As a part of the Reason community I have to say that an open process is by no means an integral part of the Reason or Reason React project (except for few instances when the public opinion was consulted).
Reason has grown because of its Discord channel and Reason’s creators who burned half of their productive time to respond to simple and repetitive questions. In another words it’s a maniacal focus on new people and people who can convert from javascript (look syntax).
Currently the Reason community is a self propelling machine powered by mostly novice people who mutually help each other. There’s definitely something to the Reason community but it’s not openness. I’d say it’s more patience of the people who started it and their incredible responsiveness who set the tone.
That said, in general hard tasks (like Bucklescript) lack contributors (a similar situation).
I believe this is right. I am not sure if people who maintain this forum have such experience. Matter of fact one of the hardest things is separating such mostly unproductive and noisy discussions from ones that can have substance. I’d say that what should be a common practice is forcefully moving discussions which get too off topic into new threads. This sub-thread for instance could be called “I want more and better libraries”. “What you tolerate is what you become.”