Currently, the primary role of BIP maintainers is to assign BIP numbers for documents, but the methodology for number selection is not published and seems arbitrary. This manual process has been criticized as a gatekeeping mechanism, with accusations of favoritism.

Although additional BIP maintainers have been appointed to alleviate the subjective load, it doesn't seem to address the issue of BIP number assignment. The suggestion is to remove the subjective human element from the process and use PR (Pull Request) numbers to assign BIPs instead. This means that PRs would be assigned BIP numbers as soon as they are opened, eliminating the need to track down a BIP maintainer at the end of a review and iteration period.

One potential downside of this approach is that it would significantly increase the BIP number space. Currently, the next PR number is 1508, so the BIP numbers would no longer be contiguous. To address this, it is proposed to offset the new BIP numbers by starting at the highest manually assigned BIP number. This way, the BIP numbers would still indicate their relative order.

There is also the issue of related BIPs, such as the segwit series (BIPs 141, 142, 143, 144, and 145). To handle this, a suffix scheme can be used to indicate the lineage of the BIPs. For example, if BIP 141 was the first PR and BIP 142 was opened later, the OP can declare BIP 142 as BIP 141.2 or BIP 141-2. It is believed that finding a workable scheme for this would not be too difficult.

Overall, the proposal suggests using an automated system to assign BIP numbers based on PR numbers, eliminating the subjective element and streamlining the process. It acknowledges the potential challenges of increasing the BIP number space and proposes a solution for handling related BIPs. The email concludes by inviting thoughts and feedback on the idea.