Feedback on proposal acceptances

This is tricky. An alternative would be to simply not acknowledge the volume of feedback on either side. Since reviews are not votes, perhaps making no mention of the weight of ayes and nays would be better, but I expect that would also lead to consternation from some reviewers when they don't agree with the decision.

We can also go about counting :heart:s on posts, and whether a heart on the review launch post counts as indication of being "in favor". We have been down this road before. The answer there is the same. The core team evaluates the substance of the arguments for and against, not the number of them.

This review is an interesting case because the proposal has a lot of popular support outside of Swift Evolution. Some well-known developers even pointed at the review thread and encouraged developers who might not normally post to evolution to voice their support.

If @chockenberry had not done this, it is quite possible that the against posts would have outweighed the for posts. If so, should we have not accepted the proposal? No, the outcome should have been the same. What matters is the arguments presented, not the volume of feedback. This is what the review manager weighs and reports back to the core team, and what drives the decision. Ultimately, the core team agreed with the strong case made by the proposer, and did not find the points made against sufficient compared to the benefits.

Despite the fact that it led to a number of "voting" posts, I'm also grateful to Craig for highlighting this proposal to a wider variety of potential evolution participants, increasing the diversity of opinions on the pros and cons. This touches on a final point on why proposals are not votes: participants in evolution are a self-selected group of people who dedicate their time discussing the evolution of the language, and are willing to engage in public discussion.* This is great, and we get immense value out of this community challenging and riffing on proposals. But whether this group is a true representation of the wider Swift community is unknown. Note I am not saying it is unrepresentative. We honestly do not know if it is – and maybe it doesn't matter. What matters is that reviews discussion flush out all of the things to consider about a proposal, good and bad, as well as surface alternatives that might be better, and help the core team decide what is the best thing for Swift going forward.

* a reminder to anyone who feels uncomfortable posting in public: if you want to give feedback on a proposal, you do not need to post it to the forums. The review manager will take feedback via DM or email as well, and incorporate it into the core team process. If that feedback affects the decision, they may ask to post it anonymously.

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