On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 11:41 AM, a user wrote:
I am not sure we ever met though I was participating to the last 4 ICFP and related workshop. I think that talking about * undisputed leadership * is going against Simon message who pledge for a community capacity to discuss freely and with respect any topics. As far as I remember what has been told about Paul Hudak (a potential leader for Haskell) when he passed away, Haskell is a languages build by a group of people, not a single undisputed leader ever, neither Paul nor Simon nor any John nor Phil, nor… Things should also be kept that way shouldn’t they ? Best regards,
(...)
Hi! Thanks for your email. I'm very happy you are an active member of the FP community. It's important for us to hold together. I do not think of Simon as a leader in terms of "boss" or "decision maker". Maybe it's easier to think in terms of respect. You cannot assume a position of respect. You can only gain respect by being a great person, and if a lot of people respect you then you might propose ideas (as Simon has here) and people are likely to follow them. This kind of leadership develops naturally and organically, as opposed to leadership that you are told to follow. It is my belief that a lot of people make note of what SPJ says because they respect him for who he is, rather than because he has installed himself. There is no hegemony to be had here. Simon has also shown on numerous occasions that he gives room to ideas that don't originate from him and he's a fervent supporter of people contributing their vision to GHC and Haskell, whether or not he has a say in the direction those things will go. (P.S. the user asked me to quote his off-list letter anonymously when reintroducing it to the mailing list)
cheater00 cheater00 <cheater00@gmail.com> wrote :
This kind of thing is why you're the undisputed leader of our community, Simon. Not one of us could come even close to saying this in the same manner. Kudos.