Is it not amusing to read Taproot related news on Coindesk's main page? Interesting recap for the non-technical fellows like myself about the latest dev meeting on taproot and its activation.
https://www.coindesk.com/taproot-bitcoin-upgrade-activation-updateThe chain split scenario that willcl_ark described is basically the bogeyman everyone wants to avoid here. The fear is that BIP8 (true) requires 100% of hashrate to signal for the upgrade after the Taproot activation deadline ends. Thus, if enough users went this route at the same time that others use BIP8 (false) for non-forced activation (which only requires 95% of hashrate), the two different code versions may create two incompatible histories of Bitcoin’s transaction ledger.
This part was the most interesting and I do hope we will not have to see such a detrimental scenario.
Part of what got decided was to use BIP 8 instead BIP 9 -- I tried to understand what the advantage was and I guess its because they don't want a repeat of the activation controversy brought on by segwit? I'd be grateful if somebody could explain the difference between the two as I think I'm missing the significance. Thanks in advance.