it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me

Disclaimer: I don't use Fedora nor am I involved in this in any way, but I've seen similar situations unfold elsewhere. Enforcement action may be well-intentioned, but the (collateral) damage can be huge.

> I am also disappointed by how some FESCo members' efforts (including mine) to calm the waters have been received on the mailing list, and were often just interpreted in the worst possible way: "we are working on providing more details" is not enough, "we cannot share everything yet" results in being accused of backroom deals, but actually mentioning *why* it's not as easy as just un-marking the FESCo tickets as "private" is somehow even worse.

Try to take a birds-eye view on this: Some people in power make a decision, announce and enforce it. At the time of announcement/enforcement, they are not providing detailed reasoning nor transparency. People not in power fill the information vacuum with the explanation they think is most likely and start getting angry. People in power are still not providing transparency for reasons which can't be verified either. People not in power start getting angrier.

Something along the lines of "Trust us, we did the right thing, but we can't tell you our reasons (yet)" may be intended to calm the waters, but the only situation where this can even remotely work is parents taking care of very young children. If grown-up people realize they are treated like children, they get even angrier.

With adults, it's just politics. If elected officials can't justify their actions, the electorate will complain. Some officials have figured out that apologies go a long way in getting re-elected.

> I get that people are disappointed or even angry, but this looks like a situation in which *no* answer would satisfy some commenters on the mailing list.

A possible answer which may satisfy some commenters: an apology and a retraction of the decision until the reasoning can be made public completely.

Side note: If there is a process which may result in disciplining a person, that process should also afford at least a robust set of protections for the defendant. That's something which quite a few projects are lacking.