Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin Core maintainers and communication on merge decisions

From: Michael Folkson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 May 2023 17:22:37 +0000

> Blocking Vasil was discussed on a similar GitHub PR. Whether or not one agrees or disagrees, the same process is being used. Anyone can NACK and give a reason for Russ as well.

With respect Steve the process for Vasil was keeping Vasil's PR open for up to 5 months with zero NACKs and two maintainers refusing to engage on why it wasn't being merged or what it needed for it to be merged. Followed by a later justification for blocking it that they've refused to discuss whether it applies to Russ.

The process for Russ was the maintainers deciding privately there was a need for a maintainer "who understood our interfaces and modularization efforts well" and his PR was merged within 2 days.

If that's the same process to you I don't know what to say. We have different perspectives on what constitutes a decision process.

(I'm sure this is clear but just to reiterate in case it isn't none of this is a criticism of Russ.)

Thanks
Michael

--
Michael Folkson
Email: michaelfolkson at [protonmail.com](http://protonmail.com/)
GPG: A2CF5D71603C92010659818D2A75D601B23FEE0F

Learn about Bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/@portofbitcoin

------- Original Message -------
On Wednesday, May 10th, 2023 at 17:36, Steve Lee <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Blocking Vasil was discussed on a similar GitHub PR. Whether or not one agrees or disagrees, the same process is being used. Anyone can NACK and give a reason for Russ as well.
>
> On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 8:55 AM Michael Folkson <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Steve
>>
>>> Isn't this as simple as anyone (in particular Core project contributors) can express their view in this PR?https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/27604
>>
>> Nope. The extent to which the rationale for blocking Vasil as a maintainer applies or doesn't apply to ryanofsky (or future potential maintainers) isn't discussed. From now on the precedent is proposed maintainers can be blocked for unknown and/or potentially inconsistent reasons by the existing maintainers.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Michael
>>
>> --
>> Michael Folkson
>> Email: michaelfolkson at [protonmail.com](http://protonmail.com/)
>> GPG: A2CF5D71603C92010659818D2A75D601B23FEE0F
>>
>> Learn about Bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/@portofbitcoin
>>
>> ------- Original Message -------
>> On Wednesday, May 10th, 2023 at 03:44, Steve Lee via bitcoin-dev <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>>> Isn't this as simple as anyone (in particular Core project contributors) can express their view in this PR? https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/27604
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 8, 2023 at 5:03 AM Bryan Bishop via bitcoin-dev <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 12:36 PM David A. Harding via bitcoin-dev <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2023-05-06 21:03, Michael Folkson via bitcoin-dev wrote:
>>>>>> Essentially my concern is going forward current maintainers will
>>>>>> decide which proposed new maintainers to add and which to block.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is how a large percentage of organizations are run. The current
>>>>> members of a board or other governance group choose who will become a
>>>>> new board member.
>>>>
>>>> Yes but it's unrelated to what Bitcoin Core is-- a volunteer project of independent contributors merging different pull requests or patches. The github controls are merely because that is how github works. There is also a secondary issue of people tending to confuse Bitcoin Core with the bitcoin protocol in general:
>>>> https://blog.lopp.net/who-controls-bitcoin-core/
>>>> https://medium.com/@bergealex4/the-tao-of-bitcoin-development-ff093c6155cd
>>>> https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/a-primer-on-bitcoin-governance-or-why-developers-aren-t-in-charge-of-the-protocol-1473270427
>>>>
>>>> - Bryan
>>>> https://twitter.com/kanzure
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>>>> [email-masked]
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