Hi Incubator, We've previously been discussing graduation in this email thread, and we would be glad for any additional feedback or questions y'all have for the project. Sorry for not including the general list here previously,
The full history is below, but I'll re-add the original email here so it's easier to read. ----- 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 ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jean-Baptiste Onofré <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 8:37 PM Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] Apache Polaris - Moving towards Graduation To: <[email protected]> Hi, As I previously mentioned, I believe the current challenges stem from communication between a few individual contributors. We have established project guidelines that have already helped improve our interactions, but as with all Apache projects, this remains an ongoing effort. As a mentor, my role is to explain the Apache Way and our best practices (and also share the Apache policies and interact with other Apache teams like Infra). I aim to act as a "catalyst" rather than a "dictator," recognizing that every community is unique. I continue to work closely with various contributors to assist with communication styles that respect our diverse cultures, backgrounds, and sensitivities. Please feel free to reach out to me if you need support or someone to listen; my door is always open. Regards, JB On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 1:26 PM Kevin Liu <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > > > > > > > > > >
