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Rust isn't the only community that's at risk of getting coopted by corporate sponsors. The PostgreSQL core team now has an explicit policy that no single company employs more than half its members -- but to follow it, last year, they had to expand membership (after companies employing 50% of the prior core team merged, and they didn't want to boot anyone).

https://postgresql.fund/blog/is-it-time-to-modernize-postgre...




The Python Software Foundation has also been addressing this issue recently.

This year they changed their bylaws to say that no more than a quarter of the directors may share an affiliation.

https://github.com/VanL/psf-bylaws/compare/9666a3a397c30fa7c...

(As far as I can make out, previously they just said that directors had to make their affiliation publicly known.)


Oddly enough, the post you linked to is from the blog of Fundación PostgreSQL, which is also being discussed on HN today due to a dispute with the PostgreSQL core team:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28512274


Charming. Just grabbed the first link that described the issue. But yeah, the Spanish organization seems... confused at best regarding its own role.


Here is the full response from Álvaro Hernández at Fundación PostgreSQL:

https://postgresql.fund/blog/postgres-core-team-attacks-post...


It's worth noting that this has been an informal rule for over 20 years, the organisations in question are Postgres specific specialists and the developers in question have long histories with the project. I don't think it's quite the same to be honest.


the situation is not the same, but the familiar corporate pressures expected to emerge and the reasons for the rule are the same: it bears scrutiny and oversight. If an erosion of trust in a group like this is not something to worry about, what is?


The worry is that "If my livelihood, and that of those whom I work with every day, were in jeopardy, I would be tempted to use my authority for the good of my company over the good of the broader user base."

Which... I find it hard to imagine a random selection of individuals, the majority of which wouldn't be susceptible to that. Everyone has to eat, and there are always catastrophes in business eventually.


Honestly that's also sort of a sad statement on the current state of affairs as far as corporate consolidation goes these days.


That's a decent balacing mechanism as a starting base. Your link raises interesting points though.




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