The NetBeans proposal (among many others in the past) has demonstrated a significant "problem" with trying to establish an appropriate list of initial committers. There are many people that want to be on, for various reasons. Because they are committers, recent or historic. Or they want the "prestige" to be there. Some people believe they "deserve" to be on the list. etc etc
Establishing the list is particularly difficult for large and old communities. But. What if we just said "no such list" ? This will shift the initial voting of committers upon the Champion/Mentors who will construct the entirety of the PPMC. But hey: aren't they supposed to be involved? Aren't they supposed to demonstrate how to earn merit, and the committership that results? This would also solve the problem of initial committers that have not established any merit whatsoever. We've had many situations where people simply add themselves to the list. Why? Cuz they chose to do so. It is sort of silently allowed for IPMC members to add themselves. "I wanna join!" BAM. It happens. So yeah. Radical thought: NO initial list. The PPMC is just the Champion + Mentors. They will build the committers and PPMC according to merit. (note: this could be *very* fast for a particular few highly-engaged with bringing the project to the ASF) ??? Cheers, -g
