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- Submitted-by: karish@mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish)
-
- After withdrawals from candidacy by all the other volunteers,
- Sean Eric Fagan (seanf@sco.com) is the provisional replacement
- moderator for com.std.unix.
-
- If there's any objection to simply accepting him as the new moderator
- by acclamation, please speak up now, either by posting or by E-mail to
- me (karish@mindcraft.com). If I don't hear anything within a week of
- the time I see this posting come back from John, I'll send an
- announcement to news.announce.newgroups that the reins have been
- shifted.
-
- One of the other volunteers has expressed concern about perceptions of
- possible conflict of interest, in that Sean is an employee of a major
- UNIX vendor.
-
- I have several answers to this concern.
-
- First, the idea that anyone can be truly objective about anything is a
- polite fiction at best. We all try to be fair, and a good-faith effort
- in this direction is all we can hope for. If anyone thinks the
- moderator is showing bias, USENET offers plenty of channels to express
- dissatisfaction, both public and private.
-
- Second, all of us have our own axes to grind, as users, as vendors, or
- as service providers. The fact that a particular axe may be sharpened
- by the thought of commercial advantage doesn't make it any more or less
- legitimate than one that comes from a different set of preferences. I
- suggest that we use the approach that the POSIX committees use: Every
- participant is assumed to speak for her/himself. It's assumed that ALL
- participants have something at stake, or they wouldn't bother to do all
- that work.
-
- Third, Sean has agreed to post some sort of disclaimer cooked up with
- the help of his employer's legal staff. I hope I don't have to page
- past it too many times; I don't really think it's necessary.
-
- Chuck Karish karish@mindcraft.com
- Mindcraft, Inc. (415) 323-9000
-
- Volume-Number: Volume 22, Number 132
-
-