Re:Helping newcomers become contributors to open projects
by scrollaway on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @09:13AM
(#21386704)
The general rule is that a project shouldn't need a code of conduct. A code of conduct outlines basic decency rules in which case, if it gets to the point that the project needs to be explicit about them to keep a good ambiance, that project has deeper seated issues.
Codes of conduct are great when the etiquette is ambiguous. Open source projects are not one of those.
When the users are in the wrong, you should be able to kick them out uncontroversially. And when the maintainers are in the wrong... They tend to ignore their own CoC anyway. Speaking from experience, I've tried contributing to a particular PSF project in the past, adding a feature to support a use case the maintainer did not like (supporting tab indent option in a code formatter), which was ignored and closed; and when I pointed out to the maintainer that his behaviour was in breach of the CoC, that too was ignored. What are you gonna do? In the end I had to fork the project.
Codes of conduct are great when the etiquette is ambiguous. Open source projects are not one of those.
When the users are in the wrong, you should be able to kick them out uncontroversially. And when the maintainers are in the wrong... They tend to ignore their own CoC anyway. Speaking from experience, I've tried contributing to a particular PSF project in the past, adding a feature to support a use case the maintainer did not like (supporting tab indent option in a code formatter), which was ignored and closed; and when I pointed out to the maintainer that his behaviour was in breach of the CoC, that too was ignored. What are you gonna do? In the end I had to fork the project.