Hi This is a subject I have discussed with several parties over the past year, and I meet the fact that someone has finally suggested it publicly with simultaneous relief and concern.
I see this move as having two primary effects, first to reduce the signal to noise ratio on this list, which will hopefully improve the list for those who use it to communicate on the future of the language, and those of use who primarily read it to be kept in the loop (like myself). I think this increase in efficacy would be good for those of you either working, or volunteering your time to improve the language used by millions. The second effect would be to make it harder for new people to join the team. Regardless of the alternatives available (some discussion list rarely touched by the core team, bug reports, blindly emailing people you've never met before on the core team, etc) I think we can admit that this would present an additional barrier to entry for people wishing to get involved in the language. I could be mistaken, but it looks to me as though the core team is shrinking, both in head count and in hours spent coding. People move on to new jobs, priorities change, etc. this is inevitable and I harbour no ill will (in fact you all have my thanks for your time). Making the list read only can help increase the efficiency of those still around, but how will new blood enter the fold? While I feel it is necessary to protect the time of the people improving the language, I don't think this is a step you can take until a path for joining this exclusive list is made clear, otherwise in a few years there might not be a core team left. Paul Reinheimer ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
