[tz] Preparing to fork tzdb

[Stephen Colebourne]

On Thu, 23 Sept 2021 at 09:52, Paul Eggert via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:
> On 9/22/21 2:53 AM, Almaz Mingaleev wrote:
> > What equity, diversity or inclusion issues were in 2021a?
>
> Locations in countries like Norway and Sweden got special treatment by
> being Zones, whereas locations in countries like Angola and Ethiopia
> were only Links.

Taken at face value, it is easy for anyone reading this to nod their
head and agree that Norway should not receive favouritism over Angola.

What it fails to state is that the solution adopted (creating Links
where previously there were Zones) has created a *different* equity,
diversity or inclusion issue. The resulting tzdb state clearly favours
Berlin over Oslo or Stockholm, Brussels over Amsterdam.

The justification for this new inequality is arcane to anyone who
doesn't understand the nuances of the tzdb system. Sure there is a
rule involved (single regions for post 1970 data, largest city for
pre-1970 data). But the rule simply won't be understood or accepted by
most actual users of the data set.

Stephen