This is a brief post to answer some of the common questions about Ayo (a fork of Node.js), to cut down on the noise in #Node.js. Keep in mind that I'm in no way associated with Ayo, this is just an attempt to cover some of the frequent questions.
Important note: Be aware that discussion about the political reasons behind the Ayo fork is considered off-topic in the #Node.js channel, as that channel is primarily intended for technical support, and this is a topic that is very likely to invite trolling and polarization.
If you wish to discuss the politics behind the fork, there are plenty of comment threads around the web on the usual sites; Hacker News, Reddit, and so on. Please direct your discussion there instead.
Discussions in #Node.js about the technical aspects of the Ayo fork (eg. compatibility) are, of course, fine.
Because of a disagreement concerning the policies and enforcement within the Node.js project, specifically because of a dispute over Code of Conduct enforcement (GitHub thread, Hacker News thread). It's likely that the policy disagreements are bigger than that one specific incident, though.
For now, no. Not every fork gains traction, and even those that do will typically need quite some time to do so. For now, you can still treat Node.js as the canonical version. In the long term this may or may not change, but it's too early to say anything about that.
That's not very likely. It's in the interest of both projects to remain as compatible as possible with each other (simply because it prevents dividing the ecosystem unnecessarily), so it's very likely that contributions will be cross-merged in both directions between the two projects.
It's always possible that incompatibilities are formed over time, but these are not likely to cause significant issues for you as a developer. JavaScript has a long history of incompatible runtimes and papering over them with abstractions, so the community will likely resolve them.
See this thread on the Ayo repository.
I'm not going to go into the politics of the fork, other than to say that the fork will prove or disprove itself over time. If the reasons and politics behind the fork are good enough, then it will gain traction. If they're not, then it will not. I've written a bit more about that here.
Please refrain from causing any additional drama over the fork in the broader Node.js or Ayo community; this is not going to be in any way constructive, and will just waste people's time.
Again, the same response: Ayo may or may not prove itself as a successful fork, depending on whether the politics behind it have merit. There is no need to create additional drama around this. Contribute to whichever fork you feel is the 'right' one, and things will sort themselves out over time.