It would be a shame to scrap the idea because we are presuming the worst in everyone. That seems very anti-ASF to me. A better approach might be to appoint "social" moderators (i.e. gate keepers of the civility) that reign the conversation back in if and when things go off-track.
Also, we do have a code of conduct, ala Ubuntu: https://svn.apache.org/repos/private/committers/voluntary-code-of-conduct.txt On 7 May 2013 17:34, Marvin Humphrey <mar...@rectangular.com> wrote: > On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 6:19 AM, Bertrand Delacretaz > <bdelacre...@apache.org> wrote: > > WDYT? > > I'm skeptical that it will work out well. I'd expect the list to descend > into > shouting matches between warring tribes and to end up as an echo chamber > dominated by the faction which can generate the greatest volume of email. > > On our dev lists, people have a tangible product to keep discussions > grounded. > Contributors are invested in what gets committed to the repository, and > conversations are directed towards achieving a negotiated end. > Participants > in the proposed general "tech" list won't be united by any such common > goal. > > In addition, Apache has only weak traditions encouraging civility -- by > design, in order to protect gadflies and encourage innovation through > conflict > -- and many abrasive people, from the bottom of the organization to the top > and going back to the foundation's earliest days. There's no "code of > conduct" a la Ubuntu, and even if a core group of tech@ subscribers starts > off by trying to establish a civil norm, they will be swimming against the > current. > > On the other hand, if you're looking to create a list which might make > members@ look pleasant by comparison, this could do the trick. > > Marvin Humphrey > -- NS
