[logback-dev] Running the logback project as a commitocracy

[Ceki Gülcü]

Hello all,

I am considering running the logback project as a commitocracy. The idea 
is to settle non controversial questions by consensus. However, whenever 
a decision cannot be reached by unanimous agreement, a vote is called 
for. The commit-point for or against a motion are summed, the total 
accumulated commit-points determining the outcome.

Developers earn one commit point per day for every day in which they 
commit code to the project.

For git, the dvcs we use in logback, the following command computes the 
commit-points accumulated by Alice.

git log --format='%ad %an' --date=short|uniq|grep Alice|wc -l

At present time, the commit-points for the logback project:

Ceki Gulcu 486 commit-points
Sebastien Pennec  164 commit-points
Tomasz Nurkiewicz 10 commit-points

A committocracy may be less efficient than the BDFL model for decision 
making, and compared to the Apache-way, it grants less power to 
newcomers. However, a committocracy is a fair system in the sense that 
the same rules apply to all. Today's committer with the most 
committer-points can be different than that of tomorrow. Moreover, 
compared to the Apache-way, a committocracy drastically reduces the risk 
of a project going haywire after admitting a new member. As a corollary, 
a project can safely reduce the wait-and-see period preceding the 
admission of new committers. Thus, newcomers may be granted 
committership status immediately (after their first commit).

Your comments welcome.

--
Ceki