# Core Contributor Nomination - Tobias Macey **URL:** \ **Category:** Core Contributors\ **Created:** [September 21, 2026, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697 "2026-09-21T15:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/dave/32/263_2.png) [@dave](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/dave)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/1 "2026-09-21T15:28:00Z")
Hi folks. I’m opening this thread to nominate Tobias Macey (@blarghmatey) for a Core Contributor role as a Code Contributor to the following repos: - [xqueue-watcher](https://github.com/openedx/xqueue-watcher) - [openedx-search](https://github.com/openedx/openedx-search) Tobias has been an active member in the Open edX community for over a decade, working in platform engineering and operations at MIT, and getting his [first platform PR](https://github.com/openedx/openedx-platform/pull/13499) merged back in 2016. He is one of the foremost experts on running our platform at scale, and running it in a non-Tutor environment. If you run the Open edX platform on MariaDB, he’s the reason why that actually works. He also hosts the [Data Engineering Podcast](https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/) (which is not really Open edX related, but you should check it out anyway). Tobias has [34 merged PRs in the openedx org](https://github.com/pulls/search?q=is%3Apr+author%3Ablarghmatey+user%3Aopenedx++sort%3Aupdated-desc+is%3Amerged) and is [involved in 87](https://github.com/pulls?q=is%3Apr+involves%3Ablarghmatey+user%3Aopenedx). ### xqueue-watcher Tobias is already effectively serving as the de facto maintainer for xqueue-watcher. The last ten commits on this repo are all contributions by him and includes infrastructure upgrades (e.g. [feat: add ContainerGrader for Kubernetes/Docker sandboxed grading + migrate to uv by blarghmatey · Pull Request #122 · openedx/xqueue-watcher · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/xqueue-watcher/pull/122)), as well as tricky bug fixes (e.g. [fix: resolve state leak between staff-answer and submission grading passes by blarghmatey · Pull Request #126 · openedx/xqueue-watcher · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/xqueue-watcher/pull/126)). It’s not an exaggeration to say that xqueue-watcher would effectively be broken without him. ### openedx-search The [first PR](https://github.com/openedx/openedx-search/pull/1) for ADR 0001 of this repo is his, and summarizes where we are with search in our platform right now, and maps out a plan for how to move forward. Tobias has been heavily involved in search-related conversations and operational testing for some time now, and was a driving force behind the current experimental support for Typesense. Most recently, he’s in the process of contributing fixes for a [Meilisearch scaling issue](https://github.com/openedx/openedx-platform/issues/38993) uncovered by @dan.wong at WGU: - [feat: query separate course and library search indexes by blarghmatey · Pull Request #3248 · openedx/frontend-app-authoring · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/frontend-app-authoring/pull/3248) - [feat: split Studio search into separate course and library indexes by blarghmatey · Pull Request #39103 · openedx/openedx-platform · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/openedx-platform/pull/39103) * * * Tobias is an outstanding member of the community, who continues to make critical contributions the platform. He is generous with his time and expertise, and has a deep technical understanding of the operational aspects of our platform. **Comment period:** Please provide comments or feedback on this nomination before 2026-10-05. ---
**Author:** ![arbrandes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/arbrandes/32/158_2.png) [@arbrandes](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/arbrandes)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 3:53pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/2 "2026-09-21T15:53:54Z")
Tobias? Automatic +1! 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Felipe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/felipe/32/60_2.png) [@Felipe](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Felipe)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 3:56pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/3 "2026-09-21T15:56:05Z")
Long standing contributor, seen his work over the years. Two repos he’s already been known for collaborating to. **Yes** vote with ease. ---
**Author:** ![feanil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/feanil/32/37_2.png) [@feanil](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/feanil)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 2:15pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/4 "2026-09-22T14:15:20Z")
👍 from me as well. ---
**Author:** ![braden](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/braden/32/46_2.png) [@braden](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/braden)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/5 "2026-09-22T18:01:48Z")
Definitely +1! ---
**Author:** ![mgmdi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/mgmdi/32/1684_2.png) [@mgmdi](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/mgmdi)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 11:55am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/6 "2026-09-25T11:55:18Z")
Yes from me! ---
**Author:** ![pdpinch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/pdpinch/32/36_2.png) [@pdpinch](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/pdpinch)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 12:15pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/7 "2026-09-28T12:15:40Z")
Yes, please. We need someone to maintain xqueue-watcher and Tobias has also already made significant contributions to openedx-search. ---
**Author:** ![Ahtisham\_Shahid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/ahtisham_shahid/32/8009_2.png) [@Ahtisham\_Shahid](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Ahtisham_Shahid)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 12:24pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/8 "2026-09-28T12:24:05Z")
+1 from me ---
**Author:** ![dan.wong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@dan.wong](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/dan.wong)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 12:28am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/core-contributor-nomination-tobias-macey/19697/9 "2026-09-29T00:28:36Z")
Definitely +1! Thanks for your support with the Meilisearch scaling issue.