[development] Restructure Core Module Support [ was: Time to remove poll module from core]

[Robert Douglass]

I think we have essentially the same idea, Chris, and that leaves the 
question "how best to achieve it?"

One thing that is needed for distributions to work well is the further 
delegation of responsibility. Adding some core maintainers (Gerhard and 
Neil) has worked out fantastically well. The distributions idea offers 
another opportunity to delegate responsibility even further. If "Bob" 
were made the maintainer of the "Drupal Blogging" distribution, and this 
meant selecting and vetting modules, coordinating development efforts, 
and preparing an install profile, then Bob would have a chance to shine 
in this new role the way that Gerhard rose to the task of being a core 
maintainer. Doling out responsibility like this is a great way to get 
things done =)

One step further... if we use the groups site to let people 
"organically" decide which distributions they're interested in creating 
and maintaining, then we can wait until the distros actually appear 
before officially promoting them. This would prevent the scenario where 
we decide today that we really need "Drupal Blogging", but watch it fall 
on its face because nobody is really interested. Tell people to go out 
and make the distros, prove their value, show that they are serious 
efforts, and then, after they've proven themselves adequately, list them 
as official.

-Robert

Chris Johnson wrote:
> =>  There should be a group of the most useful, best coded modules 
> which are maintained and supported like the core itself.  For the rest 
> of this posting, I will call these the "core modules"