[FFmpeg-devel] (trying to be) a voice of reason

[Felipe Contreras]

On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 1:10 PM, madshi <madshi at gmail.com> wrote:
> we had a coup. Now we seem to have a re-coup. It feels
> to me as if we were in the Dark Ages. People are fighting
> with each other instead of working together.
>
> As far as I can see, if nothing changes, there are 3 ways
> this could go:
>
> (1) Either Michael "wins". As a result some developers
> will leave.

Let's define "win". Michael wants to remain as dictator of FFmpeg.

> (2) Or the new leadership team wins. As a result some
> different developers will leave.

Let's define "win". The "new leadership" doesn't want Michael as
leader, and wants _everybody_ to submit patches for review.

People voted to keep their commit access, which is stupid. I will
exemplify it as wanting to park their formula one car after running a
race, somebody has to run the race, and somebody has to park the car,
but nobody cares about who parks the car, it's just a duty somebody
has to do. Why fight for a chore?

But whatever, 14 people said in an invalid vote that they would rather
have commit access, this "vote" didn't include threats about them
leaving if this wasn't done, nor did say anything about Michael's
dictatorship.

Michael however is trying everything in his power to either regain
full control of FFmpeg, or divide the project.

IMO the solution is very simple:

1) Michael resigns from any leadership position and becomes a
developer, like Mans
2) Everyone that had svn commit access gets git commit access
2.1) The first time somebody uses their commit access to push a patch
without proper review gets their rights revoked

That I think is a good compromise, sadly, I don't think 1) would ever
happen, and in order stop this drama and keep working, the only
solution Michael leaves is to fork. So a fork it is.

-- 
Felipe Contreras