[gentoo-dev] Re: Item for 10 Jan 2008 Council meeting

[Ferris McCormick]

I can't respond to the following in proper form, because it came in
during a 4 hour window when the mail server was bouncing all my
gentoo-xx@g.o email (my server didn't like the list server move,
so I changed server, too).

Anyway, Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2@g.o> wrote at Tue, 08 Jan 2008
15:03:25 -0800
====================================
====================================
On Tue, 2008-01-08 at 19:59 +0000, Ferris McCormick wrote:
> 3)  Most devrel requests seem really to relate to CoC violations.  Would
> you like us to bounce those to the CoC people, process them using CoC
> rules, or keep doing what we are doing now (generally, close them with a
> note explaining why or mediate them)?  (I'm talking about the "He's
> being rude/sarcastic/disrespectful" sorts of things which really need to
> be processed immediately and merit a warning or brief suspension if
> anything.)

How hard is it to realize that the CoC is a superset of DevRel (and
other) policies?

If someone breaks DevRel policy ("be good to each other") that also
happens to be a CoC rule and someone reports it to DevRel, they should
actually *do* something about it, rather than trying to pass it off onto
someone else or spend months engaging in witless banter about whether
there's even an issue or not.  After all, when the CoC was enacted,
never once was it said that it would override DevRel or otherwise make
DevRel invalid.  If someone comes to DevRel with a problem, you're
supposed to try to work out the issue with them.  It really is that
simple.  There's no need for some kind of territorial pissing match or
passing the buck.

Someone came to DevRel for help because they think DevRel can help them
and it is DevRel's job to do so.  The CoC was put in place to allow for
catching bad behaviors *before* they would get to DevRel, without
requiring someone to necessarily "report" the issue.  Once a developer
has reported an issue to DevRel, it's their job to work it using their
own policies, as it then becomes a DevRel issue.  The two things serve
somewhat different purposes.  The CoC was designed to curb or prevent
bad behavior, where DevRel's job is to prevent bad behavior from
recurring, or taking disciplinary action when necessary for repeat
offenders.
============================================
============================================
Chris,
With all due respect, for some reason we don't have Proctors anymore to enforce
the CoC.  Thus, things we would expect the proctors to catch and handle under CoC
get sent to devrel instead.  All I am doing is wondering out loud (now that CoC
is coming alive again) if we should start processing these under CoC rules.  I'm
asking Council because CoC belongs to Council, but I do not expect a ruling,
just perhaps an interesting discussion.  See, these things can't be caught before
they get to devrel because you ensured there would be no one to catch them ---
you are the one who wanted to kill off the proctors, after all.

I am asking a question as a member of the devrel confres subproject and as
an interested developer.  Please do not take off after devrel just because I
like to think out loud.

CoC is a superset of the "be good to each other" guideline, but enforcement
rules are quite different.

Regards.
Ferris
-- 
Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@g.o>
Developer, Gentoo Linux (Devrel, Sparc, Userrel)