[Ironruby-core] Public versus private discussion and community momentum

[Charles Oliver Nutter]

M. David Peterson wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:32:27 -0600, Curt Hagenlocher  
> <curt at hagenlocher.org> wrote:
> 
>>> I know there's always thoughts about secrecy and springing the next big
>>> software surprise on the world when working at Microsoft, but secrecy is
>>> poison to an OSS community.
> 
>> does not speak well for his intentions.  But if you remove this one  
>> sentence, his concerns seem pretty reasonable.
> 
> Agreed. In fact it was that exact phrase that caused me to look at the  
> entire message with shades of doubt.  Maybe his intentions were legit.   
> But with that paragraph in place I have my doubts.

I don't fault Microsoft in any way for wanting to have some surprises; 
that specifically is not any reason for concern. Hell, I have a few 
surprises I like to/plan to spring and we're a completely open project. 
But the tendency to keep things behind closed doors is antithetical to 
the goals of an open project and community. And closed, private 
conversations *are* poison to a community that wants to feel included 
and appreciated.

If that's not happening, that's great, honestly. I just want to bring it 
up as a possible concern. I wouldn't be on this list if I weren't 
interested in seeing how the IronRuby dev/design process is going.

- Charlie