I'm highly disappointed in this 'decision', and would like for you to reconsider. I see the reasons you cite, but I feel like we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. Disagreements need not be feared, why not allow them to be aired publicly? That's a tenet of this open community. Allow names to be downvoted with reason during the proposal phase, and they'll organically fall-off from favor.
We had this problem when the entire community chose release names too. Objections to nominations are solicited, and need not be secret. Even this cycle there were publicly-aired complaints about the release name on this very list, despite no objections being raised during the nomination period. I seriously thought that "Zed" would be the least possibly offensive name, given that it is literally the name of the letter in much of the world. There were *two* completely separate and serious objections to the name from multiple people each.
Release names have always been a bonding factor. I've been happy to drum up contributor morale with our release names and the stories/anecdotes behind them.
Agreed that they were in the past, and that they should be. It doesn't feel that way anymore.
I do believe our current release naming process is a step out of the TC's perceived charter. There are many technical challenges that the TC is tackling, and coordinating a vote/slugfest about names isn't as important as those. As Allison suggests, we could seek help from the foundation to run the community voting and vetting for the release naming process - and expect the same level of transparency as the 4 opens that the OpenStack community espouses.
I'm totally fine with the foundation taking it over completely if that's what they want to do. My reasoning for wanting to do away with names is primarily that it has become more labor-intensive than beneficial for the TC, in my opinion. I have other lesser reasons too, but they're not as important. I'm sure everyone dutifully clicked on all of the links gmann provided, but let me just make sure you see this one: https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/governance/+/677747 "Let the foundation do it" didn't even make it to the final round of consideration the last time the process was considered :) --Dan