[Theforum] Re: root access

[Peter-Paul Koch]

> >In my opinion the Admins/Steering Committee/whoever's-on-top *must* have
> >root access (and maybe: must be the *only* body to have root access),
> >even if it doesn't need it for day-to-day workIn my opinion the
> >Admins/Steering Committee/whoever's-on-top *must* have
> >root access (and maybe: must be the *only* body to have root access),
> >even if it doesn't need it for day-to-day work
>
>i see where you are coming from.
>
>that doesn't mean i agree.
>
>should the people on the steering committee be the only body with God
>status on weo?

My original idea was yes, they should. But I'm not entirely sure any more.

>I mean, the editing group can edit all they want, but those with God status
>can just delete the thing.

Yes, that's most definitely the idea.

The SC/Admins/top dogs should be able to revoke anything a working group
does. Their access rights should be higher than those of any group.

It's a kind of emergency power: if anything goes wrong, it goes *really*
wrong. If an editor is angry and publishes a flame-article, the admins
should be able to remove the article and revoke the offender's privileges,
and fast. No consultations, just do it.

Of course in normal situations the SC/Admins leave editing the articles to
the edit group, since they're far too busy overseeing evolt.org in its
entirety to do stuff like that.

>If all the power is in the steering committee, what are the other groups
>for?

The power is emergency power. Ideally it should never be used, but it should
be there, just in case. If everyone knows the power is there, it would deter
people from unilateral action.

>I think the key is cooperation. If you want to put some kind of
>accountability/ass-kicking structure in place, that's fine. But, I think
>the strength of this design is the distribution of responsibility.

But as far as I understood from this discussion one of the fundamental
problems of evolt is that there is no *final* responsible person, just
mid-level responsible people who do what they can but badly need some
overall guidance.

>I just think that if you put *all* the "power" in the steering committee,
>you have just one group... no matter how it looks on paper.

Maybe... The flip side is: *someone* has to have root access. My thought was
that it was best fitted to Admin/SC.

>IMO, anyway...

Same here.

ppk

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