Yes, but the soft fork discussions began a few days after the first blog post.
I have no real description for a "frequent maintainer", so maybe my wording was incorrect there.
I simply meant someone who contributes to the project often, but I don't have a concrete description for you considering "often" could also be subjective.
We have a list of maintainers, not all of whom can merge, so I apologize for getting this terminology incorrect.
I have usually referred to frequent contributors as maintainers interchangeably, but I am glad to have it clarified.
I have no real description for a "frequent maintainer", so maybe my wording was incorrect there.
I simply meant someone who contributes to the project often, but I don't have a concrete description for you considering "often" could also be subjective.