Waiting for Community

Godot Engine is an example of a open-source project which has quite convoluted governance model. If you go through all the circles of hell yourself, you may figure out that your understanding of Godot’s governance model keeps evolving the more you invest into Godot’s development as a contributor.

Typically, when a project doesn’t have a formal governance model documented, all open-source community-led project are assumed to be governed using the do-ocracy model.

For quite a long time, Godot didn’t have its governance model documented, until community urged Godot leadership to document it. But as you’ll find out, even the documented governance model still doesn’t reflect its real governance. The mere fact that it took Godot leadership seven years to write down their governance model suggests that their governance has been do-ocratic all this time at the very least. Even then, it’s not that simple.

This is what Godot leadership typically says and portraits (rhetoric):

• To users: “Community is in charge, everything is transparent and democratic”
• To contributors: “Development is solely based on trust, not meritocracy nor democracy”

The following chapters are going to answer the question whether Godot is community-driven and what kind of governance model it follows.