new blog post for 2026 project goals

[nikomatsakis]

cc @tomassedovic

Rendered

[tomassedovic]

@traviscross @ehuss this is a Project Goals 2026 blog post. Can we please get it published asap?

[Kobzol]

I like the idea being described in the blog post, but I'd also note that now it seems really disconnected from the name "Project goal". Someone from outside the Project promises to do X, and that makes X a "Project Goal"? Kinda confusing :)

[nikomatsakis]

@Kobzol Let me make sure I understand what's confusing -- the concept of a project goal is this:

• contributors propose work they want to do which requires support from Rust teams
• the Rust teams agree that they want to see this and will support it

that is what constitutes a project goal. Are you saying that this is not well explained in the blog post (it sounds like the second part, in particular, may not be coming through) or are you saying that you don't understand why we can call this a project goal?

[Kobzol]

I realize now that I completely misread the blog post, sorry. When I read it for some reason I thought it's targeted towards people outside the Rust Project. I think that the "you, or your organization" part threw me off, and I also didn't notice that it's in Inside Rust. So it both seemed to me that the blog post shows a big change of trajectory for the Goals program 😆 And that the name Project Goal doesn't make sense anymore.

Now it makes much more sense, sorry. I still think that the word Goal is not the ideal term here (as noted before on Zulip), but that's not really relevant to this blog post anymore.

[nikomatsakis]

I realize now that I completely misread the blog post, sorry. When I read it for some reason I thought it's targeted towards people outside the Rust Project. I think that the "you, or your organization" part threw me off, and I also didn't notice that it's in Inside Rust. So it both seemed to me that the blog post shows a big change of trajectory for the Goals program 😆 And that the name Project Goal doesn't make sense anymore.

I mean, this is not wrong. It is targeted at people who want to contribute to Rust, with an emphasis on those who have not done so before but are thinking about it.

[nikomatsakis]

@ehuss I applied your suggestions -- but before I can merge I need an approving review I believe.

[Kobzol]

I mean, this is not wrong. It is targeted at people who want to contribute to Rust, with an emphasis on those who have not done so before but are thinking about it.

Hmm. I don't expect that someone new to contributing to Rust would be able to immediately start working on (usually quite ambitious) Project Goals.

But if you want to target also people outside the Project, then should this perhaps be on the main blog instead?

[nikomatsakis]

Yeah, I debated about it. I think it could go on either blog, it's a bit border-line. I consider the audience of "Inside Rust" to be "people interested in Rust development", but it might be a bit narrower ("people already involved in Rust development"). Let me ask a few of the people I am hoping to reach with this and get their take.

[nikomatsakis]

I'm just going to merge it on Inside Rust for now. I've got enough people to reach out to for this "trial run" regardless that I know would be good candidates. =)