<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">On Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 4:31 AM, Peter Rabbitson <<a href="mailto:ribasushi@cpan.org">ribasushi@cpan.org</a>> wrote:<br>> I again must stress that there has been a huge 9+ months "discussion<br>> period" during which nobody (besides mst) came forward expressing<br>> concerns regarding my plans.<br><br>I had a lot of things to say, but I find that others have covered most of the<br>main points, and I don't think I can say anything to persuade Peter away from<br>the things he has already decided. So, I will address my comments to the PAUSE<br>admins instead:<br><br>1) I didn't think we were in a discussion period; I thought we were in a period<br>of waiting for Peter to decide that he'd made all the changes he still wanted<br>to make, so he would hand off control so that others could start submitting<br>change proposals again.<br><br>2) Once Peter had announced he was going to unilaterally hand off permission<br>bits to someone else, the slow-motion train wreck had already begun, but since<br>the rest of the process was moving slowly, there seemed no pressing need to act<br>immediately. Indeed, the more we waited, the more slowly things seemed to<br>progress.<br><br>3) Since I had contracted Peter (via my employer) for particular patches last<br>year, I didn't want to say or do anything that would distract him or disrupt<br>that work, or become a conflict of interest with it; see also (2).<br><br>4) The length of time of Peter's involvement in the project, and the intensity<br>and exclusivity thereof, entitles him to the gratitude from and appreciation of<br>the community; it does not entitle him to unilaterally decide its future<br>direction.<br><br>5) Opening up control of the project (in the sense of having authority to<br>decide what is committed to the mainline code branch and released) to a larger<br>number of people is in the best interests of all users, so long as that group<br>is technically competent to do so and respects the critical nature of this<br>code. The natural starting point for this group is the set of users who<br>currently have PAUSE permissions [1]; I trust this group collectively to decide<br>who they wish to add to the group. They also may wish to add additional users<br>who can push commits to git (we found this to work well with Moose), but it<br>would also be reasonable to keep that locked down to the core group for now.<br><br>[1] Current PAUSE permissions on DBIx::Class are:<br><br>ABRAXXA (Alexander Hartmaier)<br>ARODLAND (Andrew Rodland; hobbs)<br>FREW (Arthur Axel "fREW" Schmidt)<br>ILMARI (Dagfinn Ilmari Mannsåker)<br>JROBINSON (Jess Robinson; castaway)<br>MSTROUT (Matt Trout; mst)<br>RIBASUSHI (Peter Rabbitson)<br><br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">- Karen Etheridge, <a href="mailto:ether@cpan.org">ether@cpan.org</a><br><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 3, 2016 at 1:37 PM, David Golden <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:xdg@xdg.me" target="_blank">xdg@xdg.me</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div>Hello, DBIC community.<br><br>I apologize in advance for the length of this email, but I urge everyone that uses DBIC to read it fully as it relates to the future of this important module.<br><br></div>For those who don't know me, I'm DAGOLDEN on CPAN and I've joined this list in my capacity as a <a href="http://pause.perl.org" target="_blank">PAUSE</a> [1] administrator.<br><br>For those on the list who aren't familiar with CPAN administration, PAUSE is the service that authors use to upload modules to CPAN. Among other functions, it generates the index that maps modules names to downloadable tarballs – e.g. "DBIx::Class" to "RIBASUSHI/DBIx-Class-0.082840<wbr>.tar.gz" on a CPAN mirror.<br><br></div><div>PAUSE also maintains a <a href="http://perladvent.org/2013/2013-12-08.html" target="_blank">permissions model</a> [2] for each module namespace with two levels: "primary maintainer" (also called "first come") and "co-maintainer" (aka "co-maint"). Primary maintainers can grant and revoke co-maint permissions. Both levels can upload tarballs to PAUSE, triggering an update to the index.<br></div><div><br></div>Over the past several weeks, I've been the PAUSE administrator selected to mediate a dispute over future disposition of primary permissions for the DBIx::Class namespace.<br><br></div>The dispute was triggered by Peter Rabbitson's <a href="http://lists.scsys.co.uk/pipermail/dbix-class/2016-September/012187.html" target="_blank">"Traffic pattern changes ahead"</a> [3] email to this list on September 6, in which he said:<br><br><div style="margin-left:40px"><i>I have also firmly selected who will be getting the DBIx::Class </i><br><i>namespace first-come[2], the transfer of which will also happen </i><br><i>somewhere around the end of September.</i><br></div><br>Because the identity of the new primary maintainer was neither disclosed nor discussed with Matt Trout (the founder of the DBIC project, current co-maintainer and also PAUSE administrator) or other co-maintainers, several private conversations between ensued between Matt, Peter and others about this declaration.<br><br></div>On September 15, Peter notified PAUSE administrators via the <a href="mailto:modules@perl.org" target="_blank">modules@perl.org</a> mailing list of an <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96115.html" target="_blank">"Upcoming PAUSE permissions dispute"</a> [4]. Separately, Matt notified PAUSE administrators privately with his own concerns about a possible dispute (his email was later disclosed and I'll link to it later).<br><br></div><div>On September 21, I privately emailed all DBIC maintainers (CPAN authors ABRAXXA, ARODLAND, FREW, ILMARI, JROBINSON, MSTROUT, and RIBASUSHI) on behalf of PAUSE administrators with our collective view of how this dispute would be best resolved. Peter asked that any discussion be public, so I reposted it to the <a href="mailto:modules@perl.org" target="_blank">modules@perl.org</a> mailing list as <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96139.html" target="_blank">"Message from PAUSE Admins to DBIx::Class maintainers [resend]"</a> [5]<br><br></div><div>I urge everyone to read that thread in full as well. For reference, it includes a <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96178.html" target="_blank">copy</a> [6] of Matt's previously private email to PAUSE administrators.