Oliver Keyes wrote:
On the general subject of codes of conduct and what
they bring (or
don't bring) in terms of user safety and a sense of inclusion, I
recently encountered
http://wp.me/p11Aax-4aq on Twitter - it's an
interesting read and brings up a couple of points definitely worth
thinking about, namely that the intent behind a CoC is not to be the
be-all and end-all of user safety but instead to set a very minimum bound
of what is acceptable.
Am I supposed to know what a manfeeling is? It seems weird to me that the
push (perhaps a movement, who knows) to implement codes of conduct has
become so enmeshed with the ultra-liberal feminist movement. I think there
are people who sympathize with and even support efforts to have codes of
conduct in technical spaces, but who don't want to feel demonized for
being male. There's a dark irony in sites such as Geek Feminism Wiki
feeling the need to prominently answer "Are men welcome here?" in their
FAQ (<http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki_FAQ>).
This isn't to say that there aren't good ideas and good people behind some
of this content, but I can see a lot potential allies to the code of
conduct cause being put off by the militant feminist language and
overeager citations of feminist theory.
MZMcBride