SPI bylaws overhaul: new discussion draft

[Jimmy Kaplowitz]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 03:27:22AM +0000, Luca Filipozzi wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 06:58:26PM -0800, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> > On 11/15/2016 06:27 PM, Luca Filipozzi wrote:
> > >On Sun, Nov 13, 2016 at 11:36:52AM -0500, Hilmar Lapp wrote:
> > >>One thing I’d submit for consideration that could be learned from this and
> > >>change is to take the opportunity to put the text into Markdown (or LaTeX)
> > >>format and host it in version control. Then the version control system does
> > >>the diff, and presenting them, for you without any additional effort.
> > >>
> > >>Here’s an example from the most recent bylaws changes for OBF:
> > >>https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/28
> > >>https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/29
> > >>
> > >>I understand that many in SPI have strong reservations about Github, but
> > >>obviously Github is far from the only platform that allows doing this.
> > >
> > >I think that the salient points, here, are:
> > >- use a plain text 'source' format for the input
> > >- use a source code management system to capture revisions and produce deltas
> > >- publish the deltas so that the members can easily review the proposed changes
> > >- use a formatter to 'compile' the input into published representation
> > >
> > >We can achieve the above wthout having to use github.
> > >
> > >I'm perfectly happy to use Markdown and I'd prefer it to LaTeX.
> > 
> > Or just use ODF with commenting?
> 
> I'll admit a significantly stronger preference to Markdown (or other plain text
> input format) to ODF (ie XML) and the use of diff over 'track changes'.
> 
> That said, I'm not editing the bylaws so I leave it to the those who are to
> decide.

These discussions are only worth having in the context of hoping to make
changes to the content of the bylaws. Accordingly, now that I've provided an
automatic diff alongside my textual summary and am aware of the issue for the
future, can we refocus this conversation on substantive feedback? I fear some
people with substantive opinions may already have tuned out this thread based
on how extended this comparison and formatting discussion has become.

- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy at spi-inc.org