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

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

On 14/03/2015, at 3:23 am, Bruce Yinhe <community-manager@REDACTED> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> To encourage a welcoming, inclusive climate for communication within the erlang.org community, the Erlang/OTP team, together with members of the community, has released a new code of conduct,

Did we really have a big problem?
*Which* members of "the community" and how were they selected?
Only three names appear on the code, which hardly exhausts the
Erlang/OTP team, let alone being *representative* of the
community.

I note that the code says "We encourage you to limit your messages
to plain text" but what I'm seeing is an HTML message with very
long lines.  Not to lay burdens on other's shoulders that you
aren't willing to bear yourselves, eh?

> 
> This code is not exhaustive or complete. It serves to distill our common understanding of a collaborative, shared environment and goals. We expect it to be followed in spirit as much as in the letter.

"Our" common understanding?  What makes you think you speak for me?
(English doesn't have enough pronouns.  Using Tok Pisin, I _think_
you mean "mipela" (2nd person plural exclusive, the writers of the
code and nobody else) but it _looks_ like "yumipela" (you-and-me, 2nd
person plural inclusive.  The lack of the inclusive/exclusive
distinction in English has bugged me since I was five.)

Content policy.
1.  Be nice to each other.

    [You could stop there.]

2.  ...
    [Redundant, given 1.  It says "curse" where I think "swear"
     is meant.]

3.  No SPAM.

    [Assumes that the reader understands clearly what SPAM is.
     The term is fairly recent and informal.  We have people
     who are struggling with English as well as Erlang, and it
     is not clear to me that they may be assumed to know what
     the term means.  Give a definition or a link to one.]

4.  "The are"

    [Should probably be "There are".]

Style policy.

4.  [The people who "top post" probably don't even know the
     term "to top post" and may well not know that there is
     any other way to do it.  Given some of the horrible MUAs
     out there, it may be far from obvious how to do it right.
     Maybe we need to find or build up a list of
     "how to be nice in MUA XYZZY" articles?]

5.  "Try to break your lines"

     [I would very much like to see people do this.
      Once again, however, we have a technical term
      "to break a line" that the people who misbehave
      probably do not know.  Why not simply say
      "Keep your lines short.  Use the RETURN key to
       end each line; do not assume that your readers
       will see your text wrapped the way you see it."

It would be gracious to include a link to the
venerable Emily Postnews?
http://www.templetons.com/brad/emily.html