Re: Shutting down the Off the Wall (was: Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items ...)

[Thomas Deutschmann]

Hi,

The topic has been discussed extensively in the past few weeks; The sad
climax was last Tuesday. At this point I will not look back anymore.
Maybe all of us could have done a better job but whataboutism doesn’t
help anyone. Let's try to focus on a possible solution.

To recall the problem:
On November 7th, Gentoo forum member "Old School" named another human
being a slut (https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-8526392.html#8526392).

This is a violation of Gentoo's code of conduct where we explicit state
that "posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting" are
unacceptable behaviors 
(https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Council/Code_of_conduct).

This is not about free speech. Gentoo is primary a Linux distribution,
not a discussion platform. This is about us who defined once how we want
to treat each other in the Gentoo community and everyone participating
must adhere to our code of conduct. It’s that simple.

I expect that everyone in Gentoo, including forum moderators, agree on that.

What does that mean for the forum?

 From my point of view, the following things must change:

1) We must finally migrate the forum's software. The new software should
give us new possibilities like introducing a warning system and move to
a reporting system which doesn't require posting in a public forum. This
should make life for moderators a lot easier like nobody is expecting
that moderators will read every posting. But once we get aware of a code
of conduct violation, we must take action.

2) Moderators must of course moderate a bit more, at least for the next
three months until everyone in the community has understood that Gentoo
should be a place where everyone should feel welcome and where we pay
attention how we treat each other. I am expecting that not more than 20
people will have a problem with our rules but consistently applied rules
should either lead to changes in behavior or result in bans after a
short time.

3) We should consider starting with a new, empty, OTW forum. Some old
content like the screenshot or Christmas thread can (and should) of
course be preserved.

Like said, these are only the things which I believe have to change. I
am looking forward for other opinions, especially from current forums
moderators how they believe that the problem should be resolved.

If the situation will not change and forum remains a place where our
code of conduct will be ignored, we will have no choice but to close it.

Let's work together to solve the problem and keep the forum open! Don’t
let less than 20 people who don't share our values take our forum away
from us!


-- 
Regards,
Thomas Deutschmann / Gentoo Linux Developer
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