[OSM-talk] Poll on Governance, what constitutes news, wiki front page

[TimSC]

Hi all,
cc Richard Fairhurst,

I recently created a poll on doodle about how decisions are taken in 
OSM. I think this issue matters to many people. I put the poll in the 
news section on the front page of the wiki, so we can get a decent turn 
out and be able to draw some conclusions. Richard Fairhurst reverted 
that edit with the reason 'This is not remotely news. It's one person's 
hobbyhorse. By this reckoning I could post a "news" item every time I 
ask a question on the mailing lists'. [1]

This issue not just one person's hobby horse - its an issue that is very 
topical and very relevant. People actually bothered to vote, including 
significant people in the community. This shows people care. Also, OSMF 
is actively debating this issue and it would be invaluable to have some 
empirical data. If there was some documentation on guidelines on what 
constitutes news, Richard might have a point. (Admittedly some would 
rather get on and map and I wish them all the best - I am by no means 
stopping them.) It seems like the poll is going to be more valuable than 
a dozen circular discussions on the mailing lists...

So I ask any interested parties and Richard: please respond with a 
definition of what constitutes "news" and/or some reasoning that it is 
"one person's hobbyhorse", otherwise I will revert you back. Also if you 
want to raise awareness of the poll, I would appreciate some support 
here! ;)

Regards,

TimSC

[1] 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Template:News&action=history