Hi all, First of all, I want to apologise for allowing this to be delayed for so long. I came home from DebConf to find a number of personal and professional issues that I had to deal with, which ate away both my time and my motivation to work much on Debian.
Recently, however, I've spent some time reviewing the video, and
retouching the draft that we had in accordance with those comments. An
unexpected benefit of the long delay is that it's allowed me a bit of a
fresh view on the whole draft, which by itself isn't a bad thing, so
I've changed a few things different from what I would have had I not had
this delay.
Anyway. The story so far:
- I posted a draft update of the code of conduct to this list in may[1],
upon which a short discussion was started
- It was suggested that the draft wasn't ambitious enough, so I wrote a
much more ambitious one during debcamp, and held a BoF[2] during
debconf where much of it was discussed
- I posted the working document that we'd produced during that BoF to
this list shortly after the BoF had finished[3], which did generate
some comments, but not much progress.
[1] thread starting at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2013/05/msg00060.html
[2] see video at
http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2013/debconf13/webm-high/1049_CoC_BoF.webm
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2013/08/msg00036.html
I'd really like to avoid that this were to go down in history as another
one of my failed projects, so I'm going to try to get it finished ASAP,
and then propose a GR on the subject.
This is my current draft:
----
# Debian Code of Conduct
## Be respectful
In a project the size of Debian, inevitably there will be people with
whom you may disagree, or find it difficult to cooperate. Accept that,
but even so, remain respectful. Disagreement is no excuse for poor
behaviour or personal attacks, and a community in which people feel
threatened is not a healthy community.
## Assume good faith
Debian Contributors have many ways of reaching our common goal of a
[free](http://www.debian.org/intro/free) operating system which may
differ from your ways. Assume that other people are working towards this
goal.
Note that many of our Contributors are not native english speakers or
may have different cultural backgrounds; see also our [diversity
statement](http://www.debian.org/intro/diversity)
## Be collaborative
Debian is a large and complex project; there is always more to learn
within Debian. It's good to ask for help when you need it. Similarly,
offers for help should be seen in the context of our shared goal of
improving Debian.
When you make something for the benefit of the project, be willing to
explain to others how it works, so that they can build on your work to
make it even better.
## Try to be concise.
Keep in mind that what you write once will be read by hundreds of
persons. Writing a short email means people can understand the
conversation as efficiently as possible. When a long explanation is
necessary, consider adding a summary.
Try to bring new arguments to a conversation so that each mail adds
something unique to the thread, keeping in mind that the rest of the
thread still contains the other messages with arguments that have
already been made.
Try to stay on topic, especially in discussions that are already fairly
large.
## Be open
Most ways of communication used within Debian allow for public and
private communication. As per paragraph three of the [social
contract](http://www.debian.org/social_contract), you should preferably
use public methods of communication for Debian-related messages, unless
posting something sensitive.
This applies to messages for help or Debian-related support, too; not
only is a public support request much more likely to result in an answer
to your question, it also makes sure that any inadvertent mistakes made
by people answering your question will be more easily detected and
corrected.
## In case of problems.
While this code of conduct should be adhered to by participants, we
recognize that sometimes people may have a bad day, or be unaware of
some of the rules in this code of conduct. When that happens, you may
reply to them and point out this code of conduct. Such messages may be
in public or in private, whatever is most appropriate. However,
regardless of whether the message is public or not, it should still
adhere to the relevant parts of this code of conduct; in particular, it
should not be abusive or disrespectful. Assume good faith; it is more
likely that participants are unaware of their bad behaviour than that
they intentionally try to degrade the quality of the discussion.
Repeated offenders may be temporarily or permanently banned from
communicating through Debian's systems, at the DPL's (or the DPL's
delegates') prerogative.
# Medium-specific codes
This section contains some guidelines that are specific to one
particular communication medium. Note that the above general guidelines
still apply to each and every one of these medium-specific guidelines,
as well.
## Email
Email is an important part of Debian; much of our communication happens
through mail. This section applies to all email communication within
Debian, whether on our [mailinglists](http://lists.debian.org/), the [bug
tracking system](http://bugs.debian.org/), or private email between
project collaborators in the context of their Debian work.
- Please use the most appropriate list you can see. If you are unsure,
use debian-user for support-related questions, or debian-mentors for
development-related questions. Be prepared to ask your question on a
different list if told to do so, and mention that it is a resent
question.
- Use the correct language when sending mails to our lists. This is
usually English, unless otherwise noted in the description of the
mailing list in question.
- You should check whether to reply to the List-Post address only, or
whether the original author would like to be a Cc recipient. This may
be indicated in the non-standard Mail-Followup-To header.
- If you wish to be part of a discussion, you should preferably
subscribe to the relevant mailing list, even if only temporarily. If
you choose not to, you should remember that you may lose out on part
of the discussion, even if you explicitly asked to be copied on
replies.
- You should avoid sending large attachments (except, perhaps, in
private mail); this generates a lot of unnecessary bandwidth on our
servers. Instead, put the file you would like to attach online
somewhere and post a link.
- Please ensure that your mail system never sends automatic replies to
the list or the BTS. If you do, our system administrators may remove
you from the list or block you from posting to the BTS with immediate
effect to avoid flooding or annoying participants. This ban may be
lifted once the automatic messages have been disabled.
- Replies to a post on a mailing list should, in general, go to the same
mailing list. Do not change the mailing list, unless you are posting
something that is no longer relevant to the original discussion and
clearly off-topic for the mailing list where it is being discussed.
## IRC
Debian provides interactive chat through the [OFTC](http://www.oftc.net)
IRC network. This section applies to communication through Debian's
official channels (those beginning with #debian).
Do not assume there's someone on the channel at all times. IRC is an
interactive medium; this means that people need to be online and on
the channel to see your question. If you receive no immediate answer
to your question and there is no apparent activity on the channel,
wait a while; people may see it later and reply. You could also come
back later and try again; alternatively, try using one of our
mailinglists.
## Blogs
Debian provides the [Planet Debian](http://planet.debian.org/) blog
aggregator service for contributors. While it is not required that blog
posts that are syndicated on Planet Debian have Debian-related content
only, people who often post material that is not related to Debian may
consider only syndicating a Debian-related feed to Planet Debian.
## More?
# Further reading
The links in this section do not refer to documents that are part of
this code of conduct, nor are they authoritative within Debian. However,
they do contain useful information on how to conduct oneself on our
- The [Debian Community Guidelines](http://people.debian.org/~enrico/dcg/)
by Enrico Zini contain some advice on how to communicate effectively.
- <link to documentation on what to do in case of technical problems>
----
Note that we didn't manage to discuss every section during the BoF,
because time was short. I realize there's a number of issues in the
"Medium-specific codes" part; I'm inclined to throw it out entirely, but
I thought to ask here, first.
We did discuss the "Be respectful", "Assume good faith", "Be
collaborative", "Try to be concise", and "In case of problems" sections.
We skipped over the "Be open" section for lack of time, and did not
reach the "Medium-specific codes" bit at all.
If you weren't at the BoF and have some 45 minutes, it might be a good
idea to check out the video (link above). Other than that, I'd like to
see if people have comments.
I promise to be prompt about it this time ;-)
--
This end should point toward the ground if you want to go to space.
If it starts pointing toward space you are having a bad problem and you
will not go to space today.
-- http://xkcd.com/1133/
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