From: Mark Friedenbach <mark@friedenbach•org>
To: Mike Hearn <mike@plan99•net>,
Bitcoin Development <bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Concerns Regarding Threats by a Developer to Remove Commit Access from Other Developers
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 08:03:01 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAOG=w-sWimZTJe=4gCvC5R7SAEK+Nvo-hZtM7xC-bBQd0pG3mw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CANEZrP2iMXeL-5zyE2cvoyNRakhZbQfLXORZ2AhqEATQE-KjAQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 6:31 AM, Mike Hearn <mike@plan99•net> wrote:
> The first issue is how are decisions made in Bitcoin Core? I struggle to
> explain this to others because I don't understand it myself. Is it a vote
> of people with commit access? Is it a 100% agreement of "core developers"
> and if so, who are these people? Is it "whoever reverts the change last"?
> Could I write down in a document a precise description of how decisions are
> made? No, and that's been a fairly frustrating problem for a long time.
>
There is a quote from United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to
describe his threshold test for obscenity which is relevant here: "I know
it when I see it."
It is hard certainly, and perhaps even impossible to write down a system of
rules that is used to resolve every dispute among core developers. But that
doesn't mean it isn't obvious to all the participants what is going on. If
a contentious change is proposed, and if after sufficient debate there are
still members of the technical community with reasoned, comprehensible
objections who are not merely being obstinate in the views -- a neutral
observer would agree that their concerns have not been met -- then there is
a lack of consensus.
If there was some sort of formal process however, the system wouldn't work.
Rules can be gamed, and if you add rules to a process then that process can
be gamed. Instead we all have a reasonable understanding of what "technical
consensus" is, and we all know it when we see it. Where we do not see it,
we do not proceed.
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2015-06-18 15:03 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 60+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2015-06-18 8:54 odinn
2015-06-18 10:00 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-18 11:14 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
2015-06-18 11:47 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
2015-06-18 13:36 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-18 15:58 ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-06-18 12:29 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-06-18 12:50 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
2015-06-18 12:56 ` Benjamin
2015-06-18 13:49 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-18 14:05 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
2015-06-18 14:16 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-18 14:53 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-06-18 14:56 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-06-18 15:13 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-06-18 14:53 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-06-18 16:07 ` justusranvier
2015-06-18 16:28 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-06-18 17:04 ` justusranvier
2015-06-18 17:42 ` Alex Morcos
2015-06-18 18:01 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-06-18 18:23 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-06-18 18:44 ` Alex Morcos
2015-06-18 18:49 ` Jorge Timón
2015-06-18 19:31 ` Ross Nicoll
2015-06-18 21:42 ` Matt Whitlock
2015-06-18 21:49 ` Mark Friedenbach
2015-06-18 21:58 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-06-18 22:33 ` Mark Friedenbach
2015-06-18 22:52 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-06-18 23:25 ` odinn
2015-06-18 23:16 ` Ross Nicoll
2015-06-19 0:57 ` Chris Pacia
2015-06-19 5:59 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-06-19 9:37 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-19 9:53 ` Benjamin
2015-06-19 10:08 ` GC
2015-06-19 10:19 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-19 10:52 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-06-19 11:31 ` Jorge Timón
2015-06-19 12:26 ` GC
2015-06-19 11:48 ` Brooks Boyd
2015-06-21 14:45 ` Owen Gunden
2015-06-18 21:55 ` Ross Nicoll
2015-06-18 19:24 ` Matt Corallo
2015-06-18 19:32 ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-06-18 12:38 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-06-18 13:31 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-18 13:50 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-06-18 15:03 ` Mark Friedenbach [this message]
2015-06-18 15:30 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-06-18 15:46 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
2015-06-18 16:05 ` Mike Hearn
2015-06-18 16:20 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
2015-06-18 22:49 ` odinn
2015-06-18 16:11 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-06-18 11:41 ` Lawrence Nahum
2015-06-18 14:33 ` Bryan Bishop
2015-06-18 18:09 ` Melvin Carvalho
2015-06-18 22:10 ` odinn
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