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On Sun, 15 Jan 2017, Michał Górny wrote: |
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|
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> Hello, everyone. |
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> |
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> Since the things around ComRel seem to have cooled down a bit, I think |
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> we can now start a serious discussion on how disciplinary action |
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> handling could be improved. While the recent complaints were focused on |
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> ComRel, I would like to take a more generic approach since ComRel is |
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> not the only body in Gentoo capable of disciplinary action. |
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> |
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> Therefore, I'd like my proposal to concern all cases of disciplinary |
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> action, involving but not limited to: ComRel, QA, Forum moderators, IRC |
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> moderators, Wiki admins and any other entity capable of enforcing |
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> a disciplinary action against developers and users. |
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> |
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> Note: throughout the mail 'users' include all people involved on |
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> the Gentoo communication channels, developers, users, bystanders |
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> and bots alike. |
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|
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Thanks Michał for this email. |
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|
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Let me start with a few general observations. I'll reply to some of your |
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points later. |
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|
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* We already have some policies about appeals - I'll admit many might / |
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are unaware of some of them. |
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* Council isn't and shouldn't be the direct appeal body for all decisions |
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* Following above, if it were, it'd be swamped with appeals (I believe |
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some don't have an idea of how many bans are set on all mediums - the vast |
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majority never being subject of an appeal and or never crossing to other |
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mediums) |
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* You don't mention some social network sites and I'm sure some want to |
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address those as well. IIRC, most of those, where we had an official |
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presence, were tied to PR. |
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|
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> Problems |
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> -------- |
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> 1. Lack of transparency (this seems to be improving but I don't think |
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> we have a proper rules for that), that causes two issues: |
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> |
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> a. Users indirectly involved in disciplinary action are unaware of it |
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> which causes unnecessary confusion. Example: user is unaware that |
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> a person is banned from Bugzilla, and incorrectly assumes that |
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> the developer or user does not wish to reply to him. |
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> |
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> b. Users presume disciplinary bodies attempt to hide their actions |
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> which unnecessary builds tension and accusations. This becomes worse |
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> when the subjects of those actions are the only sides speaking upon |
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> the matter, and spreading false information. |
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> |
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> 2. Unclear appeal procedure (outside ComRel). For example, users that |
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> get banned on IRC don't have a clear suggestion on where to appeal to |
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> a particular decision, or whether there is any appeal possible at all. |
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|
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The general rule is that you appeal an irc ban to the team responsible for |
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the irc channel (#gentoo-ops for #gentoo, ComRel for #gentoo-dev and |
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individual project teams for #gentoo-* channels). |
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If an appeal of the team decision is needed, it should be either directed |
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to the Gentoo Freenode Group Contacts (#gentoo-groupcontacts) the people |
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that interact with Freenode and can in last resort close a channel or take |
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ownershipt of it or ComRel if there was an abuse of power by a Developer. |
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All actions by ComRel can be appelead for the Council. |
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ComRel is involved here as this was done by UserRel before. |
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|
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> 3. Lack of supervision. Likewise, most of teams capable of some degree |
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> of disciplinary action are not supervised by any other body in Gentoo, |
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> some not even indirectly. |
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> |
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> 4. Lack of cooperation. Most of disciplinary teams in Gentoo operate |
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> in complete isolation. Users affected by disciplinary actions |
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> sometimes simply switch to another channel and continue their bad |
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> behavior under another disciplinary team. |
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> |
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> |
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> In this proposal, I'd like to discuss introducing a few simple rules |
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> that would be binding to all teams capable of enforcing a disciplinary |
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> actions, and that aim to improve the current situation. My proposed |
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> rules are: |
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> |
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> |
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> 1. Secrecy |
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> ---------- |
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> Due to the nature of disciplinary affairs, the teams involved |
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> in performing them are obliged to retain secrecy of the information |
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> gathered. This includes both collected material (logs, messages, etc.) |
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> and names of the individuals providing them. |
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> |
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> All the sensitive information involving disciplinary affairs can be |
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> *securely* passed only to other members of the disciplinary team |
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> involved in the affair and the current Council members, upon legitimate |
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> request. The obtained information should also be stored securely. |
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> |
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> It is only necessary for a single member of the disciplinary team to |
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> store the information (or to use a single collective store). |
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> The Council members should remove all obtained information after |
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> the appeal/audit. |
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> |
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> It should be noted that an unauthorized disclosure of sensitive |
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> information by any party involved would be a base for a strong |
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> disciplinary action. |
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> |
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> Rationale: |
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> |
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> a. The collected material sometimes contains various bits of private |
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> information whose disclosure is completely unnecessary and would only |
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> unnecessarily violate individual's privacy. Gentoo ought to respect |
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> privacy of users, and do not invade it without necessity. |
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> |
