←back to thread

“I'm basically giving myself a permanent vacation from being BDFL”

(mail.python.org)
2024 points randlet | 2 comments | 12 Jul 18 15:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.459s | source
Show context
VikingCoder ◴[12 Jul 18 16:40 UTC] No.17516310[source]▶
I've begged GitHub to institute forms of government for repos.

For X action to happen, Y percent of the pool of people in the Z list need to approve it.

Membership of the Z list is granted when W percent of the T pool approve it.

Modifying the rules of government of this repo can only happen when L percent of the R pool approve it.

And on and on...

I could imagine a city or state government actually having its laws encoded in Github, and Github itself enforces the governmental system of checks and balances. Congress. Senate. President. Veto. Overriding a Veto. Laws of succession. Elections. On and on.

replies(5): >>17516391 #>>17516404 #>>17516453 #>>17516506 #>>17516988 #
_wmd ◴[12 Jul 18 16:49 UTC] No.17516404[source]▶
Technology cannot solve social problems
replies(3): >>17516645 #>>17516711 #>>17517490 #
1. zbyte64 ◴[12 Jul 18 17:13 UTC] No.17516645[source]▶
Try solving social problems without technology.
replies(1): >>17516860 #
2. dragontamer ◴[12 Jul 18 17:37 UTC] No.17516860[source]▶
The fundamentals of Robert's Rules are lost upon many people today. The creation of clubs and secret societies was an art of the late 1800s.

Today, people over-leverage technology and under-leverage the fundamentals of club-building. Roberts Rules are about creating a protocol where people each take turns to talk, under a set of rules that gives everyone a chance to voice their opinions... but still allows progress and ultimately a decision to be made.

That's the important part: how to achieve consensus among a group of people. The ideas of democracy, discussion, minority votes, and rules of how to conduct the discussion are all important.

Some groups still use Robert's rules, but many people don't even understand what a deliberative body is meant to do. (IE: most people don't understand Congress's role in society anymore). Its basically been replaced by meme culture and Reddit moderators creating serfdoms and/or dictatorships.