[python-committers] Reminder of BDFL succession timeline + CFP

[Paul Moore]

On Thu, 2 Aug 2018 at 01:58, Yury Selivanov <yselivanov.ml at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 8:29 PM Mariatta Wijaya
> <mariatta.wijaya at gmail.com> wrote:
> [..]
> > Please don't misunderstand my wanting to set up a deadlines and process as wanting to rush things.
>
> Absolutely, I understand, I didn't want to imply that "[name] is
> rushing the process". Sorry if I sounded this way. I do have an
> impression, though, that a large population of core devs is OK with
> deadlines and the other sizable population doesn't understand why we
> need a strict schedule right now.

I think this is an important point. I'm also -1 on a strict timetable
here - I agree with the points Marc-Andre and Nathaniel made, and I
don't want to see us rushing into a decision.

It actually strikes me that the disparity here (with some people
wanting to keep the process moving and get something sorted so we can
get back to normal, and others wanting to let things take their time
and not force a decision simply because "we need to decide") is an
excellent test case for how we make decisions in the future. If we
can't reach a mutually satisfactory agreement on how to move forward
on this, I don't have high hopes for the possibility of our choice of
governance model being acceptable to everyone.

> > I'm open to extend the dates, and even wait another year if we need to.
> > Or do folks want to come up with a completely different process than what I've proposed?
> >
> > In the end, I just want to know whether we will come to decision before 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, .. ?

At the moment, I'm not even sure I want to know that much. For now,
what I want to know is how things are going to feel now that we don't
have Guido acting as BDFL. That's going to take time to assess, but
until we have done that, I don't see how we (as a community) can have
any sort of good idea about what sort of governance works for us.

What I'd like to understand from the people advocating a fixed
timetable and agreed dates, is what *actual* problem does fixing dates
solve? Are bpo discussions being held up for lack of a BDFL? Are
people not committing changes? Certainly we're not accepting PEPs at
the moment, but it's not like PEPs work on a rapid timescale anyway -
and if the problem is that without a BDFL, the discussions feel
directionless, then that's a *specific* problem we can solve without
needing to agree a governance model (it's the "guiding discussions"
aspect of Guido's role, as opposed to the "BDFL" part).

Paul