[RFC] [Draft] Code of Conduct Rev.2

JoshStrobl

brent Looks like you are trying to stay ahead of something?

Not quite sure what you mean by this, but I have considered it for a while and I felt earlier this month that getting to work on it would be in the best interest of the project, to better foster a constructive feedback and conversation cycle.

Of the list of unacceptable things I rarely, if ever, see any of this abhorrent behavior as described, even political talk. The most recent was that guy beatrice bounced (ban) for disparaging remarks over and over.

Yea, our community for the most part has been extremely welcoming and we have always worked to keep it that. Sometimes there are folks that end up being disruptive, but I can't say I remember many cases where any sort of harassment or language that is inflammatory to one or more groups of people, and we have always dealt with those quickly.

The part on necros was a little more clarified and needed.

Exactly and we can always expand on this further if folks want. I just didn't know 100% what the community would have in mind here, so I just wrote down something that I thought would be a sensible baseline.

Regarding the staying on topic, "non-hateful profanity", etc. those are all in our current Community Guidelines. I think most of us can have a bit of a "potty mouth" but so long as it is done tastefully (and typically kept to IRC), it's mostly fine.

You have a separate policing guide for team members engaging in infractions which I found interesting.

Well, it is a sensible path of escalation that is intended to account for the broader responsibilities. Better to be safe than sorry, even if I am doubtful anything would escalate to it.

I'm not sure if you were soliciting comments but I dig this distro's growth very much.

Soliciting comments is exactly the point of the post 😉 It's a conversation with everyone in the community.

giladfrid009

Is it somehow possible to make this forum apolitical? i would prefer personally if the discussions here would not be politicized, or perhaps have a certain marks for threads containing political opinions.
The biggest problem with politics is that something that one does not find offensive, the other might find it as offensive. That's why i think it's a good idea to restrict political discussions to certain threads or even try to evade them.
After all most opinions can be labeled as "offensive" by the people that disagree with them.

JoshStrobl

giladfrid009 Is it somehow possible to make this forum apolitical? i would prefer personally if the discussions here would not be politicized, or perhaps have a certain marks for threads containing political opinions.

I do agree that there needs to be more heavier moderation of political discussion, but it is harder to draw the line sometimes when open source itself is political, the open source community is rather political, there is a cross between technological solutions to sometimes political problems, or even when someone's mere existence / identity (sexual preference, gender, etc.) can be considered "politics". Excluding those subjects though, I agree that politics does not really have a place on our forums. It always ends up being too divisive and not really worth it.

If this is something the community feels we need to write into the Code of Conduct beyond our existing verbiage ("Ensuring off-topic channels / mediums remain free of heated discussions of polarizing issues or current events in order to keep these spaces inviting and enjoyable") then I am open to that.

brent

JoshStrobl When I said 'stay ahead of' I thought you guys were taking lawyer advice or business advice, but if it's something you always had in the works and wanted to get on it, then all the better.

giladfrid009 as long as their is no Off-Topic area for that i agree😉! BUT threads do come up open-mindedly about the role of digital life and hardware in an environmental/sustainable context and I find those conversations educationally fascinating. and usually "inviting and enjoyable".
Lots of brilliant minds at this place, I really enjoy it.

Axios

I come here to learn avoid the threads that get me going and try help ppl with stuff thats simple and I think we have
a small group that tries to do that. Better for dev they can stay focused on what matters but speak up when needed.

Staudey

I think this CoC is fine in its current state, and I don't see anything in the proposal that would stifle the usual (harmless) interactions in the Solus community.

P.S. While I haven't proofread it, I noticed the following part under the "Permanent Bans" section:

Demonstrating a pattern of behavior and violation of Code of Conduct

I think that should be "Demonstrating a pattern of behavior in violation of the Code of Conduct", if I'm not mistaken.

JoshStrobl

Staudey I think that should be "Demonstrating a pattern of behavior in violation of the Code of Conduct", if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks. Corrected in the doc (not PDF).

