KDE e.V. transparency (was: Re: Voting rights - the GNOME way)

[Dirk Mueller]

On Die, 26 Nov 2002, Marc Mutz wrote:

> Not only from the outside! I am a KDE e.V. member since the Hamburg 
> meeting. But other than in Hamburg, I've heard nothing from KDE e.V. 
> Mail addressed to the board was not answered; the KDE e.V. list is 
> either dead or I was forgotten to be subscribed there...
> 
> All in all the KDE e.V. is again as anonymous and unaccountable to me 
> (as a member) as it was before August, already a few months after the 
> meeting.

KDE e.V. is not a steering commitee. There are 3 things it has to do: 

a) collect donations to KDE  
b) reimburse expenses of KDE (developers) 
c) own the KDE property (i.e. servers) 

Thats pretty much it. I don't see how this can be a big anonymous and full 
of bad intentions organisation. Maybe people think of it as the evil because 
they don't know about it, and never cared enough to inform themselves. 

Besides KDE being an open internet project, it still has to care about 
real-life things. Like owning the hardware. Protecting and 
supporting individuals when they're sued for work they did for KDE. 
Supporting KDE development. 

Thats it. And I also don't see why it is so difficult to grasp that. 

> Don't get me wrong. The meeting itself was quite nice and productive, 
> but I do consider letting myself be set to "passive" membership (the 
> new membership status), since I don't see a difference between being a 
> member and not being a member anyway. But then, the board possibly 
> won't answer that request, too. :-(

You don't have to be a member if you think the KDE Project can live without 
KDE e.V. 

What do you like more? Servers being owned by individuals? who will shut 
down the machine when they leave? like bero.org went down and we have no 
access on the KDE related data that was on it ?

What do you like more? Domains being owned by individuals? who will remove 
the content and replace it with a redirection to fuckinghotgirls.com ?

What do you like more? Having no protection when being sued because you 
wasted your free time on some anonymous internet project where nobody is 
there to support or help you ?

What do you like more? Being reimbursed of costs you had to spend to help 
KDE? Or just paying it from your own private money and feeling bitter about 
somebody else getting the big cheque from <foobarcompany> because of work 
you (also) did?

What do you like more? KDE being dragged down by individuals all working on 
different things and having different goals or by having some well-agreed on 
guidelines (agreed on by those who wrote most of the KDE code) which show 
the direction KDE wants to go?

What do you like more? KDE infrastructure cultivated by people being
committed to KDE or KDE services or contents being deleted/removed or 
irrevertible altered because of individuals who just happen to have to root 
accounts password ?


If you think to all these questions that the KDE e.V should not have the 
power to do it then you're pretty much alone I'm afraid, and it might indeed 
be better for you to not being a KDE e.V. member. 



-- 
Dirk (received 22 mails today)