Re: INFORMAL VOTE REQUIRED - DOCUMENTATION WORDING

[Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>]

On 01.12.2023 22:44, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> Replying here on a couple of different people on this thread.
> 
> 
> On Thu, 30 Nov 2023, Tamas K Lengyel wrote:
>> I think this form is bad and is not helpful. 
> 
> I agree with Tamas and (also Jan) that this form is not helpful.
> 
> 
> On Fri, 1 Dec 2023, George Dunlap wrote:
>> If most people in the community really do think that "broken" is
>> suitable for the documentation in our project, then of course the
>> maintainers should stop objecting to that kind of language.  If most
>> of the people in the community think that "broken" is *not* suitable
>> for technical documentation, then of course this isn't an example of
>> unreasonable review (although other instances may be).
> 
> I think there was a misconception when Kelly created this form that the
> push back was on the usage of the word "broken" globally in Xen Project.
> It is not the case.
> 
> I for example agree that "broken" can be used in Xen Project, but I
> don't think that it is a good idea to use it in that specific instance.
> 
> 
> On Fri, 1 Dec 2023, George Dunlap wrote:
>> [Andy] removing "broken" is a completely unreasonable request
> 
> I am in favor on moving faster and nitpicking less. Also, Andy put the
> effort to produce the patch so he should have the default choice in the
> wording. If the choice is taking the patch as is or rejecting it, I
> would take it as is.

I'm afraid there's also disagreement about where nitpicking starts. To me
"broken" in the context here is technically incorrect. Hence asking for
the wording to be changed wouldn't count as nitpicking to me. When badly
worded comments of mine are commented upon, I also don't count this as
nitpicking (there's always a grey area, of course).

Jan

> I might have a preference on a different wording and I voiced that
> preference. We could say that my request should have been optional, not
> mandatory. But when the majority of reviewers request the same thing,
> which wording choice should apply?
> 
> If we decide to ignore the feedback as unresonable or because it should
> have been all optional and commit the patch, what would stop anyone from
> sending a patch to "fix" the wording in the comments to use "deprecated"
> instead? And if someone pushes back on the second patch, would that be
> nitpicking? If we commit the second patch, what if someone send a third
> patch changing the wording back to "broken"? We risk getting into
> "commit wars".
> 
> To avoid this, I think we should go with the majority, whatever that is,
> and the decision has to stick. We have just introduced informal votes.
> We should have just used that in the original thread. By the informal
> voting, we have 3 against "broken" and 2 in favor (not 1 as George wrote
> as Andrew's vote counts too). 
> 
> The easiest would have been to go with the majority, resend the patch,
> get it committed. If Andrew feels strongly that the "broken" is the best
> wording, then a proper voting form is a good idea, like Kelly did (which
> I think is a full formal vote, not an informal vote). Except that the
> form Kelly created is too generic and has too few options.
> 
> In conclusion, I don't care about the wording. I do care that we reach
> alignment and move forward quicker. I think the informal voting
> mechanism is the best way to do it.