# How should Privacy Guides take decisions?

**URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/how-should-privacy-guides-take-decisions/22892
**Category:** Site Development
**Created:** 2024-12-03T10:11:40Z
**Posts:** 19
**Showing post:** 14 of 19

## Post 14 by @jonah — 2024-12-03T19:22:48Z

I will re-share my thoughts regarding polling:

> [@Require Open Source for Password Managers](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/require-open-source-for-password-managers/12480/187):
>
> [Much like Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_democracy), Privacy Guides is not a democracy, rather we make our decisions based on **discussion** and consensus. A poll is not a discussion, and this one frankly has hindered this discussion a bit as we are now all talking about the poll itself rather than the merits and drawbacks of this proposal. The polarization here as a result of the poll has really only _slowed down_ the possibility of us making this change.

…and “consensus”:

> [@Require Open Source for Password Managers](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/require-open-source-for-password-managers/12480/191):
>
> It is much preferable for us all to accept that it is not the end of the world for us to leave a less-than-perfect criteria on the website — _with the understanding that Privacy Guides is always gradually improving and changes are being discussed and considered_ — than to try and fight for and push forward some immediate change for a particular preferred version of the criteria ASAP.

[https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pull/2700/files#diff-5f151ff840d02f3b9160523dacc139d848628a6275d239878f89e0a26c96c9a8R15-R21](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pull/2700/files#diff-5f151ff840d02f3b9160523dacc139d848628a6275d239878f89e0a26c96c9a8R15-R21)

* * *

Now I will reply to points you made in the other post here to continue it:

> [@Require Open Source for Password Managers](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/require-open-source-for-password-managers/12480/192):
>
> ![](https://forum-cdn.privacyguides.net/user_avatar/discuss.privacyguides.net/jonah/48/8151_2.png)[Require Open Source for Password Managers](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/require-open-source-for-password-managers/12480/187)
> 
> > Privacy Guides gets like 8,000 unique visitors every day, and this forum has over 3,000 members. One poll which has 34 votes and is split between 41% / 49% is unfortunately not the _clear consensus_ you are imagining. On the contrary it proves that we can’t proceed too quickly here.
> 
> Sorry, but that doesn’t make any sense. The ratio between votes and total visitors here is irrelevant. There is always only a minority which actively participate, on any subject - so following your argument we couldn’t take any decision cause too few people participated in it.

It makes perfect sense. It only doesn’t make sense if you are still thinking of Privacy Guides as a direct democracy, which again it certainly is not.

What I am saying is that what we are doing is **considering how** each and every decision we make will affect the many thousands of people who read our resources every day. **This is precisely why we will occasionally make decisions that do _not_ align with the very small minority of people here on the forum who are actively participating** , because exactly like you said the community here on the forum alone is not the only audience we are writing for.

I am not suggesting we rope all of these people into a discussion, no.

> [@Require Open Source for Password Managers](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/require-open-source-for-password-managers/12480/192):
>
> Sorry, but **PG often doesn’t make decisions based on consensus. When you or the team wanted something -** like including Mull- **you do it**  **despite** huge **backlash**.

You will have to elaborate on this, because this is the very first time I am hearing an objection to how we currently present Mull browser.

We reached a very solid **compromise** that most people could agree on with the “warnings” we added associated with the listing, **which is exactly what achieving consensus is.** The example you’re bringing up is probably one of the best examples in my mind of Privacy Guides working exactly as intended.

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