From: Edward Cree <ec429@cantab.net>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Code of Conduct: Let's revamp it.
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 07:00:26 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <e223b198-af0e-123d-49bf-fad7e0f9126e@cantab.net> (raw)
The new Code of Conduct makes me feel threatened and uncomfortable.
No, really. As a person with (diagnosed) Asperger's, I'm a member of,
objectively, a marginalised minority. Effectively (i.e. this is a massive
oversimplification), I was born without the hard-wired circuitry for
social
interactions that is normally a part of the human brain; consequently
I have
to run a slow and inaccurate software simulation when interacting with
'normal' people.
In nearly all the communities I participate in, this is a constantly
limiting
factor for me. But there is one world that is blessedly free of such
things:
the world of open-source software. It is one of the last places where my
particular neurodiversity does _not_ mark me out as Other, does _not_
force
me to carefully watch what I say and present a falsely constructed
façade in
place of my real identity. For here, we care not for 'feelings';
either the
code is good or it is bad, and in the latter case we say so directly and
bluntly. Not only does this mean that I don't have to guard my tongue
when
critiquing someone else's patch, far more importantly it means I can
understand what's being said when _my_ patches are criticised.
(Almost all
of my best ideas and patches have been born out of someone telling me I'm
wrong.)
The Linux kernel community is a place without office politics, without
subtle
subtexts, without primate dominance dynamics. A place where criticism
_can_
be gracefully accepted _without_ having to worry that admitting to being
wrong will lower one's status. A place where I, and people like me,
can feel
at home, and maybe even create something of value.
And the Contributor Covenant looks very much like the camel's nose of an
attempt to take that place, that community, away from me. To replace
it with
an Orwellian nightmare where I must forever second-guess what is safe
to say.
(First they came for "master/slave replication", and I did not speak up
because I was not a DBA.)
I cannot speak for my employer (hence why I am posting this from my personal
address), but to the extent that my rôle as a contributor to the
networking
subsystem, and as co-maintainer of the sfc driver, gives me any
standing in a
_personal_ capacity, I absolutely cannot sign up to this 'Pledge' nor
accept
the 'Responsibilities' to police the speech of others that it makes a
duty of
maintainership, and I urge the project leadership to revert its adoption.
Some elements of the Code are unobjectionable; sexual advances, for
instance,
have no place on the lkml (though they may at, say, a conference, and not
everyone can reliably predict whether they are unwelcome), and the
ability of
kernel developers to accept constructive criticism is one of the strengths
that has made Linux what it is. But far too many of its provisions
rely on
ill-defined terms, and thus give those charged with interpreting those
terms
the power to destroy livelihoods. By placing a corporate body (the LF) in
the position of arbiter, an avenue is opened for commercial pressure to be
applied; and the legalistic phrasing of the Code practically invites
rules-
lawyering whereby the most abusive may twist it into a weapon to further
their abuse.
If the Code were reduced to something more like the old Code of Conflict,
reminding people to 'be liberal in what they accept and conservative
in what
they emit', and clarifying that patch submissions should be judged by the
_code_ and not by any characteristics or beliefs of the submitter (I don't
think the enumerated list of protected classes is helpful, as a legalistic
abuser can always slip into a crack between them), I think the sting
would be
drawn. Probably the CoConflict would make a better base from which to
draft
such a document.
(A note for the irony-challenged: where I use Progressive terms-of-art, such
as 'marginalised', 'Other' and 'identity', in the above, I am
endeavouring to
show that this alleged push for 'inclusiveness' fails on its own
terms; I am
_not_ accepting the theory behind those terms nor suggesting that, in
reality, the kernel community owes me any special treatment on account
of my
'diversity'.)
next reply other threads:[~2018-09-19 6:06 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 60+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2018-09-19 6:00 Edward Cree [this message]
2018-09-19 14:18 ` Code of Conduct: Let's revamp it Jonathan Corbet
2018-09-19 23:35 ` Edward Cree
2018-09-20 1:16 ` Olof Johansson
2018-09-20 2:14 ` Edward Cree
2018-09-21 1:48 ` Rik van Riel
2018-09-21 2:16 ` unixing
2018-09-21 13:07 ` Frank Ch. Eigler
2018-09-21 16:34 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-21 23:15 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2018-09-21 23:20 ` Joey Pabalinas
2018-09-21 23:31 ` jonsmirl
2018-09-21 23:59 ` Bernd Petrovitsch
2018-09-24 18:59 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-24 19:45 ` Bernd Petrovitsch
2018-09-25 2:24 ` gratuitouslicensesarerevocable
2018-09-25 17:14 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-26 0:41 ` Bernd Petrovitsch
2018-09-26 19:34 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-26 20:55 ` Joey Pabalinas
2018-09-28 18:34 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-28 15:56 ` Alan Cox
2018-09-28 19:38 ` jonsmirl
2018-09-29 12:44 ` Eric S. Raymond
2018-09-29 12:46 ` Eric S. Raymond
2018-09-22 0:05 ` Joey Pabalinas
2018-09-22 0:24 ` jonsmirl
2018-09-24 17:43 ` Max Filippov
2018-09-24 18:07 ` jonsmirl
2018-09-23 18:44 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-25 23:48 ` Michael Woods
2018-09-24 17:25 ` unconditionedwitness
2018-09-25 11:28 ` Pavel Machek
2018-09-25 12:36 ` Christoph Conrads
2018-09-25 13:13 ` Eric S. Raymond
2018-09-25 13:41 ` Christoph Conrads
2018-09-25 17:38 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-25 13:28 ` Pavel Machek
2018-09-26 10:24 ` Martin Steigerwald
2018-09-25 15:14 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2018-09-25 22:30 ` Eric S. Raymond
2018-09-26 11:17 ` Christoph Conrads
2018-09-20 3:07 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2018-09-20 4:18 ` Willy Tarreau
2018-09-20 9:27 ` unconditionedwitness
2018-09-20 22:57 ` Edward Cree
2018-09-23 14:50 ` Christoph Conrads
2018-09-23 18:41 ` \0xDynamite
2018-09-24 17:21 ` unconditionedwitness
[not found] ` <c61eb2d545150d46428f4bc25843cd58@redchan.it>
[not found] ` <201809241941.44460.dr.klepp@gmx.at>
[not found] ` <20180924204809.GK23968@linuxmafia.com>
2018-09-25 2:09 ` [DNG] Fwd: " gratuitouslicensesarerevocable
2018-09-20 9:29 ` unconditionedwitness
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2018-09-20 21:18 Christoph Conrads
2018-09-21 8:09 ` Martin Steigerwald
2018-09-21 11:36 ` Christoph Conrads
2018-09-17 11:48 Lukas Wunner
2018-09-17 12:24 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2018-09-18 19:16 ` Pavel Machek
2018-09-19 10:30 ` Mauro Carvalho Chehab
2018-09-18 20:16 ` Lukas Wunner
[not found] ` <61b4a3f9-ccd1-061c-1c1b-ec993b056c66@bosch-fellbach.de>
2018-09-20 10:57 ` Lukas Wunner
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