[Haskell-community] Civility notes (was "Traversable instances for (, , ) a b")

[Paul Connolley]

Hello all,

(I've been lurking on the Haskell community list for a good while now and
I'm just now plucking up the courage to say hello.)

I feel that Wren is spot on: this isn't somehow an attempt to change the
existing behaviour but a way to confirm to existing members and *advertise
to newcomers* that this is a safe and friendly community.

As more of a reader than a contributor to this community I don't feel I
have earnt much say in what a future Haskell Community CoC contains.
However, Wren has linked to some good articles that talk about existing
CoCs that are being used in anger. I think that they would be a really
valuable resource in this endeavour.

I believe that Rust's CoC is MIT licensed and that some of the other codes
of conduct mentioned in those articles are licensed under the Creative
Commons. Deriving our own from one of these which have had a diverse set of
people writing, discussing and refining it sounds, to me, like a good
starting point.

No matter what, I look forward to seeing this discussion continue and also
to the finished document!

Regards,
Paul.


On 25 April 2017 at 02:39, wren romano <wren at community.haskell.org> wrote:

> I'm +1 to having a CoC. It doesn't have to be complicated, and indeed
> CoCs are better when they're uncomplicated (but explicit! vague CoCs
> help noone).
>
> The point of a CoC is not to change people's behavior (if you want
> that, there are more effective approaches). The point is to serve as a
> touchstone for community values. Without a touchstone, communities
> drift over time as people age and come and go. Drifting itself is
> unavoidable and not necessarily bad, but sometimes that drifting is
> the slipping that becomes corrosive. Touchstones give communities a
> way to correct for corrosion: by concretely recording the past they
> make the past visible, and thus make the present visible as something
> that has changed from the past.
>
> CoCs also, as Tom says, make the community values explicit for
> outsiders to see. This is especially important for women and
> minorities, because we are disproportionately affected by breaches of
> civility. This is why numerous organizations for women in STEM
> advocate for having CoCs. To pick a few examples:
>
>     https://www.ashedryden.com/blog/codes-of-conduct-101-faq
>     https://adainitiative.org/2014/02/18/
>     https://geekfeminism.org/2014/06/30/
>
> The mere existence of a CoC indicates that at least at some point the
> community cared enough about civility to try to ensure it. That alone
> indicates that the community has higher standards for civility than
> the vast bulk of online communities for programming. And it is
> something we look for. If you want to avoid discouraging women and
> minorities from joining, it's not enough to play Simon Says, you have
> to write the rules down too.
>
> --
> Live well,
> ~wren
> _______________________________________________
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> Haskell-community at haskell.org
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>



-- 
Paul Connolley
*Software Developer*
https://connrs.uk
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