Hi,
This has just been published on the Mozilla community blog by Emma Irwin and I thought it could interest some of you here.
https://blog.mozilla.org/community/2020/09/10/weaving-safety-into-the-fabric...
It brings insight into the experience of enforcing a code of conduct in an open source community.
Wikilove!
Nattes à chat Envoyé de mon iPhone
Le 12 sept. 2020 à 05:23, Zainan Zhou (a.k.a Victor) zzn@zzn.im a écrit :
I might be wrong, but I couldn't help noticing some disagreements of whether we should have a Universal CoC lies in the different mindset of how conflicts should be governed, just like legal systems of Common Laws vs Civil Laws.
On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 9:25 AM Natacha Rault via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote: {{trigger warning : French joke included}}
Dear Pete, let me explain why this is problematic.
First I am sorry to say there is no hidden agenda or awful witchery plot to uncover including WMF influence. I have myself severely criticised the WMF in the course of the branding process (and was never scolded for that so I think we can express criticism). Maybe not all the time, maybe not just in any format.
I made the initial comment, and no one pushed me into. If it has offended people, I am sorry, maybe I should in effect have reached out to Dan privately first. Dan I am sorry of the attention, your wording is being given, and I would like us to move on, as suggested by Alphos to a more constructive debate.
Pete, because your are asking repeatedly for clarification and only because of that, what I have learned from my #black lives matter friends, it that s not my obligation to educate you on why this is problematic. In fact when you ask for clarifications, you are putting pressure on people who find the use of disrespectful language a problem instead of asking why the initial comment had to include flatulistic scenery (and this for French speakers has nothing to do with Brice de Nice’s expression « ça farte » see for reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZ_kkVzx18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZ_kkVzx18) which blurrs the actual meaning behind the criticisml, especially for people whose language is not English in the first place. Then one could argue that it is targeting people of an institution. Full stop.
I wish to move on to why I believe spaces should be moderated, which basically would mean enforcing a code of conduct, that many members of our community have been asking for for years.
« As I am a nice guy » I will give a few ressources explaining why I think lists, and wikimedia spaces should be moderated. Basically it is because you can :
1- allow free roaming speech and leaving agressive behaviours unchecked creating a space where only certain social groups are over represented but thus you can’t claim to be designing the sum of all human knowledge
OR
2 - design free open source inclusive spaces that are allowing anyone to participate but you then have to moderate content because, people have different « cultures" and may not understand what offends others, there is a learning curve.
Here is a timeline of incidents https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents#2018for https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents#2018for
This time line of incidents is often cited by women as a reason for having OS code of conducts (which includes moderation of mailing lists most of the time)
History tells us, that in the early internet days, the first experiments of virtual spaces encountered less harassment and more women. This is told in the following book : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35953464-broad-band https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35953464-broad-band, where the story of Stacy Horn and how she actually designed the Esat Coast Hanger (ECHO) see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacy_Horn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacy_Horn is detailed. Why? Because Stacy Horn moderated each chan and reached out to every member that left the community so that she would eventually know about abusive behaviours and document it.
Designing a safe space does not mean you cannot address just any topic, it just means that you do so paying attention to how you treat potential readers, and contributors to create a discussion that is actually evolving around the subject, and not the format of it.
A 2018 incident about wether or not a joke should be removed https://lwn.net/Articles/753646/ https://lwn.net/Articles/753646/ questions wether there is a need for a safe space or not in open source projects. I’m taking this example, because it shows how power and privilege iin a community can be used to influence « keeping a joke that is upsetting to some ».
So the question of « censorship » is central, but it usually has a pending side : who is silenced, whose voice is not being heard? I like the way the Django FAQ adresses the problem of « censorship » in a community
https://www.djangoproject.com/conduct/faq/ https://www.djangoproject.com/conduct/faq/
Quote from the above : This is censorship! I have the right to say whatever I want
You do -- in your space. If you'd like to hang out in our spaces (as clarified above), we have some simple guidelines to follow. If you want to, for example, form a group where Django is discussed using language inappropriate for general channels then nobody's stopping you. We respect your right to establish whatever codes of conduct you want in the spaces that belong to you. Please honor this Code of Conduct in our spaces.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141109123859/http://speakup.io/coc.html https://web.archive.org/web/20141109123859/http://speakup.io/coc.html
Quote from the above :
It's important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one
If people do not know how to issue gracefully formulated criticism, we should have ressources to them to study, maybe even courses on non violent communication.
So I hope I have provided {{useful}} context and I will not answer anymore so that we can move on to something else.
Kind regards,
Nattes
Le 11 sept. 2020 à 13:29, Peter Southwood peter.southwood@telkomsa.net a écrit :
There was no clear statement of "this is the problematic text and this is why it is considered unacceptable", which is a thing that I consider a reasonable expectation, as it is possible to learn from it, understand it, pass constructive criticism or agreement, and use as it a precedent for future expectations. Cheers, Peter
-----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Adam Wight Sent: 11 September 2020 11:56 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] A Universal Code of Conduct draft for review
Is there somewhere we can refer to the list of offensive and unacceptable expressions, and how they are determined?
There were been several explanations already. It's possible to use mild words in a cruel way, for example a father telling their child "You've always had beans for brains." Editors are aware of this simple truth and any feigned outrage must be disingenuous.
It's interesting that I've voiced some extremely harsh criticism of the WMF, even suggesting that the editors form a union and sue for control of the Board, yet I've never once been moderated. Had my job threatened perhaps, but never blocked.
The point here is that petty hostility only achieves the goal of creating an unpleasant and unwelcoming environment. If you (speaking to the people here who are critical of the UCoC) want to make real change, please organize yourselves somewhere else, come up with a coherent argument, and present it here. The constant attrition of "why can't I say 'fart'?" is tiresome and dilutes any conversation of substance.
Kind regards, U:Adamw
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