Re: Code of Conduct plan

On 09/14/2018 01:31 AM, Chris Travers wrote:
>
> I apologize for the glacial slowness with which this has all been
> moving.
> The core team has now agreed to some revisions to the draft CoC
> based on
> the comments in this thread; see
>
> https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct
>
> (That's the updated text, but you can use the diff tool on the page
> history tab to see the changes from the previous draft.)
>
>
> I really have to object to this addition:
> "This Code is meant to cover all interaction between community
> members, whether or not it takes place within postgresql.org
> <http://postgresql.org> infrastructure, so long as there is not
> another Code of Conduct that takes precedence (such as a conference's
> Code of Conduct)."
>
> That covers things like public twitter messages over live political
> controversies which might not be personally directed.   At least if
> one is going to go that route, one ought to *also* include a safe
> harbor for non-personally-directed discussions of philosophy, social
> issues, and politics.  Otherwise, I think this is asking for trouble. 
> See, for example, what happened with Opalgate and how this could be
> seen to encourage use of this to silence political controversies
> unrelated to PostgreSQL.

I think this is a complicated issue. On the one hand, postgresql.org has
no business telling people how to act outside of postgresql.org. Full stop.

On the other hand if you are (note: contributor, not community member
which is different) contributor to PostgreSQL, your actions speak about
PostgreSQL. So I am not sure what a good plan of action here would be.

One area where this is going to cause a lot of issues is within the
social constructs of the micro-communities. Are we going to ban Chinese
members because their government is anti Christian and anti Muslim? Are
we going to ban members of countries that are not as progressive
thinking about LGBT rights? Are we going to tell evangelical Christians
or devout Muslims that they are unwelcome because they are against Gay
marriage? Are we going to ban Atheists because they think Christians are
fools?

I think the answer would be, "no" unless they post an opinion... Is that
really what our community is becoming, thought police?

There was a time when Open Source was about code and community. It is
clear that it is becoming about authority and politics.

I am the individual that initiated this whole process many moons ago
with the intent that we have a simple, "be excellent to each other" code
of conduct. What we have now (although much better than previous drafts)
is still an over reach.

tl;dr; The willingness of people to think they are right is only
exceeded by their willingness to oppress those they don't agree with.

JD
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