Well, if I may have a say, I think that an open source project is especially open when users as developers can contribute to the code base and can participate in discussions on how to improve the existing designs and ideas. I do not think a project is open when it crumbles down into politics.. I have seen a lot of work done by Mark especially to ensure that everyone had a say in what he was doing, up to the point where this might not be fun anymore. And from what I can see at the time, which was back in August, everyone has had plenty of opportunity to discuss or contribute to the specific changes that were made. This was an open contribution to the NumPy code, not some cooked up shady business by high and mighty developers and I, for one, am happy with how it turned out.