Adding a Code of Conduct to MacPorts

[Michael Dickens]

I definitely agree that when a document enumerates examples -- even with the "including but not limited to" -- it sets the stage for your scenario. Thus, moving away from examples is probably wise. I, too, like the Ruby CoC: it's short and concise, stating the basic principles rather than specifics. It might be overly vague and open to interpretation, but that's OK. Anyway, thanks for that info, George. It's definitely worth considering how detailed or vague we in MacPorts-land would like any CoC we might adopt. - MLD

On Wed, Sep 19, 2018, at 12:32 AM, George Plymale II wrote:
> I'm fairly new in the MacPorts community, but I'd like to offer an
> opinion on this topic. Personally, I feel that CoC's like the
> Contributor Covenant, Postgres CoC, FreeBSD CoC, etc. are very... umm,
> let's just say strict. I think they read more like license terns than a
> set of guidelines on how to be friendly in a community. The real problem
> with them seems to be with the fact that they're so specific. This means
> in practice that Bob will point to it and say, "Alice did this to me"
> and then Alice will come back and say, "well I wasn't breaking any rules
> because it wasn't included in your CoC."
> 
> I know that kind of situation sounds silly, but this is the kind of
> thing that happens with these sorts of CoC's. I personally prefer a
> human-driven approach, where people take things on a case-by-case
> basis. I.e., people can decide whether someone is being unreasonable or
> not and it is a much healthier way of doing things in my
> experience. I've seen lots of drama in the past due to people trying to
> force these unnatural CoC's upon projects and it results in more harm
> than good.
> 
> I personally vouch for the Ruby Code of Conduct. Here is a link:
> https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/conduct/
> 
> I think it encapsulates the basis of a friendly community while being
> succinct. I really doubt that any problems will arise like this in the
> future, but I think that having a healthy CoC will be good for everyone.
> 
> Just my 2¢