FOSS is rarely coherent, open source is diffuse and messy by nature - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
open source development is sadly often not efficient or welcoming, I’m saying this as someone who’s entire career has been in and around open source in some way, with easily 10 000+ hours of unpaid, unmanaged, often actively discouraged work clocked across several ecosystems, notably Drupal, then clojure(script) and now crypto
nobody wants it to be shitty, or to be rude, or short, or overworked… on the whole everyone generally wants a good experience for themselves and others, FOSS contributors are some of the most idealistic, motivated, optimistic people i’ve met, and most large open source projects are desperate for a smoother learning curve and the next generation of participants to find their way - it’s the same desires and tensions here as everywhere else
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXgbV7jB_Bc from around 41:00 feels relevant to me here - specifically the idea of the “ambiguous collective”
so let’s define who “we” is when you say “we should…”
what I hear when you say “there should be a dedicated person onboarding new people” I hear “I am volunteering to onboard new people every day for the next 2-3 years”
what I hear when you say “we should have a plan for new developers” I hear “I am going to make, execute and promote a plan for new developers”
this is how i contextualize my interactions with all the people listed above, and many others i didn’t list out by name, it’s the only way I know that open source can possibly work over the long haul - the conversation always starts at “I am willing/going to do this”
when you say “are you acting as a DAO” it sounds more like you’re saying “I want someone else to do (or pay for) these things” - the short answer to which is no, “they” probably won’t, even if “we” all agree it would be great for those things to exist/happen