Good riddance, this never made sense to me. By the lack of interest/support it appears I'm not the only one.

Creating an initiative without buy-in to get more buy-in to an initiative where you feel you don't have buy-in is quite ironic. There wasn't enough buy-in, now the two driving it are stepping away. Good for them (no sarcasm, they're investing their energy elsewhere).

Is there a need for this? Maybe. I appreciate their efforts, but there are better ways to approach it. This time and energy are better spent working with the core team to raise these issues and garner support. I'd probably start with Josepha--she's quite reasonable.

We all may not agree, but the fact that we all care about the future of WordPress is enough common ground to start with. From the outside approaches like WP Governance Project always felt too bit self-important to be effective.

For all of the folks complaining: it's open source. Those who contribute decide. Want more influence? Start contributing. Invest the years that others have in improving the project, establish yourself and you will have a voice. That's how these communities work. It's not perfect, but it tends to work. Think you know a better way? Get influence, get buy-in, then go make it happen.