[ghc-steering-committee] Dealing with abuse on the issue tracker

[Sebastian Graf]

What I found quite derailing upon reading the very first comment was that
it raises two non-issues:

   1. that the proposal should generalise to more keywords than just `type`
   (it does!)
   2. that the proposed change could somehow make typos valid programs (it
   does not; .type must be surrounded by parens (.type), and such a typo would
   likely trigger a syntax error *even if* -XOverloadedRecordDot was active)

Reading such troll-ish posts (even if the author did not mean to troll)
often triggers a strong urge in me to reply to correct these perceived
misconceptions.
Soon I'm not the only one replying. The troll (by perceived function, not
by self-declaration) keeps on fueling the discussion with ever new
contentious material, at which point the discussion has been successfully
derailed.
Everyone participating in the discussion *feels* like they are helping, but
in reality they are sadly just providing more fuel.

I do not know enough about moderation practices to emphatically suggest a
solution.
Of course it helps if the committee itself does not engage with trolls, but
there are many other people with a GitHub account who might still engage
(and they do!).
In the present case, the proposal author engaged with the troll as well.

That highlights an important issue: *The proposal author is supposed to
defend their proposal against critique, and rebut any which is invalid.*
In other words: *it might seem like it is the job* of the proposal author
to engage with trolls.
(Of course, ultimately only critique from the committee needs addressing,
but I think it's "good practice" to rebut early.)
If I was a proposal author and the troll accepted a rebuttal as an
invitation for more inflammatory discussion that went un-moderated, I would
be upset about the experience.
I think that is what happened here. Curiously, I don't see a direct
violation of any HF Guideline as I interpret them, but to me it feels like
the whole discussion was started by the troll in bad faith.

Am Di., 23. Juli 2024 um 09:36 Uhr schrieb Simon Peyton Jones <
simon.peytonjones at gmail.com>:

> I'm curious what the other committee members think about this.
>
>
> I am very concerned when conversations stray outside the Haskell
> Foundation Guidelines for Respectful Communication.
> <https://haskell.foundation/guidelines-for-respectful-communication/>
> But I am often very unsure what to do about it.
>
> In this case, though, it doesn't look terrible.  Matt is clearly saying
> (albeit in rather intemperate language) that he feels unwelcome, but
> actually the thread does not look bad.   Some people supporting, some
> suggesting caution ("that might be dangerously close to a typo") and some
> (IMHO totally unjustified) sarcasm ("Oh, hang on ... is the date April 1st
> where you are?").
>
> How does it come over to all of you?   Any advice or suggestions?
>
> Anyway, I'll write to Mike.  Thanks for flagging it Moritz.
>
> Simon
>
>
>
> On Tue, 23 Jul 2024 at 08:24, Moritz Angermann <moritz.angermann at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Committee members,
>>
>> I'd like to bring the following tweet (thread) from Matt to your
>> attention:
>> https://x.com/mattoflambda/status/1815536812376707224
>>
>> It concerns pull request: Allow reserved identifiers as fields in
>> `OverloadedRecordDot` by parsonsmatt · Pull Request #668 ·
>> ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals (github.com)
>> <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/668>.
>>
>> We do not seem to be as welcoming as we could/should be?
>>
>> My stance in general around this is probably a bit old fashioned, and
>> what I learned on IRC back then: not to fuel and engage with negative
>> behavior.
>>
>> I'm curious what the other committee members think about this.
>>
>> Best,
>>  Moritz
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