A few updates...

From: David Sankel (camior_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-04-01 21:40:22

Hi all,

I have a few updates regarding Boost organization that I wanted to share
with the wider community.

First, as many of you are already aware, Vinnie Falco, Rene Rivera, and
others from the C++ Alliance have set up a rival Boost website (boost.io
vs. boost.org), Boost Twitter account (@BoostLibraries
vs. @Boost_Libraries), and LinkedIn account. As this behavior is gravely
injurious to the Boost community and amounts to a hostile takeover attempt,
it has been decided to ban these individuals from the Boost mailing list
for the foreseeable future. Libraries owned by these individuals will be
removed from the main Boost distribution in future releases unless others
volunteer to continue their maintenance. Additionally, we have initiated
legal action to get these false Internet assets taken down under common
trademark law. I hope with these steps we will finally put behind us the
unfortunate events of the past few months.

Second, we have decided to retire the Boost mailing list in favor of
discord.boost.org to attract a newer demographic of Boost users and
developers who prefer this medium to legacy mailing lists. The transition
will not be immediate, but we hope to have it complete by April 1, 2025. I
know some of you have been reluctant to this kind of change, but as Roy T
Bennett once said, "change begins at the end of your comfort zone."

Third, I am very pleased to announce that Microsoft has given the Boost
Foundation a $850,000 grant as part of their Rust initiative. These funds
will be used primarily to port Boost libraries to the Rust programming
language. We will begin by porting recent additions to Boost, such as
Boost.Parser, since some of the older libraries (e.g. Boost.SmartPtr)
already have equivalents in the Rust standard library. The Boost community
is invited to provide additional input as to the priority of various
conversions.

Finally, and with some regret, I must share the news that the Boost
Foundation will be dissolving itself per popular request from Boost
developers considering it (incorrectly) be concerned with only the C++Now
conference. The Boost Foundation's assets will be held under trust by
Robert Ramey and Niall Douglas until more appropriate governance is built.

That's all for now. I hope y'all have a great week!

-- David Sankel