Recent ports removal

[Mikhail T.]

On 13.11.2011 16:20, Doug Barton wrote:
> You turned a comparison of the discussion of the concept of ports
> removal generally to the removal of individual ports and turned it into
> an ad hominem attack on the quality of*my*  reasoning.

Huh?

> This is an excellent example of why I, for one, don't bother replying substantively
> to your messages anymore.

And yet, you are going to have to... Because you are not doing your 
removals as an individual committer (if you were, your desire to remove 
a port could've been stopped by *my* desire to keep it). And as long as 
you imply having some sort of governing authority behind you (such as a 
portmgr hat -- permanent or temporary), you need to justify your actions 
to keep the consent of the governed.

But I'm not asking you to reply to the uncivil, sarcastic, and otherwise 
flawed *me*. My proposal was for you and the rest of the "removers" to 
articulate your reasoning on a web-page. That would carry your message 
(calmly thought-through and edited) to all users and colleagues alike, 
including those too polite to question your actions publicly. Please, 
oblige.

On 13.11.2011 16:31, Chris Rees wrote:
> Oh my.... it's two months ago.

Yes. And my recollection from back then is that portmgr was reviewing 
the issue (in the quiet of Olympus away from the noise of all the silly 
mortals) and was going to render their decision (eloquently and 
convincingly to all)... That has not happened, but the removals continue 
to this day...

> Can we move on? Ports are deprecated and removed. 
> Insecure/unmaintained ports are harmful.

No, we can not move on. It should, by now, be obvious to all, that there 
is no consensus on when a port should be removed. And yet, a fraction of 
the committers take it upon themselves to remove ports based on their 
own credentials -- much to the dissatisfaction of the opposing fraction. 
I fail to see, why or how the opinion of crees@ and dougb@ outweighs 
that of stas@ and mi at . To be sure, both factions have other members, but 
nobody conducted a vote -- and we don't even know, what such a vote 
would mean anyway.

Yours,

    -mi