Re: Promoting the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines?

[Tonton]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2018 09:21:16 -0500
Alex Griffin <address@hidden> wrote:

> Jack Hill <address@hidden> skribis:
> >
> > Interesting. I too am eager understand your thinking on this.  
> 
> I am skeptical of codes of conduct in FLOSS projects because they often 
> come bundled with a certain (non-software-related) political orthodoxy.
> 
> The Contributor Covenant is the worst offender in this regard, having 
> been created specifically for that purpose [1]. Although most of the 
> offending text has now been removed from the document itself, the same 
> spirit still follows behind it to projects that adopt the CC.

CoC's are most definitely political, just like the GKCG. Orthodoxy in this
context I think is mostly meaningless - as most sides of this debate are as
orthodox as the others. There's also this:

> "I don’t agree with Coraline Ada Ehmke’s politics. Should I avoid this code
> of conduct?
> 
> If you’re a meritocracy fan, you already abide by the principle of
> separating the person from the contribution. And even if you’re not,
> adopting the Contributor Covenant does not imply any political or social
> orientation aside from the (unfortunately politicized) goal of making your
> project welcoming and inclusive to people of all backgrounds."
- https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq

While I do agree that CoC's should be redundant and unneeded, our current
culture in FLOSS is sadly not there yet. Harrasment is - at least as far as I
have observed - way to common. An interesting element here is that many of the
harrassers don't seem to understand that they are harrassing.

This is the reason why, as has been discussed before on this list, I (I think
we/Guix) try to tell people kindly. It is after all normal to make mistakes,
it is also the way we learn. Usually nudging people to use inclusive language
and reminding ourselves when we slip is enough - and it encourages a much
nicer, and I'd argue productive, community. I see this in my day to day
situation also.


I have to admit I'm surprised at how good the GKCGs are. But, as has already
bin pointed out, it is lacking some important elements like process and
acceptable and unacceptable.


As some have come up and stated they quit Guix because of the CoC; I'm at the
opposite end of the spectrum. I run Guix with or without the community, but I
choose to participate in Guix because it has a good CoC that is held with
kindness by many in the community.

I look forward to winter, when I have more time for programming... :)