Guido van Rossum writes:
On the #python issue, I expect that IRC is much less influential that some here fear (and than some fervent IRC users believe). I don't see reason for panic or heavy-handed interference. OTOH engaging the channel operators more in python-dev sounds like a useful approach.
From a few hours monitoring and participating in #python, Laurens gives pretty accurate summary of the kind of people in the channel. I didn't see anything about Python 3, but I can definitely imagine there being Python-3-baiting trolls. There certainly were a few trollish
More vice-versa, I now think. Ie, (somewhat) greater python-dev presence on #python is more important. I sort of assumed that people actually participated in #python, as a number do in c.l.p, but that doesn't seem to be so. At least while I was there, I didn't see anybody else who seemed to be python-dev, whether core or the regular denizens of the peanut gallery. posters. Anyway, what I personally plan to do is put in a couple of hours a week on #python, and I probably mostly won't mention Python 3 unless asked, and maybe in discussing Unicode issues. While I don't claim to be particularly *representative* of python-dev, an additional dimension of diversity should go a long way.