[Numpy-discussion] What is consensus anyway

[srean]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 11:08 PM, Puneeth Chaganti <punchagan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 6:41 AM, Travis Oliphant <travis at continuum.io> wrote:
> [snip]
>>
>> It would be nice if every pull request created a message to this list.    Is that even possible?
>
> That is definitely possible and shouldn't be too hard to do, like
> Jason said.  But that can potentially cause some confusion, with some
> of the discussion starting off in the mailing list, and some of the
> discussion happening on the pull-request itself.  Are my concerns
> justified?

Related issue: some projects have an user's list and a devel list. It
might be worth (re?)considering that option. They have their pros and
cons but I think I like the idea of a devel list and seperate "help
wanted" list.

Something else that might be  helpful for contentious threads is a
stack-overflowesque system where readers can vote up responses of
others. Sometimes just a "i agree" "i disagree" goes a long way,
especially when you have many lurkers.

On something else that was brought up: I do not consider myself
competent/prepared enough to take on development, but it is not the
case that I have _never_ felt the temptation. What I have found
intimidating and styming is the perceived politics over development
issues.  The two places where I have felt this are a) on contentious
threads on the list and b) what seems like legitimate patches tickets
on trac that seem to be languishing for no compelling technical
reason. I would be hardpressed to quote specifics, but I have
encountered this feeling a few times.

 For my case it would not have mattered, because I doubt I would have
contriuted anything useful. However, it might be the case that more
competent lurkers might have felt the same way. The possibility of a
patch relegated semipermanently to trac, or the possibility of getting
caught up in the politics is bit of a disincentive. This is just an
honest perception/observation.

I am more of a get on with it, get the code out and rest will resolve
itself eventually kind of a guy, thus long
political/philosophical/epistemic threads distance me. I know there
are legitimate reasons to have this discussions. But it seems to me
that they get a bit too wordy here sometimes.

My 10E-2.

-- srean