Re: Code of Conduct plan

On 9/14/18, 12:50 PM, "Joshua D. Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:

On 09/14/2018 07:41 AM, James Keener wrote:
> > Community is people who joined it
>
> We're not a "community."

I do not think you are going to get very many people on board with that
argument. As anyone who knows me will attest I am one of the most
contrarian members of this community but I still agree that it is a
community.

JD

As Bill Clinton said in another context, "it all depends on the meaning of 'community'". 'Community' is a very tricky word with uncertain boundaries and variable degrees of belonging to it. Moreover, it's reciprocal: 'you' and the 'community' may have different ideas of whether or how you belong. Rules in communities are usually tacit. You might almost want to say that if you need to write rules you no longer have a community. Writing community rules is a very and probably hopeless endeavor.

For quite a while the word 'community' has been grossly overused and has often been invoked as a way of creating a sense of community where there is reason to doubt whether the thing is there in the first place.

'Civil' and 'civility' are more modest words with more modest goals that are perhaps easier to capture in language. When it comes to a code of civil conduct, less is more. If you use more than the words of the ten commandments you almost certainly have gone too far. I have yet to see a posting on this list that would suggest an urgent need for trying to regulate what contributors say or how they say it.

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