<br><br></div><div>Importantly, the thread summarizes PAUSE administrators' position on the dispute, which I repost verbatim here:<br></div><div><i><br></i><div style="margin-left:40px"><i>(1) Given the importance of DBIC to the broader Perl community (i.e. way</i><br><i>"upriver" <<a href="http://neilb.org/2015/04/20/river-of-cpan.html" target="_blank">http://neilb.org/2015/04/20/r<wbr>iver-of-cpan.html</a>>), we’d like to</i><br><i>see a more open discussion between existing maintainers about what happens</i><br><i>next in terms of DBIC leadership and control of primary permissions.</i><br><br><i>(2) The best outcome from our perspective would be for a successor to be</i><br><i>decided by consensus of existing maintainers.</i><br><br><i>(3) Given a dispute among maintainers, the only outcome that is absolutely</i><br><i>unacceptable to PAUSE admins would be a unilateral permissions transfer</i><br><i>decision.</i><br><br><i>(4) We really hope the DBIC maintainers and/or community can resolve this</i><br><i>internally.</i><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>In the ensuing discussion, Peter disclosed additional details about his plans for the future of DBIC in the "Future plans" section of <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96174.html" target="_blank">this email</a> [7]:<br><br><div style="margin-left:40px"><i>I am still planning to wrap up the remaining pieces, including some </i><br><i>unannounced initiatives to get the project into the best shape possible </i><br><i>to survive its leaderlessness.</i><br><br><i>I am still planning to remove all co-maint perms and handover the </i><br><i>first-come to a yet-undisclosed person. Given no clear line of </i><br><i>succession, and the incredibly high stakes wrt compatibility, the only </i><br><i>responsible thing to do is to select a single spot of responsibility and </i><br><i>provide all possible support and infrastructure for a proper </i><br><i>project-freeze.</i><br></div></div><div><br>In <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96182.html" target="_blank">another email</a> [8], Peter suggested raising these issues explicitly on the DBIC mailing list:<br><br><div style="margin-left:40px"><i>As suggested in an earlier email: the PAUSE admins (as the only </i><br><i>legitimate concerned party at this point) would likely benefit having </i><br><i>this question asked in a wider forum ( the DBIC mailing list and/or </i><br><i>other channels ). Essentially someone has to trigger a "vote of no </i><br><i>confidence", otherwise this entire exchange is just a time consuming farce.</i><br></div><br></div><div>On behalf of the PAUSE administrators, we would therefore like to invite Peter to describe in more detail his plans for a "project freeze" and the role he envisions for a successor maintainer. We invite Matt, other co-maintainers, and the DBIC community at large to add their thoughts about the specifics of the plan or about the situation in general.<br><br></div><div>Given public and private discussions to date, we believe the DBIC community should consider questions such as:<br><br><ul><li>How should the future governance of the DBIC project be decided?</li><li>Who should or shouldn't be involved in future governance?</li><li>Should the project be "frozen" or should development continue?</li><li>If "frozen", what specifically would a "freeze" entail? Would there be exceptions?<br></li><li>If not "frozen", what principles should govern development? (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar" target="_blank">Cathedral vs Bazaar</a> [9] and/or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better" target="_blank">New Jersey Style vs MIT Style</a> [10])<br></li></ul></div><div>We believe these discussions, if had openly, honestly and constructively, will lead to the best resolution of this dispute for the DBIC community.<br><br></div><div>Thank you for reading this far, and I look forward to reading the community's views on these matters.<br><br></div><div>Sincerely,<br></div><div>David Golden, PAUSE Administrator<br></div><div><br>[1] <a href="http://pause.perl.org/" target="_blank">http://pause.perl.org/</a><br>[2] <a href="http://perladvent.org/2013/2013-12-08.html" target="_blank">http://perladvent.org/2013/201<wbr>3-12-08.html</a><br>[3] <a href="http://lists.scsys.co.uk/pipermail/dbix-class/2016-September/012187.html" target="_blank">http://lists.scsys.co.uk/piper<wbr>mail/dbix-class/2016-September<wbr>/012187.html</a><br clear="all"><div><div><div><div><div>[4] <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96115.html" target="_blank">http://www.nntp.perl.org/group<wbr>/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96115<wbr>.html</a><br>[5] <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96139.html" target="_blank">http://www.nntp.perl.org/group<wbr>/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96139<wbr>.html</a><br>[6] <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96178.html" target="_blank">http://www.nntp.perl.org/group<wbr>/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96178<wbr>.html</a><br>[7] <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96174.html" target="_blank">http://www.nntp.perl.org/group<wbr>/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96174<wbr>.html</a><br>[8] <a href="http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96182.html" target="_blank">http://www.nntp.perl.org/group<wbr>/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96182<wbr>.html</a><br>[9] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<wbr>The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar</a><br>[10] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<wbr>Worse_is_better</a><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>David Golden <<a href="mailto:xdg@xdg.me" target="_blank">xdg@xdg.me</a>> Twitter/IRC/GitHub: @xdg</div></div></div></div></div>
</font></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
List: <a href="http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dbix-class" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-<wbr>bin/mailman/listinfo/dbix-<wbr>class</a><br>
IRC: <a href="http://irc.perl.org#dbix-class" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">irc.perl.org#dbix-class</a><br>
SVN: <a href="http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/bast/DBIx-Class/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/<wbr>repos/bast/DBIx-Class/</a><br>
Searchable Archive: <a href="http://www.grokbase.com/group/dbix-class@lists.scsys.co.uk" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.grokbase.com/group/<wbr>dbix-class@lists.scsys.co.uk</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>