Anyone who won't discriminate against others for their politics would be an improvement, because that's not what's been happening in many core projects.
I am not suggesting Jeremy Evans simply because of politics. I think he's very underrated in the community and the work he does is incredible. Having interacted with him a number of times, he's been really helpful and pleasant. I think those qualities make him a good candidate.
I agree. He has scolded me before though, for submitting code he didn't like the look of. Felt a tad harsh at the time, that's the kind of thing that puts people off contributing. However, he's a better programmer than me so if he didn't like it he's probably right. Could improve his bedside manner a bit though. I'm sure others have said that about me too, perhaps I'm a hypocrite.
Regardless of that, anyone who doesn't discriminate against others for their politics would be an improvement.
Edit: a improvement on the other westerners in the core team who might be touted as the next benevolent dictator, as I doubt that benevolence would maintain.
Of course. He actually completely rewrote the code and still merged it in, so I got what I wanted. We've all had such experiences, I'm sure, but I was making the point that different people can have different experiences - I've had straightforward chats with Evan too. I'm sure people have had super nice and welcoming experiences with DHH too.
Should we not include the negative ones for one person and the positive ones for another?
I did not include any negative or positive about DHH since I have never interacted with him. He is unimportant to Ruby compared to Evans other than for historical reasons. Evans is a guy who has done a ton and still does a ton in the Ruby community.
I use Sequel far more than Rails, but their relative importance is entirely different, and I suspect Ruby would be still be a minority language if Rails had not happened. Even if we take into account the numerous other contributions anyone could make, could they make up for or match Rails' impact? Doubtful. Hence, I find your claims a stretch.
If Evans were to purge the politics from contributions to the community, then he would be a fine benevolent dictator, and would manage something Matz has failed with (amongst English speaking contributors, at least). That would probably require purging some of the people (as far as possible), as happened recently. Could he do that?
[0] - https://github.com/jeremyevans