Re: [Xen-API] [PATCH v3 4/4] Addressed comments on quorum and security team members

[Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lars Kurth writes ("[PATCH v3 4/4] Addressed comments on quorum and security 
team members"):
> Main changes
> Leadership team decisions: express quorum in terms of +1 votes
> Security Team Members: election
> Project Wide Decision Making: minor text changes

The resulting series is a little odd because your v3 4/4 patch only
changes things that are introduced in v3 3/4 and agreed to be probably
wrong there.  I would have been more usual to fold these changes in,
at least if the series related to code.

> --- a/governance.pandoc
> +++ b/governance.pandoc
> @@ -410,18 +410,26 @@ resolution. There is no differentiation between **+1**/ 
> **+2** and
>  **-1**/**-2**: in other words a **+2** is counted as a vote for, a **-2** as 
> a 
>  vote against the resolution. The number of votes for and against a 
> resolution 
>  is called **active vote**. **0** votes **are not counted** as an active vote.
> --   A **quorum of more than 50% of active votes** is required for a 
> resolution 
> -to pass. In other words, if the leadership team has 7 members, at least 4 
> -active votes are required for a resolution to pass.
> +-   A **quorum of at least 1/3 of +1 votes for a proposal** is required for 
> a 
> +resolution to pass. In other words, if the leadership team has 7 members, at 
> +least 3 members need to vote for the resolution. 

This paragraph should say `positive' rather than `+1', since as
written it appears to exclude +2.  (Same in the table.)

>  #### Project Lead Elections
>  
> @@ -553,10 +568,10 @@ as outlined below.
>  -   Project leadership team members vote for or against a proposal (there is 
> no 
>  differentiation between **-1**/**-2** and **+1**/**+2**). A **0** vote is 
> not 
>  counted as a valid vote.
> --   A **quorum of more than 50%** of each project's leadership team members 
> is 
> -required. In other words: if more than half of a project's leadership team 
> +-   A **quorum of at least 50%** of each project's leadership team members 
> is 
> +required. In other words: if fewer than half of a project's leadership team 
>  members do not vote or abstain, the entire sub-project's vote is not 
> counted. 
> -This avoids situations where only a minority of leadership team members 
> votes, 
> +This avoids situations where only a minority of leadership team members 
> vote, 

This still has the non-monotonicity problem.

I would suggest to deal with this issue by, when calculating the
percentage, dividing all the votes by the larger of (a) the number of
people voting (including `0' votes); (b) one third of the size of the
project leadership team.

So if only two out of a 10-person leadership team vote, and they both
votes in favour, that subproject's overall vote is
  2 / max(10/3, 2)
which = 2 / max(10/3, 6/3) = 2 / (max(10,6) / 3) = 2 / (10/3)
      = 2 * (3/10) = 6 / 10 = 0.6 = 60%

I would add a further backstop that a successful resolution must have
positive votes from at least three (or maybe, two) separate people.

Ian.

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