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> b. Publishing names of individuals involved in a disciplinary action |
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> could encourage the subjects to seek revenge. While keeping them secret |
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> often does not prevent it (or even worse, causes the individuals to |
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> seek revenge on larger group of people), we ought not to encourage |
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> it. |
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|
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As was discussed before, some argue whether we should keep the secrecy or |
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not. I, for one, believe that keeping things private is best for everyone. |
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I also support that any damaging data should be kept out of public eyes so |
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as not to "tarnish" users reputation - it seems not everyone agree with me |
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on this one. |
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|
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> 2. Transparency |
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> --------------- |
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> Any disciplinary action should be announced by the team in a manner |
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> specific to the appropriate media where the measure applies. |
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> The announcement should be visible to all users of that media, |
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> and contains: |
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> |
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> - the name of the user to whom the measure applies, |
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> |
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> - the description and length of the measure applied. |
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> |
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> For example, a ban on a mailing list could be announced to the mailing |
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> list in question. A ban on Bugzilla could involve adding appropriate |
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> note to the user's name, so that all other users see that he can't |
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> respond at the time. A ban on IRC could be stored e.g. on wiki page, |
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> or noted on a bug. |
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|
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Back from the Proctors days, there's an argument that announcing publicly |
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a ban may inflame dispustes further. Also, this is very tied to the |
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medium. |
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For example, Forums Moderators have a policy to deal with bans and a |
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procedure in place that frequently involves splitting spam / abusive posts |
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from a topic and moving it to dustbin. Keeping the spam / abusive post in |
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the topic and adding a comment that a user was banned, doesn't fit or |
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serve well the forums, imho. |
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|
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> Furthermore, any disciplinary action must be reported to the Council. |
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> The reporting is done through a bug that is opened at the first |
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> disciplinary measure inflicted on a user, and reused at any following |
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> measures. It should contain the information listed above, and have |
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> the Council in CC. No private information should be ever included |
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> in the bug. |
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|
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I don't think you have an idea of the scope of the bans. If this were to |
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be done, Council would be swamped. Just think of how many bans ops in |
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#gentoo and Forums Moderators have to do to keep spammers away. |
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Also, your proposal sees Council as the first appeal to a ban. I disagree |
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with that idea. I see Council as the last appeal body and that anyone |
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wanting to appeal to Council needs to contact and present the case. |
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|
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> Rationale: |
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> |
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> a. As noted above, the disciplinary measure often affect more users |
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> than the subject of the action. It is therefore most advisable to |
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> notice them of the action (i.e. that they can't expect the particular |
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> user to reply) and their length, while protecting as much privacy as |
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> possible. |
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> |
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> b. It is also beneficial for the subject of the action to have |
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> a publicly visible note of the measure applied, and clear statement of |
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> its length. |
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|
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We add a note to clear spammers on bugzilla such as "go away". You'd want |
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us to start spending a lot of time on every case for every ban? |
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To avoid any confusion, all bans on bugzilla done by ComRel include a note |
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on how to appeal for that ban (when not clear spammers). |
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One thing you mention that might be worth, is having a way to make clear |
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that a bugzilla account is "disabled". I don't think we should be explicit |
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about an account being banned. |
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|
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> c. Opening bugs for all disciplinary actions helps teams keep track of |
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> them and their durations, note repeated offenders and finally report |
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> all actions to the Council for auditing purposes. |
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|
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Again I don't think / agree that Council needs to "audit" all teams. I |
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don't see any reason Council needs to know how many users the KDE team |
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choose to ban from #gentoo-kde for misbehaving. |
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The day #gentoo-kde becomes a "war zone" that disrespects all users and |
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after #gentoo-groupcontacts and or ComRel are approached and that isn't |
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fixed, then I find it reasonable to appeal to Council about that, but |
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*only* then. |
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|
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> 3. Appeal |
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> --------- |
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> All disciplinary decisions (both actions and refusals to perform |
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> action) can be appealed to the Council. In this case, the disciplinary |
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> team is obliged to securely pass all material collected to the Council. |
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> The Council can either support, modify or dismiss the decision |
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> entirely. There is no further appeal. |
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> |
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> It should be noted that the disciplinary actions must not prevent |
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> the appeal from being filed. |
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> |
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> Rationale: |
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> |
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> a. Having a single body to handle all appeals makes the procedures |
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> simpler to our users and more consistent. This also guarantees that |
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> all measures can be appealed exactly once, and no channels are |
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> privileged. |
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|
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Appeal bodies are tied to the communication medium. Also, issues involving |
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user / developer conflicts, like perceived abuses by moderation teams, |
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fall within ComRel (formerly UserRel) purview. |
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|
