[coreboot] code of conduct (reloaded)

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 08.02.2015 19:07, Alexandru Gagniuc wrote:
> I have until now ignored this code of conduct. There's been talk about how 
> people feel unwelcome in _other_ projects, about how _other_ projects (fill in 
> the blank). What there hasn't been any talk of, however, is any instance where 
> this has been a problem in _our_ community.

On January 16, 2015, Marc Jones wrote in a coreboot.org blog post:
> While most developers don’t experience something as terrible as the
> harassment that happened in the context of Gamergate or other terrible
> behavior documented at technical and open source conferences the last
> several years, it does indicate that there is a problem in our open
> source communities.

I think the sentence above pretty much describes what went wrong in the
process creating the coreboot code of conduct.
Using gamergate (Disclaimer: I'm not a gamer, I prefer real cardboard
puzzles) as an indicator that there is a problem in our open source
communities is a logical fallacy (majority of game market share is not
open source).
Using terrible behaviour documented at technical conferences as an
indicator that there is a problem in our open source communities is a
logical fallacy (majority of tech market share is not open source).
However, using terrible behaviour documented at open source conferences
as an indicator that there is a problem in our open source communities
is logically correct. Now there are some open source communities which
reportedly have more problems and some which reportedly have less or no
problems. It would be very interesting to see how they differ, and then
check how this can be applied to us.


Right now prescribing a code of conduct is hip and trendy because
everyone does it. It also seems to be necessary in many places.

Marc wrote: "it's a part of growing up", but in the real-life community
I was brought up (i.e. the city where I lived), a code of conduct was
considered a sign that something had broken down before and needed
patching up. See school rules for an example. Consider a relationship:
If there is a code of conduct in a relationship, it's probably about who
may see or interact with the joint children at any given time.


On 08.02.2015 19:07, Alexandru Gagniuc wrote:
> There's a phenomenon of "Oh, I saw this thing here, so let's implement it 
> irrespective of whether or not it's actually relevant". I call that liberal 
> bullshit. That's exactly what this is.

I don't know about liberals in the USA, but in the EU, this would be a
conservative position. Then again, the definitions of liberal and
conservative seem to be completely different in the US vs EU.


On 08.02.2015 19:07, Alexandru Gagniuc wrote:
> This code of conduct is an insult to our hard work over the years, and an 
> insult to our friendly nature and countless personal hours spent helping 
> others. When you've put up this code of conduct, you've basically said "our 
> community is not capable of bettering itself by peer action and common sense, 
> so we need to enforce it". It degrades every person who has ever contributed, 
> and degrades the community as a whole. It's a degrading document that has no 
> place.

On January 16, 2015, Marc Jones wrote in a coreboot.org blog post:
> We can’t lose valuable contributors because they felt uncomfortable or
> unwanted.

Alexandru, since you are a valuable contributor and feel uncomfortable
with the to-be-established Code of Conduct in its current form, those
who created the Code of Conduct surely will want to make sure not to
lose you. I trust them to come up with a solution for this.



Regards,
Carl-Daniel