Re: Code of Conduct plan

On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 6:21 PM, James Keener <jim(at)jimkeener(dot)com> wrote:

> I also think that a CoC focuses on the wrong things. If someone is
> disruptive, they need to be told to leave, just like in every forum ever.
>
> We should focus on ensuring that the code and documentation is free from
> slurs and culturally specific idioms. We should hold gatekeepers
> accountable for making decisions based on technical merit and not the
> person who proposed an idea or submitted a patch.
>
> We can't control the behavior of the internet as a whole. We can control
> our codebase and our gatekeepers.
>

I think in our case those fears are overblown.

There is a very well-founded fear among a lot of people of ideological
litmus tests being imposed on economic commons. The current impetus for a
code of conduct here followed one attempt at that on some other projects.
On my blog I have discussed these things. One can find them there. I
think a whole lot of us understand that at some point there will be an
attempt to use our code of conduct to that end. This has been discussed
before and one of the key points is that not having a code of conduct
doesn't really protect us because the MO in these cases has been "Look at
that extremely offensive viewpoint! You should have a code of conduct we
can use to throw him out!" So having a code of conduct doesn't hurt and it
may provide a bulwark against some of the larger efforts in this regard.
In essence often not having a code of conduct is an encouragement for
people to push a politically charged code of conduct. Having a politically
neutral code of conduct at least suggests we have rejected the politically
charged ones.

We are an international and largely politically neutral project. I doubt
that as a community we would have tolerated trying to harass, for example,
either side in the recent Irish referendum to stop using PostgreSQL if they
were, or that we would tolerate an effort to politically hijack the
community for culture war issues, or trying to drive people out for trying
to form viable third parties in the US political landscape. An
international CoC committee is our best defense against an effort to co-opt
the community in the way you are worried about.

--
Best Wishes,
Chris Travers

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