avr at geminet.org avr at geminet.org
Tue Feb 23 10:26:40 GMT 2021
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On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 08:53:30AM +0100, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 08:41:05PM -0500,
Drew DeVault <sir at cmpwn.com> wrote
a message of 29 lines which said:
If you don't agree, go ask Solderpunk yourself. He doesn't seem to
enjoy talking to this community anymore, though, for reasons quite
apparent to me.
I will not comment on personal issues (like most of us, I don't know
why he is now silent) but this is a problem for Gemini. The Benevolent
Dictator model has a lot of strengths (fast decision, consistency, no
bureaucracy and processes, ability to keep focused on a tough goal,
etc) but it requires the BD to act. If the BD is absent or silent,
this model turns into the Nobody In Charge, which is really bad,
because it does not allow to decide on touchy issues.
I don't think BDFL is a single role and it depends on the nature of the project. If you compare a spec's BD to a BD for a large project with lots of churn (Linus) or a programming language (Guido), it might seem slow, butI'm unsure if such different projects can be directly compared.
How Gemini's BD tends to chime in after pondering and waiting for moods to settle, and then explain his process of thought in a clear, calm way that makes any camps in a disagreement feel like they've been heard is quite exceptional.
I think "Let's rebuild the web, but better!" is a common last refrainof parties that involve alcohol and have hackers present. Geminiis an outlier here in that it actually seems to be happening.
In short, I don't think absence or silence is really a negative in these situations, and should be seen more as a sign of deliberation than negligence.