Behavioral standards in the free software community

Behavioral standards in the free software community

Posted Jun 9, 2006 5:16 UTC (Fri) by paulmfoster (subscriber, #17313)
Parent article: Behavioral standards in the free software community

While I run several lists and am a heavy proponent of civilized behavior, I caution against giving in to "political correctness". We've created a world full of people whose job is to be aggrieved over extremely slight offenses, or none at all. The danger of codes of conduct like this is that they may give in too far to the easily aggrieved. It's impolite to make sexist jokes on a list populated by women, but the most they should be owed if someone told a sexist joke is an apology. No more. Continued, constant crude behavior might eventually rate an expulsion.

Unfortunately, hackers skew a bit in the direction of the juvenile and dorky. Goes with the territory. I have some of these guys on my lists. Every once in a while I have to snap at them to get their attention. They get back in line. I rarely find it necessary to expel one, and only do so when it's clear to one and all that they guy just can't live comfortably with other people.

Look at it this way: If we all adopted what might be called "reasonable" codes of conduct, RMS would have been kicked out of this movement long ago.

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