In Response to Mr. Falco's June 2024 Letter

From: Kristen Shaker (kristen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-06-26 22:32:58

Hello Boost Community,

My name is Kristen. Admittedly, I am not the most active participant on the
boost mailing list. However, I do serve on the Boost Foundation Board of
Directors as Board Chair. It is lovely to e-meet you; Hopefully I'll have
the opportunity to get to know you better during the course of my tenure.

Recently, we became aware of a letter that was circulated to the Boost
developer community. The Boost Foundation Board of Directors have penned
the following note in response to that letter.

_____________________________________

Dear Boost Community Members,

Recently, Mr. Falco distributed a letter indicating intent to a) rescind
his offer of hosting a new boost.org website, b) retract his agreement to
retire the @BoostLibraries account on X in favor of the established
@Boost_Libraries, c) create a new set of Boost mailing lists on boost.io,
and d) attempt to purchase the boost.org domain name from Beman Dawes’s
estate. While we are surprised and saddened by this turn of events, we
agree with Mr. Falco that cutting ties between the C++ Alliance and the
Boost Foundation is in everyone’s best interests. That being said, we want
to acknowledge Mr. Falco and his employees’ tremendous contributions toward
a modernized Boost website and significant investment in maintaining and
extending the Boost Libraries.

On March 28th, 2024, the Foundation voted to point the boost.org domain
name at Mr. Falco’s new site. Given that we had every intention to move
forward we were shocked to hear that Mr Falco felt we were “holding [his]
work hostage.”

The Boost Foundation was entirely unaware of Mr. Falco’s attempts to
purchase the boost.org domain name. We were not consulted until it became
clear to Mr. Falco that to proceed with the transaction, he would need the
login credentials for the domain name provider. At that point, Mr. Falco
did contact a board member requesting the credentials, which were not
provided to him.

We were hesitant to discuss these events publicly, but since Mr. Falco has
openly described his attempts to purchase the boost.org domain name, this
public response seems appropriate. The fact that he took these steps
without coordinating with—or even notifying— the Boost Foundation, has
shaken our confidence in the Alliance and Mr. Falco.

While we very much appreciate Mr. Falco's financial investment, nonprofits
like Boost are not—nor should they be—beholden to their largest financial
contributors. We are committed to continuing to foster a collaborative
environment where C++ developers can contribute great ideas to the open
source community. Boost's consensus-based process is not always the fastest
way to the best result, but it is consistent with that commitment.
Ideally,  Mr. Falco would be interested in contributing financially to a
worthy cause without assuming control over the Libraries, but his letter
indicates otherwise. Therefore, we agree with Mr. Falco’s assessment that
there is no viable path forward for further coordination between The C++
Alliance and The Boost Foundation. We do, however, wish Mr. Falco and the
Alliance all the best in their continued efforts to improve the C++
ecosystem.

Sincerely,

The Boost Foundation Board of Directors