Re: [boost] Draft copy - Call for Submissions - CMake for Boost

Subject: Re: [boost] Draft copy - Call for Submissions - CMake for Boost
From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-10-19 00:40:17

On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 11:44 PM Robert Ramey via Boost
<boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> c) The name of the author of a submission will not be included in the
> submission.  Authors will be expected to take reasonable efforts to
> maintain his anonymity via a github repo without a real name assigned,
> anonymous, email address etc.  We understand that the nature of the
> submission and debate during subsequent review of the proposals.  Never
> the less we believe that anonymity can be mostly maintained. The the
> true identity of the author of the selected proposal will not be
> revealed until the selection is made.
>
> The motivation for this anonymity is to attract submitters who find the
> boost review process distressing, annoying and/or unpleasant. It should
> also address the concerns of those who beleive that by not being a
> "boost insider" they won't get fair consideration.  Boost is first and
> foremost a meritocracy.  We seek the very best in everything regardless
> of other considerations.

A quick reply to this particular part. I'm opposed to this anonymity
protocol and think that submitters should be *required* to come
forward and actively participate in the review. I think trying to
attract more submissions by relieving the authors from the review
process is terribly misguided and detrimental to both Boost and the
proposed submissions.

Let me be very clear about this. An author of a candidate build system
solution for Boost should be willing to accept responsibility for a
core component of our infrastructure. He should be willing to become
part of the community and embrace the practices we take, including the
reviews. The author should be willing to support the use cases we have
in 100+ libraries and also provide long-term support for the solution
in the future, should it be accepted. If an author is not willing to
participate in technical discussions about his submission from the
very start then I don't want to waste my time on reviewing it, let
alone using it. If an author submits a solution with no intention to
support it then I'm not interested in it. If this means no CMake
submissions at all then so be it - I would rather have zero CMake
support in Boost than a half-baked unsupported solution.