[gentoo-dev] Why I don't think the CoC is a good idea

[Alexandre Buisse]

Hi all,

I've been voicing my concern repeatedly on irc, and I believe that it
would probably be more effective here.

I believe that the solution of adopting a Code of Conduct, especially in
this rushed way, will ultimately hurt us, and that the disadvantages far
outweight the benefits. 

Our arguably most valuable resource is the community of developers, who
are spending all this time and efforts in gentoo because they have *fun*
doing it. And I believe that adding yet another layer of bureaucracy and
restricting freedom (even for the good cause) will take away some more
of this fun we are desperately needing now. It seems that gentoo is
getting itself a full penal system, with a corpus of laws and a team
whose job will be to enforce it. It is inevitable that if we engage in
this way, we will end up having more and more legal discussions about
whether foo did exactly bar as described by article 33.5 alinea b and so
can be punished up to a 37 day ban. And as new borderline cases will be
examined, more precise laws will be added, sucking up time and fun in
trials and multiple appeals, etc. 

The answer to that remark, and it has already been done in today's
discussions, is that we should follow the spirit of the law and not its
letter. But then, why do we need a Code of Conduct at all? There is
nothing in it that people don't already know and if they choose to still
commit the offense, it's either that they don't think it's one or that
they choose to ignore the consequences and commit it anyway. In both
cases, having a written code won't change a thing. Having a team whose
job it is to enforce this good behaviour thing will perhaps change the
mind of some of the people who choose the second option, but if
repression was really working, why are there still murders and thiefs in
our societies?

I am more concerned with giving a team some power over what can and what
can't be said. If only because sometimes, something can offend someone
and not others, or can be misinterpreted, and that in those cases, no
one is right or wrong. As has been repeatedly pointed in many occasions,
the written media and the differences of languages and cultures make it
very difficult to understand the tone of messages and can generate very
different reactions. If one is to carefully watch his steps before ever
saying anything, it will led straight into politically correct and
saying "hearing impaired" instead of "deaf", etc. And it will make the
project a lot less fun, by restricting one's freedom of speech.

I think that everyone should be free to participate in any discussion
as long as some outrageous behaviours like racism are not shown and that
the discussion stays on topic. But forcing people to not flame (and how
does one define that anyway?) is simply an unnecessary freedom
restriction. Great ideas can come from heated discussions, which can
even be considered as a sign of good health, since people care enough to
defend their ideas with passion. Or sometimes it is just funny, even if
not everyone "gets it". As long as one doesn't have to participate to
this discussion, I don't see any problem.

So my "solution" would be to just let things go as they currently are.
If people want to make asses of themselves in public, great, let them do
just that. If you don't like someone else, just don't read what they
post. But if you freely choose to participate to a flame, live with the
consequences, including the possibility of being called names by someone
else (I don't know if there is an english equivalent, but a french
saying goes like : "it's a gourmet delice to be called an asshole by an
idiot") and don't complain afterwards about it, because by acknowledging
the very existence of the trolls, you fed them and gave them a target.

I'm sorry to have been so long (and I have a lot more to say!) but this
is more or less why I think both the idea and its proposed
implementation are bad and will ultimately hurt us.

Regards,
/Alexandre
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