On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 8:12 AM, Benson Margulies <bimargul...@gmail.com> wrote: > So, either a lot of us are really stupid, or the Foundation as a whole has > a gap between the general principles and their application. No, we can't > have a rule book that details every particle of how to run an Apache > project, but apparently we could have more concrete guidance.
The gap definitely exists. What often leads to confusion is when folks think there's no gap, that everything is clear-cut and certain, when it's not. Different Apache projects are permitted to operate differently, and the ill-defined line of what's acceptable moves over time. This is not entirely bad. Fixed practices are hard to change, but the open-source software world changes rapidly. So maintaining some flexibility is important. What we should try to do are document acceptable practices, those ways of operating that are common in many projects and have worked well. There may be multiple acceptable practices in a given area (e.g., CTR & RTC). Projects that diverge from these might still be acceptable, but they might also run into problems and should proceed with caution. Some might tell them that they "don't get the Apache Way", which is distressing, but, at the end of the day, so long as the board doesn't vote to evict them from the foundation, they're part of the Apache Way. The board doesn't generally act without good notice. Generally things escalate from folks griping, to the board agreeing to monitor and advise a project, to the board giving an ultimatum for a specific practice to stop, to the board finally taking some action. Doug --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
