictures of me every day? And what about all my contacts which only know my opensuse mail address? Ever thought about that? My so nicely offered help and support via this mail would end up in a mail: "No such user"! This may create a very bad reputation for opensuse!
Having only members that are active also bestows more meaning on board election results and other votes we might have in the project. This goes back to my earlier comment and leads to a question, what does it mean when the board gets elected with a vote count that is less than 50% of the membership? (I am not implying that I am dissatisfied with the board). No direct answer to this question please. If we have only active project participants I would speculate that we will get participation of 80% or more.
Your speculation is wrong. You still didn't ask why some of us didn't participate in some of the votings. What if I'm not happy with any of the candidates? Where was/is the option to tell that we/I do not wan't to participate because of a given reason?
Last but not least this should create a perceived draw to become a member, as you can only be a member and remain a member if you contribute to the project.
No - definitely not! Why should I become a member of such a exclusive club if they can revoke my membership for any reason. And last but not least ... I have been a member for a long time now ... I did and still do all the stuff which is wanted in the example. But honestly ... if you don't stop with such weird ideas then I simply will end my membership and contribute to a much friendlier OS! Please, stop working on such stupid ideas and concentrate on much better topics! If you need to have a helping hand on this - feel free to contact me! Over and out, a very pissed daemon! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org