One thing this thread has illustrated for me is the power of fear when money is on the line: how quickly it spreads, how irrational it can be, and how abruptly small issues can get blown up to doomsday scenarios. Seeing this interplay of emotional reactions tells me we could be handling our relationship with you, the community, somewhat better.
I have seen this sequence of events repeat themselves like clockwork:
A change is proposed --> Uncertainty --> Fear
Naturally it follows that when a lot of changes are proposed or even merely discussed -- no matter the reason -- a lot of uncertainty will result, leading to a corresponding level of fear/panic.
To me, this suggests that proposed changes should be thoroughly discussed & vetted within the Darkcoin team before presenting them to the community. Proposed changes need to have survived rounds of internal debate before seeing the light of day here. And if changes are to be proposed, propose them strategically, and not all at once. Finally, I think the leadership needs to feel ok with making a larger proportion of decisions internally, as opposed to using the community as a decision making mechanism. The community doesn't want to be responsible for all of these decisions -- and often this approach leads to suboptimal decisions and increased confusion. I believe the community wants a leadership they can entrust important decisions to.
From the leadership's perspective, it's not easy to know when to solicit community opinion and when to keep a decision internal. I think that will come with time & experience. It's also not easy to know whether one has covered all the angles when making decisions internally. To address this, I would suggest the Darkcoin leadership could employ a sort of advisory board or think tank that it can consult for hashing out those tough decisions.
My 2 duffs.
Also FWIW I think the previous pages of discussion have been illuminating, and necessary. People tend to place far too much emphasis on the immediate effects of conflict & disagreement, when the reality is that this conflict exists because of underlying problems that need working out. Facing those problems head on is healthy, even if it can be painful -- short term pain for long term gain.
I'm sorry but I disagree. Ask yourself why we have faithfuls and new folks everyday who find the discussion refreshing. Then take a gander to dead coins like EAC and AIR coin.
For every uncertainty there will be an opposing voice. Hell the fact that the comunity watched as Evan, AlexGR, you, CHaositec, coins101, TanteStefana and anonymint were trading ideas on perfecting Darksend bought the coin so much points in reliability you don't even know. Do you remember that it was after all that we saw the massive 87 BTC buy wall on cryptsy?
People are waiting at the sidelines to plunge in once DARKSEND goes live and resorting to behind the scenes deliberation, the whole "inner circle" M.O will just split the community. You're dealing with volatile principles such as pure anonymity and the cons it brings so full transparency is the only way to go.