← Back to team overview

mimblewimble team mailing list archive

Re: Branding and messaging

 

> WIth respect to a code of conduct, in my opinion if anything much
> more detailed than ‘Don’t be a dick,’ genuinely needs to be explained
> to the team, then I’ll find another team. Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1357/

Unfortunately in the case of larger open source projects, it's not so simple. There are multiple teams, some fairly well defined and some a lot more loose. You have the "lubrication" team (I like that word) that makes sure the project goes smoothly and takes care of the annoying parts (like dealing with people and the world), the close-to-full-time dev team, the moonlighters, the people who contribute docs/site/moderation, the power users, the less power users, etc. People typically move from one to the other. It's hard to keep assholes completely away (yeah, users :P) and even harder to show them the door when it happens. Something like a code of conduct that's clearly written makes that easier, especially for the lubrication team.

We're also in a space where there are a lot of assholes (sorry but true) and where everyone yells "abuse of power" every time they get a chance. I don't want to lose a Yeastplume because somehow some assholes found their way in and I couldn't prevent it without getting tons of grief and lost time.

- Igno

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [Mimblewimble] Branding and messaging
> Local Time: September 7, 2017 8:57 AM
> UTC Time: September 7, 2017 8:57 AM
> From: yeastplume@xxxxxxxxx
> To: mimblewimble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mimblewimble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> WIth respect to a code of conduct, in my opinion if anything much more detailed than ‘Don’t be a dick,’ genuinely needs to be explained to the team, then I’ll find another team. Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1357/
>
> A foundation is a minefield that needs a lot of careful discussion and consideration. I think it’s a little bit too early to declare one but discussions should start in the not too far distant future, as I think one will be highly desirable for legal protection and possibly funding. By the way, nothing is stopping anybody from taking the code and creating whatever business or organisation or ‘foundation’ they want around it, but nobody is forced to pay any attention to it if they don’t like it for any reason either. In my not-so-humble-on-this-point opinion, successful projects need leadership with a vision that doesn’t change direction every time someone posts something on a forum, and that leadership needs to come from one or a group of individuals somehow. If this idea, or the particular leadership of a particular project, is offensive to you, or if you just feel it’s better to take a public vote on every line of code, fork away, find people who agree with you, and do your thing.
>
> More humbly; I agree ‘quid' is a good word, it rolls off the tongue much better than ‘pound’, so saying ‘thirty quid’ feels more natural than ‘thirty pounds’. Unfortunately it very much remains in common usage in the U.K. I’m not entirely sure how to describe this phenomenon, so without trying to be smart, let me give you an example: Imagine I’m from England and I’ve just made a serious suggestion to you, an American, that the currency should be called ‘bucks’… as in “I’ll give you thirty bucks for lunch”. Nobody says ‘bucks’ in the UK unless they’re emulating Americans for comedy value, so it all sounds jolly amusing, and I give you a few other examples of how the word ‘bucks’ can be used in reference to the crypto currency. Let your reaction to that suggestion wash over you for a bit, (perhaps smile and nod a bit if you’re being polite), and that’s precisely the reaction you’ll get from anyone in the UK or Ireland at the suggestion the currency should be called a ‘quid’.
>
> With apologies
> -YP

References