Jocadbz

Yeah, i'm gonna take the side of probably everyone in this community. This is a great move and for me, it helps not only the distro, but the entire community. The text is pretty complete to me, i didn't saw any issues.

George

I read this post for a long time ago, but decided to leave my reaction only now. It seems to me that any rules of the community are important, but the task of such rules is to raise the culture of discussion and dialogue. In this sense, punishment should correct the guilty, which in some sense makes the rules of the community related to the penitentiary system. It seems to me that it is important to determine the method of punishment (temporary or permanent blocking on the forum), the terms of punishment and the time frame for detecting the incident. On the idea of the committee, I am rather against it, since any case in the community is a lesson for everyone. The geography of the community covers the whole world, everyone was brought up in their own traditions, with their most important philosophical categories. When analyzing any case in public, everyone should endure for themselves the norm of a certain behavior and not repeat the mistakes of the other. Publicity will help to solve the case most correctly and prevent a large number of misconduct by other users. I wanted to convey the idea as accurately as possible, but I wrote this post in Russian (I really live in Russia), I learn English as an additional language, but I wrote this post with the help of a translator: the accuracy of the wording is very important to me

JoshStrobl

George Thank you for your thoughts. I completely disagree with the notion that cases should be handled in public. That not only results in the reporter on an issue being known to the wider community (which would lead to less likelihood of an incident being reported in the first place out of concern over what others may think, "retribution", etc.) but the individual(s) on the receiving end of the report as well (when it may in fact not be a violation of a CoC or may be a situation that can be handled amicably without involvement from everyone).

An incident being handled in public rather than handled privately through proper channels additionally puts an unnecessary pressure on the decision-making, evidence gathering, and communication processes to be done in an expedient manner, which may result in details being overlooked or decisions be made in haste.

There is a very good reason why human resource departments at companies resolve these matters in private. There is a good reason why larger open source projects and communities handle this in private as well (my proposed process being heavily inspired / lifted from Django, as an example). I understand your opinion that it being in public might improve the transparency, but this is one of those places IMO where transparency can have demonstrative downsides that I wouldn't feel comfortable having. I want folks to be comfortable reporting issues and knowing that everyone in the process is treated fairly, decisions are being made responsibly, etc.

popcornkernelbrokemyDE

Yeahhhhhh I'm outta here because of this. Getting ridiculous now
Don't forget to tuck your shirts in, kids.

JoshStrobl

popcornkernelbrokemyDE Best of luck in your adventures.

P.S. Have fun finding an operating system that doesn't already have a Code of Conduct (we already have our community guidelines and this is a proposal for an expansion on it). Arch has one. Fedora has one. openSUSE has one. Manjaro has one. Ubuntu has one. etc. Engagement in any community comes with certain expectations. Ours is no different.

WetGeek

JoshStrobl Best of luck in your adventures.

Maybe we should consider a minimum age limit?

DataDrake

WetGeek That implies that some people ever grow up.

YuriTheHenrique

Some people don't realize, but we're expected to follow a code of conduct or a set of rules everywhere in this world, even dark and illegal places has their own code of conduct, and an according punishment.
Having a minimum age limit, implies this place is not safe for the young ones, for what they may see/read, not that the grown ups are capable of being mature.

Also, not related to this forum, but I like the idea of incentivizing the kids to learn about Operating Systems and coding in linux...

WetGeek

YuriTheHenrique Also, not related to this forum, but I like the idea of incentivizing the kids to learn about Operating Systems and coding in linux...

I agree completely. In the comment I made above, I was pointing out that the poster was acting like a petulant child.

In fact, years ago when I was teaching CS classes in our local college, I got permission for my young son to audit one of my classes on C. No cost, and no academic credit, of course, but he learned a lot. And a few years later he was working for Microsoft.

The younger we can get them started, the better. My son was learning C when most of his friends were just playing video games.