Re: Code of Conduct

[Wols Lists]

On 05/02/20 16:14, David Kastrup wrote:
> Trevor <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>> Dan Eble wrote 05/02/2020 14:25:26
>> Subject: Re: Code of Conduct
>>
>>> On Feb 5, 2020, at 05:45, Han-Wen Nienhuys <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Having a CoC gives us a set of guidelines, a process and a set of
>>>>  corrective actions to take to help keep things nice.
>>>
>>> I prefer the implicit good-neighbour agreement we have now.
>> So do I! Definitely!
>>
>> It's remarkable how well it has worked and how free of animosity it
>> has been.
> 
> There have been frictions over the years on both developer and user
> lists and I removed myself from participating on the user list a number
> of times over periods of probably about a month's length.  And it's not
> longer than about a month ago that my wording of a reply that I spent
> half an hour composing from manual entries and example code earned me
> more the equivalent of a "fsck you" than "thank you".  So from my side I
> cannot state in good conscience that there would be no leeway to
> improve.  But that's not a matter where a committee could provide
> reasonable help or relief.
> 
To my mind, there are two big problems with many Codes of Conduct, which
I see as peculiarly American, sorry.

Firstly, we seem to have a lot of "Professional Offence Takers".
Secondly, the Americans are often completely ignorant of other norms and
have this weird belief that they know best ...

I always give the example of Groklaw here - an absolutely wonderful blog
- but I could never join in any discussions about race because the
phrase "African American" is both meaningless and borderline offensive
over here, while the word "Black" is offensive over there.

I haven't actually looked at this particular code of conduct (like I
suspect many people, I didn't even know it existed until it came up here
on the list), but to my mind one of the first things it should cover is
offending people. And outright stating that "taking offence when none is
intended is itself an offensive act".

A lot of computer people are borderline autistic, and tend to be rather
blunt (it's also an Anglo-Saxon trait), and in many other cultures this
is seen as being offensive.

But we need to be respectful of other peoples' norms, try to refrain
from behaviours that others perceive of as offensive, while trying not
to be offended by behaviours that others perceive as normal.

Tricky, and even trickier to enforce ...

Cheers,
Wol