ok, I'm going to be frank. I hate this way of making decisions. Doing it on IRC or the email list might be quick and dirty but it means that the decisions are not easy to understand, record or justify. I've asked half a dozen questions and none of them have been readily answered. Saying "that's what we decided" frankly isn't good enough. It's no way to learn from past mistakes, and easily descends into bickering - like we've seen just recently.
I suggest all decision making is done on the wiki. All past decisions need to be put up there - with explanations and justifications so they are open to challenge. All decisions should be affirmatively made and agreed.