🆕 blog!
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🆕 blog! “The Peaceful Transfer of Power in Open Source Projects”
Most of the people who run Open Source projects are mortal. Recent history shows us that they will all eventually die, or get bored, or win the lottery, or get sick, or be conscripted, or lose their mind.
If you've ever visited a foreign country's national history museum, I…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/11/the-peaceful-transfer-of-power-in-open-source-projects/
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#BDFL #mastodon #OpenSource #oss -
undefined evan@cosocial.ca shared this topic
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🆕 blog! “The Peaceful Transfer of Power in Open Source Projects”
Most of the people who run Open Source projects are mortal. Recent history shows us that they will all eventually die, or get bored, or win the lottery, or get sick, or be conscripted, or lose their mind.
If you've ever visited a foreign country's national history museum, I…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/11/the-peaceful-transfer-of-power-in-open-source-projects/
⸻
#BDFL #mastodon #OpenSource #oss@Edent "If you've ever visited a foreign country's national history museum, I guarantee you've read this little snippet: ..."
"Foreign"?!?!? Sir, you live in the UK. Wars of succession are the national sport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_British_throne
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@Edent "If you've ever visited a foreign country's national history museum, I guarantee you've read this little snippet: ..."
"Foreign"?!?!? Sir, you live in the UK. Wars of succession are the national sport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_British_throne
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@Edent "If you've ever visited a foreign country's national history museum, I guarantee you've read this little snippet: ..."
"Foreign"?!?!? Sir, you live in the UK. Wars of succession are the national sport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_British_throne
@evan indeed! But people rarely visit their own country's museum having had all of that forced into them at school.
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@otfrom @Edent yes, definitely the same monarch!
My point was that one does not have to go overseas from the UK to find historical placards commemorating a war of succession.
It's interesting to ask if we have any such museum displays in Canada! I don't think there's been a war of succession in our monarchy since Confederation. Almost definitely not on Canadian soil.
But maybe earlier...?
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@otfrom @Edent yes, definitely the same monarch!
My point was that one does not have to go overseas from the UK to find historical placards commemorating a war of succession.
It's interesting to ask if we have any such museum displays in Canada! I don't think there's been a war of succession in our monarchy since Confederation. Almost definitely not on Canadian soil.
But maybe earlier...?
@otfrom @Edent so, I'd rule out The Anarchy, the Wars of the Roses and so on, since they occurred before Canada was discovered by Europeans.
The only contested succession I can think of during Canada's time as a colony was the Jacobite rebellions, and there doesn't seem to have been any battles on this side of the Atlantic.
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@otfrom @Edent so, I'd rule out The Anarchy, the Wars of the Roses and so on, since they occurred before Canada was discovered by Europeans.
The only contested succession I can think of during Canada's time as a colony was the Jacobite rebellions, and there doesn't seem to have been any battles on this side of the Atlantic.
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@otfrom @Edent I think the closest one can come to wars of succession in Canada would be disputed succession in Indigenous nations. I don't know enough about indigenous political structures to say whether there was ever a clear monarchy equivalent among any of our First Nations and if so, how succession worked. But that's the closest "maybe" I can come up with.
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@evan indeed! But people rarely visit their own country's museum having had all of that forced into them at school.
@Edent good point! As someone who went to American public schools, my knowledge of British internecine warfare was pretty spotty. Our coverage of European history basically goes something like:
- the ancient Greeks and Romans were good!
- the Middle Ages were *bad*
- the Renaissance, however, was good!
- one good thing about the Renaissance was discovering America, which was *very* good
- now, let's leave all that junk behind and talk about America -
@Edent good point! As someone who went to American public schools, my knowledge of British internecine warfare was pretty spotty. Our coverage of European history basically goes something like:
- the ancient Greeks and Romans were good!
- the Middle Ages were *bad*
- the Renaissance, however, was good!
- one good thing about the Renaissance was discovering America, which was *very* good
- now, let's leave all that junk behind and talk about America@Edent if you get into the 20th century, it can sometimes get as far as:
- Meanwhile, back in Europe, things had really gone off the rails! Fortunately, America came in to fix it!
- Then it went *really* bad! So we had to fix it again!
- Now, we just fix everything, and it's better for everyone. The end! -
@Edent if you get into the 20th century, it can sometimes get as far as:
- Meanwhile, back in Europe, things had really gone off the rails! Fortunately, America came in to fix it!
- Then it went *really* bad! So we had to fix it again!
- Now, we just fix everything, and it's better for everyone. The end!@evan What did you think about the blog post, Evan 😆
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@Edent if you get into the 20th century, it can sometimes get as far as:
- Meanwhile, back in Europe, things had really gone off the rails! Fortunately, America came in to fix it!
- Then it went *really* bad! So we had to fix it again!
- Now, we just fix everything, and it's better for everyone. The end!@Edent all of which is a prelude to saying that the History of England Podcast is great for people like me who don't know the difference between a Plantagenet, a Rump Parliament and a peasant revolt.
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@evan What did you think about the blog post, Evan 😆
@Edent I didn't finish the first paragraph
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@Edent I didn't finish the first paragraph
@Edent however, you didn't make a note on the very unique part of this change, which is that Gargron basically got back wages for his years of work on Mastodon. That's extremely unusual; Open Source developers often only have a chance to maybe someday get a submarket full-time job supporting their project (and usually to add Enterprise features). I hope it represents a change in that direction too.
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@Edent however, you didn't make a note on the very unique part of this change, which is that Gargron basically got back wages for his years of work on Mastodon. That's extremely unusual; Open Source developers often only have a chance to maybe someday get a submarket full-time job supporting their project (and usually to add Enterprise features). I hope it represents a change in that direction too.
@Edent and, also, I'm sorry for getting distracted and excited about British history. It's kind of toxic to change the subject in the comments.