On 10/22/18, Chris Brody <chris.br...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Looks like that happened this morning. >> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18273530 > > I saw it coming, tried to warn you guys in private.
There is indeed a reactionary hate mob forming on twitter. But most of the thoughtful commentators have been supportive, even if they disagree with the particulars of our CoC, They total get that we are not being exclusive, but rather setting a standard of behavior for participation in the SQLite community. I have tried to make that point clear in the preface to the CoC, that we have no intention of enforcing any particular religious system on anybody, and that everyone is welcomed to participate in the community regardless of ones religious proclivities. The only requirement is that while participating in the SQLite community, your behavior not be in direct conflict with time-tested and centuries-old Christian ethics. Nobody has to adhere to a particular creed. Merely demonstrate professional behavior and all is well. Many detractors appear to have not read the preface, or if they read it, they did not understand it. This might be because I have not explained it well. The preface has been revised, months ago, to address prior criticism from the twitter crowd. I think the current preface is definitely an improvement over what was up at first. But, there might be ways of improving it further. Thoughtful suggestions are welcomed. So the question then arises: If strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict is not required, why even have a CoC? Several reasons: First, "professional behavior" is ill-defined. What is professional to some might be unprofessional to others. The Rule attempts to clarify what "professional behavior" means. When I was first trying to figure out what CoC to use (under pressure from clients) I also considered secular sources, such as Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues (http://www.thirteenvirtues.com/) but ended up going with the Instruments of Good Works from St. Benedict's Rule as it provide more examples. Secondly, I view a CoC not so much as a legal code as a statement of the values of the core developers. All current committers to SQLite approved the CoC before I published it. A single dissent would have been sufficient for me to change course. Taking down the current CoC would not change our values, it would merely obscure them. Isn't it better to be open and honest about who we are? Thirdly, having a written CoC is increasingly a business requirement. (I published the currrent CoC after two separate business requested copies of our company CoC. They did not say this was a precondition for doing business with them, but there was that implication.) There has been an implicit code of conduct for SQLite from the beginning, and almost everybody has gotten along with it just fine. Once or twice I have had to privately reprove offenders, but those are rare exceptions. Publishing the current CoC back in February is merely making explicit what has been implicit from the beginning. Nothing has really changed. I did not draw attention to the CoC back in February because all I really needed then was a hyperlink to send to those who were specifically curious. So then, why not use a more modern CoC? I looked at that too, but found the so-called "modern" CoCs to be vapid. They are trendy feel-good statements that do not really get to the heart of the matter in the way the the ancient Rule does. By way of analogy, I view modern CoCs as being like pop music - selling millions of copies today and completely forgotten next year. I prefer something more enduring, like Mozart. One final reason for publishing the current CoC is as a preemptive move, to prevent some future customer from imposing on us one of those modern CoCs that I so dislike. In summary: The values expressed by the current CoC have been unchanged for decades and will not be changing as we move forward. If some people are uncomfortable with those values, then I am very sorry for them, but that does not change the fact. On the other hand, I am open to suggestions on how to express those values in a way that modern twitter-ites can better understand, so do not hesitate to speak up if you have a plan. -- D. Richard Hipp d...@sqlite.org _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
