[python-committers] An alternative governance model

[Steve Dower]

On 18Jul2018 0910, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> 
> Le 18/07/2018 à 17:58, Ethan Furman a écrit :
>>
>> If we, by majority vote, pick a governance model (dictator, council, or whatever), then that legitimizes it.  If we, by
>> majority vote, pick the new BDFL, then that legitimizes it.  Being unhappy with the choice does not make the choice
>> illegitimate.
> 
> At this point we are not talking about a majority vote.  All I see is a
> rushed plebiscite on a single governance model and a single person.

The "plebiscite" is really about the question "should we *consider* 
appointing someone as NBDFL" - Barry's very first line of his email reads:

> I’d like to propose an alternative model, and with it a succession plan, that IMHO hasn’t gotten enough discussion.  It’s fairly radical in that it proposes to not actually change that much!

The only thing I see happening now is sounding out opinions on the 
model. No decision is being taken yet.

Right now, I imagine Barry is testing the waters to see whether it's 
worth his time writing this up as a proposed PEP 2. Other people seem to 
be interested in also proposing alternative PEP 2s, and eventually we as 
a group will have to select one of them, no doubt by majority vote. And 
while Barry's long service to this group certainly adds weight to his 
opinion, it's also likely that we can filibuster for long enough until 
he retires and then ignore him completely :)

Your contributions to this part of the discussion are also very useful - 
we need to know what concerns people have, and often those concerns may 
not have occurred to those of us who approach it with a more idealistic 
idea of how everything will work out.

Nobody has really disputed the idea of codifying our new model as PEP 2. 
Until we have an actual text of PEP 2, I see no reason for concern that 
we are rushing anything.

Cheers,
Steve