Re: Code of Conduct: Is it time?

On 11/01/16 07:44, Regina Obe wrote:
[...]
> This may come as a big shock to many of you, but as a contributor
> I don't care if you are racist, sexist, transphobic or whatever as long as
> you
>
> 1) Are helpful when I ask a question
> 2) Stick to the topic
> 3) Don't get into petty etiquettes like "Please stop top posting"
> and if you really need to - A polite we prefer top posting would do
>
> 4) Are sensitive to people on other operating systems other than your
> preferred.
I once went out of my way to help someone with Mac. They were so Mac
centric they did not realize that they were not giving us the right
information to help them, but this was not obvious until later in the
thread. I made some comment about Linux - next moment they were
accusing everyone of not helping them properly because they were using a
Mac, as though we had been deliberately discriminating against them!

So yes, I am sensitive to the O/S people are using, I will now avoid
helping people who don't use Linux. As I may not understand their needs
properly, and I don't want to be accused of picking on them because they
not using the "RIGHT OPERATING SYSTEM"! But I have neither the time nor
the expertise to even help everyone who uses Linux, even if they DO use
the "ONE TRUE LINUX DISTRIBUTION" (being very careful not to mention the
distribution I'm using - not wanting to start a flame war!!!).

I've twice been effective in supporting people with programs written in
BASIC, were the version of BASIC was unfamiliar to me and I could not
test my suggested change because they used a Microsoft O/S and I did not
have access to any Microsoft boxen for testing purposes (at the time).
In a recent project, I even ran a Microsoft O/S in a VM on my Linux box
to test something for a project I was leading. So I don't have an
overriding religious type objections to helping people with other
operating systems!
>
> One thing that really pushes my buttons is when I ask for help as a windows
> user and some person makes a snide remark about why don't I switch to
> Linux - problem solved
> Or because I'm on windows, I don't care about performance.
>
> Here is an example thread I recall from a while back on PostGIS list.
>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/postgis-users/2008-June/020331.html
>
> In PostGIS group people are very good at calling out other people when
> they think they've said something mean-spirited
> and I think people are greatful for being called out because the nasty
> person had no idea
> their joke was mean.
>
> My other concern about CoCs is I fear someone is going to come and demand
> we change Master/Slave to Leader/Follower, because Master is a male term
> and Slave is insensitive to grand-children of slaves.

Comrades, we are all equal! So to set one program above another is an
anathema! :-)
>
>
> Thanks,
> Regina
>
>
>
>
>
Chers,
Gavin