[erlang-questions] Announcing Erlang.org Code of Conduct

[Fred Hebert]

On 03/13, Peter Hickman wrote:
> Well this makes me very uncomfortable :(
> 
> Despite being a lurker the introduction of arbitrary and subjective rules
> such as 74 character limit and no top posting, neither of which have ever
> caused me problems, comes off as someone having too much time on their
> hands.

I'm not behind the initiative of having a code of conduct, but I was
brought in to help with some wording and some clauses.

I don't know what it is like to moderate these mailing lists, but for
the places (forums, IRC channels, meetups) I have helped moderate, they
can be nice for a few reasons, the leats of which is crystalizing the
criteria by which you moderate already.

The idea of these rules is to take what is currently taking place and
make it obvious, so that when someone does something bad, the moderator
can point their way and go "this is the rule we enforce, please respect
it" rather than just improvising the rules they enforce.

The idea is not to introduce new rules, it's to make them explicit.

If you didn't feel threatened before and never received a warning,
there's no reason you should be now.

> 
> 3.  Be mindful of how much text you are quoting. Too much or too
>     little doesn't help.
> 
> Could you please provide guidance on what constitutes "too much" or "too
> little" quoting. I will be expecting citations from peer reviewed journals
> - or is this just the whim of an anonymous mod?
> 

I believe it is at the whim of an anonymous mod, as it was before a code
of conduct. Nothing changed there. I've been told people received warnings
before for extremely long top-posting with large quotes.

It was, I believe (because I have never seen it or been warned) done in
private, and nobody felt the pressure of 'the man' stamping their boots
on their neck.

> I am a member of a few language based communities, some which have been
> much less professional than this list, and they thrived without having
> Moses coming down with the tablets to inform us how we should format our
> emails. Why you think that this even needs to be introduced? Did I miss
> some great cataclysm?
> 

Do you believe no rules were enforced before today? As far as I can tell
they were enforced. Now we just have a better idea what they are.

Ericsson had moderators in here and still do. It's not Moses coming down
with the tablets to inform you of new rules, It's Moses coming down to
tell you what rules were already there but you judt didn't know about.

That's the distinction this Code of Conduct makes. It's not new law.
It's current law, made explicit. If you haven't felt a problem with the
list before, I don'T think there's any reason to feel them now.