[gnu.org #351798] Unacceptable behavior of Malayalam coordinator and www-ml administrator

[Yavor Doganov via RT]

vivekcherian at gmail.com via RT wrote:
> 
> I am indeed in a position to make an unbiased judgment,

You are not in such a position by definition, because you're an
interested party -- there's an obvious conflict of interest.  I was
hoping that someone would nominate you and people could vote for you
and the other candidate.  But nobody did that, and apparently you're
hesitating to nominate yourself.

> but now am realizing that you are yielding to mobocracy tactics

Are you sure you really want to use the word "mobocracy"?  There are
no rules that give you unilateral, undisputable power over a gnu.org
translation project.  We are here to guide new volunteers and new
teams, and to resolve unpleasant issues like this one.  It is in our
duties to replace uneffective translation team leaders, and you have
been such a leader so far.

So if I would resort to "mobocracy tactics", this discussion would
have ended 6 months ago, when Praveen sent the inital complaint and
several people supported him shortly after that.  Instead, we tried to
collect all possible information, and listened to all points of view,
leaving time for the natural initial level of frustration to settle.
If it was "mobocracy tactics" this problem would have been gone long
time ago.  (Well, actually the "ticket #351798" would be solved, but
not the problem.)

Several people have complained about your actions (or lack of), so
they raised valid concerns.  Now all of this is something that I very
carefully explained in a private conversation that the others were not
following -- since you make false assumptions and accusations about
our judgement (which I find completely ungrounded), I feel compelled
to repeat some things I said to you in private.

I already told you that I don't consider the other Malayalam
contributors more capable than you -- I don't know them, and I don't
know Malayalam at all, so it is absolutely impossible to judge on
these grounds.  Even more, I already told you that I have some
reservations about them, because of the hostile way they were leading
the discussion, at least in the beginning.  On the other hand, we
can't dismiss at all what they say, because most of what they say are
valid concerns and valid complaints, begging for a change -- something
that is entirely reasonable and appropriate.  And something that I was
planning to do even before Praveen's initial message came.

So although it is not easy and we are not wizards in resolving such
conflicts, I think we are dealing with this 6-month old matter with
the due neutrality.

I repeat: if the people don't want you to lead them, you can't lead
them.  We can "label" you as leader but that doesn't make you a
leader.  Roll up your sleeves and prove them that you can do what you
claim you can do.  This is the only way to achieve something in the
Free World.

> my reputation and destroy the GNU Malayalam Project

Your reputation and the "GNU Malayalam Project" are non-existant
things; you did nothing for more than three years.  I'm sure you had
great plans, but you achieved nothing.  So please stop bringing this
point, it is entirely useless.  Everyone can register multiple
projects, it doesn't automatically mean that it is a contribution.

> I will not nominate me 

OK, we will start the process with Shyam.

> the GNU Malayalam Project ( yes i would still like to call the
> project that name)

Please don't use this name as it is utterly confusing.  You may call
it the "Malayalam gnu.org translation project"; anything else is not
only obscure exaggeration, it is really confusing for everyone.

> needs more of contributors than any sort of change in the
> co-ordinatorship.

Good -- if you acknowledge that the main problem is the lack of
contributors, then presumably you will contribute to the new team, no
matter who is leading it.  Right?  (Again shortly rephrasing our
private discussion, and the advice I gave you in this respect.)  Why
leadership is a problem?  The goal is the project to go forward, in
the best possible way.

> when Praveen wanted to join was that the www.gnu.org localization
> project WILL NOT BE SUB PROJECT OF THE SMC PROJECT.

There is no need to shout; there was certainly some misunderstanding
but once Praveen got the point, he hasn't raised the issue.  So it is
a non-issue now.

> I have already said what I had to say and I leave the final decision
> to GNU.

We are not GNU; GNU is an operating system.  We are a group of people
(translators) who volunteered for the work of web-translators
coordination.  We take decisions based on our judgement -- and this is
subjective by nature.  But I can't see how a sane person can reaffirm
blindly a leader of a moribund team, when others don't want to work
with him.

I think that the election procedure someone (Praveen, I think)
suggested was fair for everyone, and AFAICS several people have
translated a few articles in Malayalam during this procedure.

So let's see what time will tell.  Who is leading doesn't matter much
as long as the job is well done.  People come and go, the
contributions stay.  And we don't have Malayalam translations at
gnu.org as we talk now.