Request for Clarifications

[Mirko Boehm]

Hello,

> On 4. May 2019, at 02:51, Carmen Bianca Bakker <carmenbianca at fsfe.org> wrote:
> 
> Je ven, 2019-05-03 je 23:30 +0200, Paul Schaub skribis:
>> For a start, are the allegations of "censorship" regarding the blog and
>> newsletters written by Daniel Pocock true? I dislike the word
>> censorship, as I can see valid reasons for moderation. Still, is it
>> true, that Pococks work in the FSFE is being "moderated" and if so,
>> based on what reasons?
> 
> I believe the chief complaint is that the FSFE was restructured such
> that there are no longer elections for a fellowship representative.
> Because Daniel was the representative at the time this decision was
> made, he felt that this was an act of censorship.
> 
> The rationale for the change was not censorship. It can be found here:
> 
> https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180526-01.en.html <https://fsfe.org/news/2018/news-20180526-01.en.html>
> 
> The gist of it is:
> 
> - Elections pit contributors against each other, which is not in the
> spirit of collaboration.
> 
> - There are already other ways to become a GA member.
> 
> - And, if you ask me, the idea of a "fellowship representative" is a
> little bit silly---surely everyone on the GA aims to represent the
> interests of the Free Software community.

I think most of us are aware of the communicated rationale. There is however reality, and it does not fully agree with the PR that was created around this. 

The change to remove the fellowship seats was supposed to go hand-in-hand with a broadening of the general membership of FSFE and more accountability of the organisation. The stated reason to rush it was to get it done so that we can focus on the restructuring that was given to the president as a mandate by the GA. However, while the abandonment of the fellowship proceeded swiftly, the restructuring of FSFE in general never even started. The executive director position, which served as another check to keep the president accountable, was also removed.

I urge everybody to make up their own opinion. I do not condone Daniel’s activities. However to act as if Daniel is the problem, instead of a symptom of the underlying problem, may not be good enough.

Best,

Mirko.
-- 
Mirko Boehm | mirko at kde.org | KDE e.V.
FSFE Team Germany
Qt Certified Specialist and Trainer
Request a meeting: https://doodle.com/mirkoboehm

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/attachments/20190504/e734af9c/attachment-0001.html>