Re: Code of Conduct: Is it time?

On 1/5/2016 6:13 PM, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On 01/05/2016 05:31 PM, Jim Nasby wrote:
>
>> Well, that highlights that it's not just about a CoC, it's the things
>> that surround it. Especially what the conflict resolution policy is.
>>
>> I suspect JD thought about this because of a recent Facebook thread[1]
>> about how the FreeBSD community just screwed this up big-time[2]. The
>> big screw-up was not having solid ways to deal with such complaints in
>> place. Sadly, as part of that thread, it comes to light that there is
>> some history of this in the Postgres project as well.
>
> The Facebook post was the secondary catalyst. The primary one was
> discussions I have had on twitter about CoCs as well as continual work
> with various conferences.
>
>> What I'd love to see is support and commitment from the Postgres
>> community to actively attract people who will focus not on the code but
>> on building the community itself. I know there are people in the
>> community that would be interested in doing that, but without active
>> support and some encouragement things aren't going to change.
>
> Since the first PostgreSQL Conference East in Maryland, I have
> requested this. A good portion of the keynote was about this. For some
> reason our community doesn't show a lot of interest.

I'm a relatively quiet observer of the lists (and user of Postgres off
and on).  Having organized a group of virtual discussion lists many
moons ago and to help manage the volume of new contributors forced a CoC
on them which both helped and hurt the community. I personally see no
problem with a CoC, but am experienced enough to be cautious about the
implementation.

You implied in your first post that you would attract more contributors
with a CoC.  Jim Nasby posted links which outline recent issues related
to harassment.  Other comments in this thread lead me to believe that
there are other potential perspectives ... Can I ask...

What specific problem or problems does the Postgres community currently
experience ?
What specific problem or problems might the Postgres community
experience (that you would like to avoid)?
   [ that has led you to believe having a CoC would solve?  ]


Roxanne
>
> Sincerely,
>
> JD
>
>


--
[At other schools] I think the most common fault in general is to teach students how to pass exams instead of teaching
themthe science. 
Donald Knuth