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> b. The Council is currently the highest body elected by Gentoo |
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> developers with the trust of being able to handle appeals from ComRel |
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> decisions. It seems reasonable to extend that to all disciplinary |
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> decisions in Gentoo. |
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|
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You don't got to the Supreme Court before going though the appeals court. |
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|
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|
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> 4. Supervision |
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> -------------- |
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> At the same time, Council is assumed to supervise all disciplinary |
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> affairs in Gentoo. As noted in 2., all decisions made are reported to |
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> the Council for auditing. Those reports combined with appeals should |
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> allow the Council to notice any suspicious behavior from particular |
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> disciplinary teams. |
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> |
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> For the necessity of audit, the disciplinary teams should retain all |
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> material supporting their disciplinary audit in a secure manner, |
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> throughout the time of the disciplinary action and at least half a year |
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> past it. The Council can request all this information to audit |
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> the behavior of a particular team and/or its member. |
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> |
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> Rationale: |
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> |
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> a. Having a proper auditing procedure in place is necessary to improve |
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> the trust our users put in our disciplinary teams. It should discourage |
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> any members of our disciplinary teams from attempting to abuse their |
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> privileges, and help discover that quickly if it actually happens. |
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> |
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> b. The necessity of storing information supporting disciplinary |
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> decisions is helpful both for the purpose of auditing as well as for |
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> (potentially late) appeals. Keeping old information is necessary to |
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> support stronger decisions made for repeat offenders. |
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> |
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> |
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> 5. Cooperation |
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> -------------- |
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> While it is not strictly necessary for different disciplinary teams to |
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> cooperate, in some cases it could be useful to handle troublemakers |
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> more efficiently across different channels. |
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> |
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> Since all disciplinary actions are published, a team may notice that |
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> another team has enforced a disciplinary action on their user. This |
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> could be used as a suggestion that the user is a potential troublemaker |
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> but the team must collect the evidence of wrongdoing in their own |
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> channel before enforcing any action. It should be noted that |
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> disciplinary teams are not allowed to exchange private information. |
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> |
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> When multiple teams inflict disciplinary actions on the same user, they |
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> can request the Council to consider issuing a cross-channel Gentoo |
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> disciplinary action. In this case, the Council requests material from |
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> all involved teams (alike when auditing) and may request a consistent |
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> disciplinary action from all disciplinary teams in Gentoo. |
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> |
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> Rationale: |
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> |
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> a. Under normal circumstances, a bad behavior on one communication |
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> channel should not prevent the user from contributing on another. |
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> However, we should have a more efficient procedure to handle the case |
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> when user is a repeating troublemaker and moves from one channel to |
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> another. |
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> |
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> b. Preventing information exchange serves the purpose of protecting |
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> users' privacy. The access to sensitive information should be |
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> restricted as narrowly as possible. Disciplinary teams should perform |
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> decisions autonomously to prevent corruption of one team resulting |
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> in unnecessary actions from another. |
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> |
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> |
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> Migration |
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> --------- |
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> It would seem unreasonable to request all disciplinary teams to either |
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> report all their past decisions right now, or to lift them immediately. |
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> However, if this policy is accepted, all teams would be obliged to |
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> follow it for any further decisions. |
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> |
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> It would also be recommended for teams to appropriate update at least |
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> recent decisions or those that are brought up again (e.g. via appeal or |
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> repeat offense). |
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> |
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> |
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> What do you think? |
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|
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To conclude, I'd summarize the process of appeals for group mediums / |
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areas as: |
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|
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* ComRel / QA |
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As already known, Council |
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|
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* IRC |
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start by appealing to the moderation teams |
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(#gentoo-ops for #gentoo, ComRel for #gentoo-dev, individual teams for |
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#gentoo-* channels) |
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if that fails #gentoo-groupcontacts / ComRel |
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groupcontacts deal with Freenode and can seize a channel or disband it |
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/ ComRel deals with user / developers issues and can deal with abusive |
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behaviour |
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|
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* Bugzilla / MLs |
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ComRel if set by a ComRel member or seen as an abuse | the moderators |
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of an ml (if it's moderated) |
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|
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* Forums |
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start by appealing to the Forums Moderators |
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if that fails ComRel |
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|
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* Social network sites |
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(with official Gentoo presence) PR? |
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|
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Some of these teams deal with appeals through email. For example |
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#gentoo-ops and Forums Moderators have emails that can be used to contact |
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them. |
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|
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|
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Regards, |
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Jorge |