Thomas Dalton wrote:
Seems like
instruction creep to me. Why do we need such a policy? Have
there been any challenges to these principles lately? Are there likely to be?
There seems to be a desire by the board to put things in writing.
There are some benefits to this. While the community knows what our
values are (since they are our values), we would never do anything
against this policy. However, the staff at WMF aren't necessarily
members of the community with the same values we have - their job is
to do what the board tells them, we can't and shouldn't assume they
know what we want instinctively. These policies are how the board
guides the staff.
The technical staff have ample experience with the values of the community.
Even if we could assume the staff are psychic, there
are still
problems with unwritten rules. When an unwritten rule conflicts with a
written one, the written one will always take priority, regardless of
which is more important. We can't really function with nothing in
writing, so it's necessary to put everything in writing.
The problem comes when a vague written policy such as this one could be
read in a way that conflicts with the core principles of the Foundation.
The Foundation's mission is education; promotion of free software is
secondary to that.
-- Tim Starling