Re: Code of Conduct final draft?

[Adrian Custer <acuster gmail com>]

There are two issues:

  (1) the proposal    (ethics, great! Let's be cool to each other)
  (2) the mode of acceptance (through the foundation, why?)

I discuss only the latter, which you address at the end of your mail


On Tue, 2006-08-01 at 11:53 +0200, Dave Neary wrote:
> > However, the foundation has *nothing* to require of the general GNOME
> > participant. Its role was originally to provide commercial entities with
> > a point of contact. It has taken over a role in helping GUADEC and the
> > SUMMIT. It is not a steering committee nor a politburo.
> 
> Let's separate the board and the foundation. The board is certainly not
> a steering committee or politburo (although at the start of the
> foundation, it was certainly envisaged in that role). 

and my memory tells me that we rejected that firmly.

> It has morphed
> into a hands-off, handle commercial and legal relationships entity
> (although looking through the minutes and resulting action items, we do
> a fair bit more than that).
> 
> The foundation is the GNOME community (or at least a substantial part of
> it). The code of conduct is not a foundation initiative, it's a GNOME
> community member's initiative. If Murray is asking for a board stamp of
> approval, it is only because that is perhaps the best way we have right
> now to say "this represents the concensus of the community, and we're
> running with it".

Yes, this is what I was afraid of. Acceptance by a community as whacky
as GNOME will not come from a stamp of approval of a group elected by a
majority of (less than?) half (the voters) those who became members
along the way. Most GNOMErs live in republics and so they are used to
looking to 'elected' officials for approval. In an anarchic setting like
GNOME, I suspect that's a weak approach; I know it has been in the other
anarchic groups in which I participate. 

We can do better, although it's harder and there are no stamps. If we
want to be cool with each other, let's make it fun to be cool. 

Now I have said too much, and taken more of everyone's time. I will say
no more and wish the proposal the best,

--adrian