Dann B. Smith wrote:
First: No one has a RIGHT to anything. Mailing lists, archives, whatever. You only have whatever options the originators of IP or code decide to give.
Correct
Second: For a fully open source project, private lists are Bad News. While they do allow sensitive ideas to be discussed in a more informal setting, they also give the options to have high-level decisions to be made without any community support. I've seen it saidf in this list that the "private" list developers talk abut things that don't affect other developers. WRONG! Anything that the "primary" developers talk about affects the entire development community. Otherwise, there's no reason to duscuss it at all.
Incorrect. MANY of those on the private list will not countenance high-level decisions being made. The list was created specifically for purposes of performing the auditing without exposing anybody to any more legal trouble (if any) than necessary.
Fourth: Re: dirty laundry. This is almost a non-starter. Yes, some things were said that caused a bit of an uproar. Yes, the project is being held up in some respects. On the other hand, we have enough people here who care enough to give voice to their opinions AND who care enough to see the project succeed that the idea that "dirty laundry" being aired in public being a bad thing is absurd. The results say otherwise. Politics has NO place in an engineering project. None. Ever. Don't let the idea of politics creep in and kill an otherwise wonderful thing.
Those of you who are not active developers do not have all the information on what has happened. You don't know all the dirty laundry, and don't need to know. You shouldn't speculate on what effect it will have on the project when you don't know what it is.