[python-committers] Transfer of power

[Jeff Hardy]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 7:57 AM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> Now that PEP 572 is done, I don't ever want to have to fight so hard for a
> PEP and find that so many people despise my decisions.
>
> I would like to remove myself entirely from the decision process. I'll still
> be there for a while as an ordinary core dev, and I'll still be available to
> mentor people -- possibly more available. But I'm basically giving myself a
> permanent vacation from being BDFL, and you all will be on your own.
>
> After all that's eventually going to happen regardless -- there's still that
> bus lurking around the corner, and I'm not getting younger... (I'll spare
> you the list of medical issues.)
>
> I am not going to appoint a successor.
>
> So what are you all going to do? Create a democracy? Anarchy? A
> dictatorship? A federation?
>
> I'm not worried about the day to day decisions in the issue tracker or on
> GitHub. Very rarely I get asked for an opinion, and usually it's not
> actually important. So this can just be dealt with as it has always been.
>
> The decisions that most matter are probably
> - How are PEPs decided
> - How are new core devs inducted
>
> We may be able to write up processes for these things as PEPs (maybe those
> PEPs will form a kind of constitution). But here's the catch. I'm going to
> try and let you all (the current committers) figure it out for yourselves.
>
> Note that there's still the CoC -- if you don't like that document your only
> option might be to leave this group voluntarily. Perhaps there are issues to
> decide like when should someone be kicked out (this could be banning people
> from python-dev or python-ideas too, since those are also covered by the
> CoC).
>
> Finally. A reminder that the archives of this list are public
> (https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-committers/) although membership
> is closed (limited to core devs).
>
> I'll still be here, but I'm trying to let you all figure something out for
> yourselves. I'm tired, and need a very long break.

Thank you, Guido, for everything that you're done, and enjoy your
well-deserved rest.

- Jeff