Nedjo wrote:
There are very few members of our community who consistently meet these measures. Dries is one of them, and Drupal's success is due in significant measure to that fact.
i agree. but let me suggest that there's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy going on here. i think more members of the community could meet the measures you outlined, if they were given the chance to assume the responsibility, make some mistakes, and learn. what i'm about to say is merely an educated guess, but i'm betting it's fairly accurate given how humans learn and grow: in the beginning, dries probably made more mistakes than he does now in his decisions about what to commit/not commit. he probably committed things that, looking back, he would not have committed given his current level of experience in his position of leadership, or vice versa. he probably learned some invaluable lessons from those mistakes that inform his current decision making process. not providing other people that same process inhibits them from attaining the experience necessary to lead. your greatest lessons come from your mistakes. if, as i have suggested, dries made any mistakes in his time of leadership on the project, we've been able to survive those just fine. we'll survive any mistakes that other leaders will make, too -- especially since they have the benefit of a mentor. in the process we'll build new leaders. (by the way, please don't misconstrue the above to mean that i think the initial commit of the deletion api was a mistake, because i don't! i'm examining a larger dynamic here.) one thing that i find particularly perplexing is the gravity with which these kinds of changes are regarded. we participate in the kind of endeavor where we can make adjustments if we start to see we're heading in the wrong direction. nobody's life is at stake if we make a mis-judgement here or there... ;) i guess for me that engenders some spirit of experimentation -- not wild experimentation, but reasoned changes that result in valuable feedback.
Compare comments here, two and a half years ago: http:// drupal.org/node/15916
in that long thread, this was one of the most salient passages that i found: "One of the concerns people may then have -- a longer-term concern -- for something like Drupal is: what happens when the torch is passed. Does it remain an autocracy, and are people going to be pleased with whomever assumes the role of autocrat? More importantly; what assurance do the contributors have that this is going to result in the continued health and well-being of the thing they have helped create?" those kinds of considerations provide credible weight to idea of grooming new leaders today, no matter what the current conditions are.