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Re: On the Code of Conduct

 

On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 9:46 AM, Casey Rodarmor <casey@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I changed the subject of my reply to "On The Code of Conduct", so as
> not to mix threads of conversation.

 that's a good idea, i often forget that.  thank you.

> Please keep in mind that this is only my interpretation of the code of
> conduct. I am on the Grin moderation team, but this is not an official
> position, only my personal thoughts.

 appreciated the context.

> I've been lucky to be member of and a participant in a lot of
> hacker/nerd/engineer communities of all different kinds, from hacker
> spaces, university clubs, co-living spaces, and educational
> communities.

 cool.  so like me, you've been around, in some very diverse
communities and scenarios, where collaboration and working together
was very important.

> I don't want to make it sound like these communities were rife with
> harassment, quite the contrary, the vast majority of interactions that
> I've had in such communities has been overwhelmingly positive.
> However, incidents of harassment, particularly unwanted and repeated
> sexual advances, and demeaning of people on the basis of their group
> affiliation, would pop up from time to time.
>
> These incidents were unpleasant for all involved, but particularly for
> those who were the victims of such harassment. In those communities
> where clear policies, such as the Grin code of conduct, were in place,
> incidents of harassment seemed to be less common, were easier and
> cleaner to deal with them, and helped people who might be the targets
> of harassment feel safe and welcome to participate.

 indeed: a set of "rules" is like a contract: people know (generally)
what they're getting into before-hand.  the "rules" set the tone for
the interactions in the community.

> This is all to say that the Grin code of conduct, in my personal
> estimation, is not about theoretical concerns that are merely the
> product of a moral panic, overactive imagination or fear mongering,
> but is an attempt to deal with and head-off real problems which
> actually happen in communities such as this one.

 indeed: they're an *attempt*.  one that shapes and overlays the way
that people subsequently interact (with or without incidents
occurring).

 here's the thing: i _would_ provide some examples similar to yours,
from the 22 years experience of working with software libre.  except,
as i've patiently mentioned each time people very kindly contribute
their insights: the project leader, ignatius, has made it absolutely
clear that any efforts to provide insights - even sadly yours, casey,
are neither necessary nor needed.  the "pathological 100% certainty
decision" has already been made, in advance.

 so the "code of conduct" has already failed to do its job.  at the
very least, it's completely failed to keep the project leader from
being incredibly rude to a contributor who asked for the the
opportunity to provide key insights that would help the project.  it's
failed in many other ways as well.

 so, ignosus: you have a choice here.  you can publicly apologise and
say "i'm sorry, i was caught off-guard" and we can go from there, *or*
you can watch the project fail as the public discussion continues, and
you have to explain yourself to backers during the next public round
of donations.  you are entirely at liberty to choose where this goes.

l.


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