Sometimes, open-source projects need an enlightened despot.
On Monday, a small change was made in Django, a popular open-source software framework. The change didn’t alter any code: It struck a paragraph from a tiny text file titled “committers” that described the purpose and provenance of the software bundle.
In Github—a website that helps store and manage the Django codebase—the change got a short, cryptic title: Removed BDFLs section from docs/internals/committers.txt.
But in that moment, Django as a community grew up a little bit. Django had lost its Benevolent Dictators for Life.
.. It runs some or all of the websites for Rdio, Instagram, and Pinterest.