[Foundation-l] Do we need a Code of Participation?

[David Gerard]

On 09/11/2007, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> The danger is that we do have people who will treat the proposed Code of
> Conduct as a hammer for beating newbies.  A code put in those terms
> would be as meaningful as shrinkwrapped software that tells me that I
> can't transfer the information to Cuba.


This happens already - people who try to use guidelines for the
clueful of good will as bludgeons to apply to the clueless of ill
will, and even then try to word them accordingly. See pontification at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP%3APRO#How_to_write_a_process_for_mere_humans


> I support the idea of a series of principles that we all hold dear, but
> not any kind of bureaucratic structure to support them.


We have the principles already. The problem is getting new people to
understand them the way we do. This implies they have become
jargonised, rather than being written in plain language as understood
outside the project.


- d.