I've had many positive interactions with the Polaris community, both online and in-person, and have found everyone to be helpful and collaborative. I'm really looking forward to the move towards graduation and to further contributing to this awesome community!
> While I am glad to see the general support for graduation, I am a bit disappointed that we haven't yet discussed specific ways to improve our community dynamics or resolve disagreements more efficiently. I have had many private conversations with community members expressing frustration, and I was hoping this thread would provide a space for that reflection. Thanks for reiterating on this point; IMO a sign of a healthy community is to have these discussions openly and find common solutions. I think effective collaboration is an ongoing effort. If there's anything I can help with to facilitate the discussion, please let me know. Happy to help. Best, Kevin Liu On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 11:38 AM Russell Spitzer <[email protected]> wrote: > While I am glad to see the general support for graduation, I am a bit > disappointed that we haven't yet discussed specific ways to improve our > community dynamics or resolve disagreements more efficiently. I have had > many private conversations with community members expressing frustration, > and I was hoping this thread would provide a space for that reflection. > > That said, I recognize this is an ongoing process. Let’s ensure we continue > to look for opportunities to better understand each others' perspectives to > ensure the long-term success of Polaris. > > Given the clear consensus to move forward, I will start a formal vote to > document the community's shared intent to graduate. > > On Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 11:12 AM Francois Papon < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > As a mentor of the project (not from the beginning) and to have been a > > mentor of other projects in the ASF, I also think that the project is > > ready to Graduate. > > > > The project is very active and there is a lot of discussion in the > > mailing list. Even if people are not always agreed, the discussions are > > safe and it's good to have these kind of threads on the mailing list. > > > > There is also new committers that is also a good thing. > > > > regards, > > > > François > > [email protected] > > [email protected] > > > > Le 17/01/2026 à 21:16, Russell Spitzer a écrit : > > > Hi y’all, > > > > > > It’s exciting to see how far the Apache Polaris (Incubating) project > has > > > come in just over a year, and I think it’s time that we start > considering > > > whether the podling is ready to graduate to a full-fledged Apache > > project. > > > > > > We’ve seen production releases, new persistence backends, OPA support, > > and > > > so much more. Most importantly, this work has been done with public > > design > > > and discussion, following the Apache model for community development. > > > Github Issues and PR review happen in an open and vendor-neutral > manner. > > > There are many active committers and PPMC members from different > > > organizations working together and releasing quality software. I’ve > seen > > > solid work done to protect the Apache Brand and ensure licensing is > > > appropriate, as well as some great handling of public events. Even as a > > > young project, Polaris has already hosted many successful meetups and > has > > > been the subject of talks at a variety of conferences. We also have a > > > lively dev-list and lots of one-on-one discussions happening on the > Slack > > > channel. In many cases, I think that the Apache Polaris Community is > > > functioning exactly how a top-level Apache project should > > > < > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INCUBATOR/Graduation+Criteria > > >. > > > > > > > > > For those interested in the statistics > > > > > > > > > - > > > > > > Apache Polaris has had 6 Releases (0.9, 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, > > > 1.3.0) > > > - > > > > > > Our github is at 1.8k stars with 357 Forks > > > - > > > > > > We have closed 2819 PRs > > > - > > > > > > There are have been ~100 Contributors to the project > > > - > > > > > > The PPMC has 13 Members (6 elected during incubation period) and > > there > > > are 8 other committers (5 elected during incubation period) > > > - > > > > > > Representatives from Dremio, Snowflake, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, > > And > > > more! > > > > > > > > > > > > That said, I do still have some concerns about other areas of community > > > development. While I think we are having lots of great conversations > > about > > > the future of the project, we still seem to have difficult moments > where > > > communication appears to be breaking down, and people are becoming a > bit > > > more heated. We also seem to be lacking a bit of mutual trust and > > respect. > > > I want to make sure that the Polaris community is a welcoming one, > where > > > engineers all respect each other’s contributions and, most importantly, > > act > > > in good faith. We’ve seen some instances where PRs may be perceived as > > > merged prematurely, or that there are double standards for what > > constitutes > > > a “blocker” on a PR. I want to know if others in the community feel > this > > > way, and more importantly, if there are any constructive ideas on how > to > > > help us get along and make the community as welcoming as possible. > Please > > > do not take this lightly; I know it can be easy to just write off other > > > engineers as a “problem,” but that kind of attitude won’t help this > > project > > > move forward. I would encourage everyone to think about how they > > personally > > > can contribute to a better environment. If I’m alone in this sentiment, > > > feel free to ignore me, but I think it’s always a good exercise to > think > > > about how I interact with others to make them feel as welcome as > > possible. > > > > > > I don’t mean to be all gloomy on this matter, though; I think some > things > > > have been moving in the right direction. A great example is some of the > > > discussions we’ve seen lately on the mailing list. Although we had some > > > disagreements on a PR, there is now a pretty constructive dialogue > > > happening where I do feel like all of the community members are trying > to > > > find common ground and listen to each other’s viewpoints without > personal > > > judgment. This shows me that we are still having constructive > engagements > > > even when there was prior disagreement. I wasn’t able to attend the > > recent > > > sprint planning meeting, but from what I have heard, that’s another > > > instance where it feels like folks came away from that meeting with a > bit > > > more camaraderie than they had going in. > > > > > > All in all, I want what’s best for the community. I hope that by > bringing > > > up graduation, and bringing some of my concerns into the public light, > > > we’ll be able to make progress and graduate the project. I want to know > > > everyone else’s feelings on the general maturity of the project, > whether > > > they think it’s appropriate to graduate, and whether they have any > other > > > suggestions for paths forward to make Polaris even better in the > future. > > > > > > Thanks for your time, > > > > > > Russell Spitzer > > > > > > Resources: > > > > > > https://incubator.apache.org/guides/graduation.html > > > > > > > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INCUBATOR/Graduation+Criteria > > > > > > > > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qBIxClspQA--uQB0MS3LQO-uEDjdXtbqMPSRNbgeKdk/edit?usp=sharing > > > > > >
