Tough to be the SC in this one

You didn't say "you seem to be talking past each other." You said:

> There is the third role in that, and this is what gnu_lorien seems to identify with
> I think the current US slang for that is "Karen",

I find it very hard to believe that you didn't intend the use of this term as an insult. Your overall tone is combative enough that it's hard to give you the benefit of the doubt.

> I could not care less whether you consider my impression of your motivation insulting (and I strongly suspect that you could not care less whether I would be insulted by your characterization of my motives)

You have a pretty low subscriber number, so I presume you also have some eminence in these communities. I am regularly saddened and let down when I find skilled people that have no consideration whatsoever for how they talk to others. Part of why you don't see me post on Linux mailing lists is because of how acceptable it is to be a jerk, and then pretend like you don't understand you were being a jerk.

> And yes, you do come across as somebody whose primary concern is fear of Those Scary People (in this case, somebody who presumably might get away with something you disapprove of due to their reputation in their community) and fervent wish to see The Authority (SC, in this case) demonstrate that such fears are unfounded.

This description is confusing enough to me that I'm not really sure that's even what you claimed I believed originally. It seems like what you're saying is that I'm the type of person who prefers a forum with moderators. Yes, that is true. Without moderators the only way to really redress your grievances is to leave the forum entirely. The SC would rather be more inclusive and give participants options other than simply abandoning that part of the python community entirely when somebody is generating grievances. This isn't about some fear that somebody got away with something, it's about the very real participatory chilling effect that misbehaving core people have on a community.

I'm taking the position in support of the SC on some level because I've been in their shoes before many times when running social organizations. A lot of the defenses I've seen of Tim Peters just seem untenable and like they're written by somebody who has never really faced the challenges of organizational management like this. What I've been trying to do is present examples and arguments in hopes of helping people break out of, what seems to me, to be a mental lock-in that they don't believe Tim Peters could have done *anything* worthy of a suspension. Unfortunately all of our heroes may disappoint us in this regard.