[Python-Dev] Re: [Idle-dev] Forward progress with full backward compatibility

[Tim Peters]

[Peter Funk]
> ...
> May be someone can invite you into 'python-dev'?  However the archives
> are open to anyone and writing to the list is also open to anybody.
> Only subscription is closed.  I don't know why.

The explanation is to be found at the very start of the list -- before it
became public <wink>.  The idea was to have a much smaller group than
c.l.py, and composed of people who had contributed non-trivial stuff to
Python's implementation.  Also a group that felt comfortable arguing with
each other (any heat you may perceive on this list is purely illusory
<wink -- but the mutual respect level here *is* sky high, and we count on
Guido's "subscription veto" to keep it that way>).

So the idea was definitely to discourage participation(!), but never to do
things in secret.  Keeping subscription closed has served its purposes
pretty well, despite that the only mechanism enforcing civility here is the
lack of an invitation.  Elitist social manipulation at its finest <wink>.