On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 1:44 AM Olumide Samson <oludons...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been following closely lately and have seen you(Zeev Suraski) > question *RFC authority*(what it was meant for or not, even though your > facts weren't written as facts anywhere). > You've questioned the *mailing list* rules(be it binding or not), maybe it > should be followed or disregarded and just follow my/your-style rules. > There's a reason of why you're suddenly seeing those recently, and it's not me waking up one day deciding to question the authority of the RFC process or the mailing list rules. They have to do with new occurrences that me and some others are *reacting *to. Applying the RFC process to areas that until very recently were simply not even up for discussion, let alone a vote. Applying mailing list rules and/or the RFC process to shutdown dissenting voices and threaten them. This is unprecedented and unacceptable. To be clear, I'm not 'questioning' neither the RFC process nor the mailing list rules. But they are what they are - documents written by humans (very flawed ones, at least in the former case) in certain contexts and for certain purposes (and in a very short time with almost no discussion). While the RFC process has been used extensively in the last few years with a good degree of success - it was never meant to be used as an exclusive way to govern all aspects of the PHP project, and other tenets (which weren't codified, as they were obvious at the time the RFC process was introduced) for which we have a de-facto written track record are just as important (bias for BC, PHP as a lenient and dynamic language, open discussion, etc.). The mailing list rules were meant as a first stab at creating a nicer atmosphere for internals@ - not as a tool to limit people's ability to respectfully express themselves. Both are very useful. But they did not descend from heaven to rule everything (RFC process) nor to force everyone into submission (mailing list rules). Zeev P.S.: Regarding the 3rd thing you mentioned, the description of my position was completely off; If interested, you're very welcome to follow up with me off list, as I don't want to bug everyone with it.