Development is being consciously moved to this model, because the devs
have realised that repelling the volunteers is a bad idea.
That's *great* news!
A lot of the community upset about every little thing
is just "why
wasn't I consulted?" [1] Sometimes this is appropriate and
reasonable, sometimes it really isn't.
I partially disagree here; the community are the people building Wikipedia -
so anything extensively modifying the social dynamics or interface is
something they are intimately interested in. To have it modified with
minimal notification.... I can understand why it leaves a bad taste in the
mouth of some.
Sure, whoever in this thread said "whatever discussion takes place someone
will always moan", but in this case it was basically announced "you;re
getting this new feature". It disgruntles editors that they appear to have
minimal input into what tools/changes the software gets.
I imagine this feeling is worse on the smaller projects who are desperate
for re-engineering of certain aspects of MW to suit their needs.
Tom