As announced on news.o.o, openSUSE Membership handling seems to be changed. http://news.opensuse.org/2010/07/12/change-in-opensuse-membership-handling/ First of all, I'd like to thank all the persons who are involved in this improvement. However, I have some questions and proposals on this topic. Questions: * Where and when this topic was discussed ? Can anyone tell me where I can read the minutes or transcripts on this topic ? * Basically, I don't like closed and opaque (not transparent) ways. Every decision making process should be as open and transparent as possible, as mentioned in Guiding Principles. If some closed discussions are needed, there should be acceptable reasons and those reasons should clearly explained. So the question is, why membership-officials@opensuse.org have to be a closed mailing list ? I know there's a mention '... so the team can discuss privately applications that might require a debate', but I'd like to know why the applications should be *privately* discussed rather than publicly discussed. * There's a mention 'The officials team (...) can be reached on email address membership-officials@opensuse.org ...' in the announcement on news.o.o, but on the other hand, there's a mention 'mailing list: membership-officials@opensuse.org. This is a closed mailing list ...' in 'openSUSE:Membership officials' page. http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Membership_officials So, the question is, can everyone send an email to membership-officials@opensuse.org ? Proposals: * The approval criteria on "openSUSE:Members" page should be much more explained in detail. ATM, what kind of contributions are taken into consideration are illustrated, but the length and frequency of contributions which are considered 'continued contribution' are not explained at all. http://wiki.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Members 3 months are just enough ? Or, at least 1 year is needed ? Or, frequency is more important than time length ? - If those are clearly explained, I think wasted applications and unnecessary debates can be reduced. * As I mentioned above, I hope all decision making process would be as open and transparent as possible, but if you think keeping membership-officials@opensuse.org mailing list closed is reasonable enough, the reason why the application is rejected should be clearly explained at least to the applicant when the application is rejected. And there should be a way for such rejected applicants to bring a challenge, when they can't go along with the decision. (Maybe Board can or expected to handle and solve such challenges.) * This new openSUSE Membership handling process will certainly reduce the burden of Board. However, the problem 'how we can confirm the contributions which cannot be read in English' still remains pending. So I'd like to ask you to read my previous post to another thread once again. http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-07/msg00208.html * I've also posted other opinions on Membership to another thread, in which I proposed another approach for Membership application process. http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-07/msg00209.html If we expect the Members to be not only 'specifically distinguished contributors who *once brought* a continued and substantial contribution to the openSUSE project', but also *currently active* contributors, some review precess for the existing Members might be needed. Best, -- _/_/ Satoru Matsumoto - openSUSE Member - Japan _/_/ _/_/ Marketing/Weekly News/openFATE Screening Team _/_/ _/_/ mail: helios_reds_at_gmx.net / irc: HeliosReds _/_/ _/_/ http://blog.zaq.ne.jp/opensuse/ _/_/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org