Re: Let's Do the CoC Right

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016 15:43:11 -0800
"Joshua D. Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:

> I have been accused of being a fat hater. My crime? I suggested that
> generally speaking, obesity is a matter of diet and exercise. Worse?
> The individual started the conversation and I am also classified as
> obese (barely, I won't be in a month).

Perfect!

I know a person who is fat because his/her (I'll call the person male
from now on) thyroid was removed, and weight control is extremely
difficult under those circumstances. Do you think he'd feel welcome on
a list where somebody said "generally speaking, obesity is a matter of
diet and exercise?"[1] And then perhaps someone else says he thinks fat
people are lazy.

Is my overweight friend going to set you straight? Probably not. He
knows how much antifat prejudice exists in the employment marketplace,
and doesn't want to do anything do the slightest thing to "out" himself
to potential networking associates who haven't seen him in person.

And for what? What does a person's weight have to do with a great
and powerful Open Source relational database? Not a dam thing.

Hey, if the conflict is about technology, by all means have at it. It's
an argument that needs to happen in order to produce the best result.
But when it comes to gender, gender preference, gender-assignment,
race, nationality, religion, body shape, or political party (unless the
party takes a stand on technology), the CoC should ban negative
statements about that crap.

[1] I'm not faulting your example. Your example is relevant to the
discussion. I'm faulting a hypothetical person who comes on the list
and says that, apropos to nothing.

SteveT

Steve Litt
January 2016 featured book: Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
http://www.troubleshooters.com/28