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

[Fred Hebert]

On 03/14, Peter Hickman wrote:
> I was completely unaware that we already had a 74 character limit on our
> lines. Seems like a new rule to me.

Those are more or less recommendations as I understand it. I've been
informed some people have been warned/informed privately in the past
when their e-mail format was always 'wrong' or unreadable.

The CoC is worded in a way that also doesn't mean enforcement will be
strict. People in here think like developers a lot in terms of "it is
within the rules" or "it is against the rules", leaving little place to
toeing the line that we all tend to be fine living with.

While the content policy and style policy are mixed in and can be
confusing (as pointed out by jlouis), take a look at the wording:

    1.  *We encourage you to* limit your messages to plain text English.
        [...]
    2.  *Please quote* the text you are replying to *in order to ease
        readability* [...]
    3.  *Be mindful* of how much text you are quoting. Too much or too
        little doesn't help.
    4.  Top posting is discouraged.[...]
    5.  *Try to break* your lines at around 74 characters. [...]

None of this is stone tablets down from the mountain dictating how to do
stuff. Those are recommendations of what could be considered reasonable
if you want everyone to be able to read you.

Hell, for the quoting stuff, you'll notice that over the last day or so,
I'll have top-quoted, middle-quoted, and not-quoted in at least one
reply to this list, without averse consequences. Probably because things
were still readable and no one had to complain.

I am sure regulars, moderators, and newcomers will be able to use their
judgement to make things readable most of the time, as we nearly almost
always have.

This isn't a binary all or nothing automated format checker that ends up
auto-banning you, this is a set of "please be mindful" recommendations.

Compare with the content policy:

    1.  Be nice to each other.
    2.  Hateful, hurtful, oppressive, or exclusionary remarks are not
        tolerated. (Cursing is strongly discouraged, but if you must
        curse, it may under no circumstances be used to target another
        user or in a hateful manner).
    3.  No SPAM, and that's why you have to be subscribed to post.*
    [...]

This one is a lot more direct and you can likely expect harsher
enforcement of spammers and people insulting others than people who
break 74 characters on their mail client.

Regards,
Fred.