On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 3:35 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
A pattern we see over and over is that the developers talk at length about what they're working on in several venues, then it's released and people claiming to speak for the community claim they were not adequately consulted. Pretty much no matter what steps were taken to do so, and what new steps are taken to do so. Because there's always someone who claims their own lack of interest is someone else's fault.
Talking in several venues about what one is doing cannot be considered consensus building. Actually it is the opposite, because it is an extrinsic change and as such it cannot be appropriated by any ad-hoc community. Even worse, it gives developers the wrong impression that they are working under general approval, when actually they might be communicating only with the people that normally would accept their project, but not the ones that normally would reject it.
It is of course impossible to involve everyone, but the more voices are included the better represented will be the interests of the ones that are not present.
Cheers, Micru