Hi,
I noticed this project did not have a code of conduct, so decided to write one. This is the source. Thanks for the review and merge!
[ooc edit: modified from here]
Depending on the size of the repo and number of contributors.
Small ones, yeah probably a simple “don’t be an asshole” is fine.
It gets harder when your contributors start scaling way up and go international. What might be customary in one culture may be considered rude by another. Allowing for people to be different while also maintaining decorum is important.
I worked on a FOSS project that was very small (~5 devs) and I really had to get used to how upfront the German devs were. We knew each other enough but still.
I’m all in favour of the OpenBSD mantra here: Shut up and code. People aren’t the same, and you can’t expect (e.g.) autists to share the same views about what’s nice and what’s rude as other persons.
The point I’m trying to make is that nice people won’t help the project by being nice people. IT projects are inherently technical, and that should be the only relevant unit of measurement here.
IT projects almost always have several different “correct” answers, which is why they generally lead to debate or discussion. That’s where a code of conduct is needed.
Discussion between “shut up and code” people and everyone else doesn’t tend to be a positive place to work without some boundaries. If you want people to volunteer for projects, you need to treat them with a baseline respect, and that baseline needs to be agreed on.
Seems deceptively simple, but organizing people, especially people of incredibly divergent experiences and histories that may literally only share the traits of “is human” and “can code to varying degrees” is the complex part.
Saying “just do it right” is akin to saying “we dont need test or qa. Just code without bugs.”
People are easily as messy as code itself, if not worse. We need some kind of organizing principles to work together, and thats what codes of conduct are.
Depending on the size of the repo and number of contributors.
Small ones, yeah probably a simple “don’t be an asshole” is fine.
It gets harder when your contributors start scaling way up and go international. What might be customary in one culture may be considered rude by another. Allowing for people to be different while also maintaining decorum is important.
I worked on a FOSS project that was very small (~5 devs) and I really had to get used to how upfront the German devs were. We knew each other enough but still.
I’m all in favour of the OpenBSD mantra here: Shut up and code. People aren’t the same, and you can’t expect (e.g.) autists to share the same views about what’s nice and what’s rude as other persons.
The point I’m trying to make is that nice people won’t help the project by being nice people. IT projects are inherently technical, and that should be the only relevant unit of measurement here.
IT projects almost always have several different “correct” answers, which is why they generally lead to debate or discussion. That’s where a code of conduct is needed.
Discussion between “shut up and code” people and everyone else doesn’t tend to be a positive place to work without some boundaries. If you want people to volunteer for projects, you need to treat them with a baseline respect, and that baseline needs to be agreed on.
The baseline in technical projects is “make good products” though.
Sure. How?
Seems deceptively simple, but organizing people, especially people of incredibly divergent experiences and histories that may literally only share the traits of “is human” and “can code to varying degrees” is the complex part.
Saying “just do it right” is akin to saying “we dont need test or qa. Just code without bugs.”
People are easily as messy as code itself, if not worse. We need some kind of organizing principles to work together, and thats what codes of conduct are.