[tmgehrmann]

Be aware, however, that the inner circle will use you, take your contributions, and, if you develop own opinions, publicly ban and defame you without any possibility of setting any record straight.

pyhton-dev is a corporate shark tank where only personalities and employer matter (good code or ideas are optional).

[pas]

That's a pretty strong claim, (and since most inner circles are hard to get into, I even assume it's not without any basis in reality), yet could you please provide some exhibits to support it?

[0x1242149]

The inner circle emerged after GvR resigned. It largely consists of people who haven't contributed that much to Python3 (sometimes nothing at all in terms of code).

The members occupy different chairs in the PSF, Steering Council and the all-powerful CoC troika. They rotate, sometimes skip one election and then come back.

Their latest achievement is the banning of Tim Peters and others:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41234180

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41385546

Tim Peters is just the tip of the iceberg. Many bans are private, intimidation is private.

Steering council members can insult, bully and mock others without any CoC consequences for themselves and keep getting elected. That is how you know that they are in the inner circle.

[albertzeyer]

That's not at all my experience. I contributed often to CPython by filling many issues and also one PR, and the whole process was very reasonable.

[tsnewman]

The issue is whether the dominant people in a project are still reasonable after your 100th PR!

Being nice to new people is a standard tactic for any divide-and-conquer organization. The politicians get more followers and get free positive comments on the internet that drown out criticism. The politicians don't have to work (some of them literally never did in CPython) and can pose as leaders and managers.