[HN Gopher] My BDFL guiding principles
___________________________________________________________________
My BDFL guiding principles
Author : tambourine_man
Score : 66 points
Date : 2024-05-27 15:07 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (daniel.haxx.se)
(TXT) w3m dump (daniel.haxx.se)
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| I'm impressed by the flag; hopefully other BDFL's will follow
| suit: not necessarily in a vexillological vein, but maybe with
| their amazonian bodyguard troupe, their secret volcano bunker, or
| their equivalent of "Solomon" (Blofeld's Persian)?
| Donde sobra corazon, !Ay Curlita! !Ay Curlita!
| xg15 wrote:
| Python's flag would definitely be a coconut, surrounded by a
| concerning amount of whitespace.
|
| ("Would", as Guido van Rossum sadly already retired as BDFL)
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Maybe GvR could do a re-enactment of the farcical aquatic
| ceremony by which he became BDFL? (Steven Pemberton
| presumably knows enough about Panto to do a decent scimitar-
| lobbing moistened bint; the question which remains is whether
| Lambert Meertens has either cross-dressing or sword-
| distributing experience? Based on
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhRT0mNiA6o I'm willing to
| consider it likely)
| xg15 wrote:
| > _Steven Pemberton presumably knows enough about Panto to
| do a decent scimitar-lobbing moistened bint; the question
| which remains is whether Lambert Meertens has either cross-
| dressing or sword-distributing experience?_
|
| Some sentences are beautiful in their own right and don't
| need any context or explanations.
| lelandfe wrote:
| I liked that "curl" is in the border ornamentation
| https://imgur.com/a/6vaimcj
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| As another BDFL, I was disappointed to see that these were a set
| of principles about what curl/the curl project should be, rather
| than principles for how to be a BDFL. Obviously, they are related
| - how you conceive of the project is quite intertwined with how
| you intend to be-a-BDFL.
|
| But the BDFL cannot by themselves satisfy most of the goals
| listed in TFA.
|
| If I had to sum up my own right now, without much thought:
|
| 1. keep the project actually alive by ensuring there is clear
| evidence to all of continuous, significant development.
|
| 2. be respectful to all those currently involved, and to all who
| wish to become involved.
|
| 3. always remain open to the possibility that I'm doing something
| wrong, and eagerly seek out criticism that may reveal that to be
| the case.
|
| 4. notwithstanding #3, accept that I am the expert of experts in
| most senses, and have accumulated a lot of domain and application
| specific knowledge along the way; do not get hustled by
| newcomers.
|
| 5. notwithstanding #4, acknowledgement that newcomers may have
| ideas that hold the key to improving usability, discoverability,
| functionality and more. In general, strive to give their ideas
| serious attention.
|
| 6. Be nice. Be kind. Be respectful. Answer (most) questions asked
| of me personally.
|
| 7. When it is possible to financially compensate people for
| significant participation, do so.
|
| 8. Always acknowledge the contributions of others.
|
| 9. Promote the idea of my own humanity and that of all those
| involved, in order to encourage kind behavior and an
| understanding of what is possible (or not).
|
| 10. Always remember that it is other people who make my work
| possible, not me.
| peter_l_downs wrote:
| For anyone else not familiar with Paul, he is a very effective
| maintainer of a variety of audio related programs. These are
| fantastic principles and (as a neutral observer) he lives up to
| them. Heavy is the head that wears the crown!
| chambers wrote:
| A few too many principles mixing the BDFL & their project, I
| think. It's ok for a BDFL to share the things they care for, but
| I would prefer a harder framework for predicting BDFL behavior.
|
| My short go-to-example is
| https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/five-core-principles-... .
| If one imagines a world where each principle is invalidated from
| last to first, one can have a rough idea on how the actions the
| country will take.
|
| My long go-to-example is https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html. A
| list of rules that they place upon themselves and not on others.
| moomin wrote:
| The SQLite example gives you a pretty good idea of how the
| maintainers wish to be perceived, but I think it's fairly
| obvious to most people that those that loudly proclaim their
| adherence to the first ten rules exhibit a WIDE variety of
| behaviour in practice.
| anonfordays wrote:
| After what happened to Nix, I've only gained more respect and
| preference for projects that have BDFL.
| adhamsalama wrote:
| Only if the BDFL isn't okay with his software being used to
| kill innocent civilians.
| samatman wrote:
| What is it that you think open source means? Vibes?
| meowface wrote:
| What happened to Nix?
| recursivecaveat wrote:
| Nixcon NA 2023 accepted, then later rescinded, sponsorship
| from Anduril, which is a defense company. There was a lot of
| community pushback on that, and it seems like the organizers
| messed up and the venue wouldn't allow it anyway. Either way
| they were a sponsor for 2024. Ever since there has been a lot
| of infighting in the community. Here's a recent LWN article
| and HN discussion about it:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40199153
| neonsunset wrote:
| Also relevant reading: https://srid.ca/nixos-mod
|
| How certain, ideologically and politically driven parts of
| community conduct themselves against anyone they suspect of
| wrongthink: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/delroths-muting-
| in-the-moderat...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-27 23:02 UTC)