I'm not a member of Racket management. But I spend a lot of time using & promoting Racket. Most recently, I taught the Beautiful Racket Workshop as part of Racket Week 2019.
I care a lot about Racket — the technology, but especially the human community that makes it possible. I've heard from a few people that events before, during, or after Racket Week left them questioning Racket's commitment to making everyone feel welcome. And to be honest, it wasn't the first time. This saddens me. It's not consistent with my own values. It's not what I want Racket to stand for. I want everyone to feel welcome, wanted, and valued. In a nearby thread, Matthew Flatt talked about the importance of "reducing barriers" in a technical sense. But it matters in a community sense too, of course. If Racket is putting up social barriers — even unwittingly — that are frustrating newcomers (or existing members) then we ought to be able to hear this with an open mind & heart, and make adjustments. This is our duty as empathetic, moral members of a community. I'm not sure what I can do to improve this situation. I'm open to suggestions. I can at least offer the following (I would rather risk looking foolish than doing nothing): 1) If you've had an experience where the Racket community made you feel less than totally welcomed, I invite you to add it to this thread, or contact me privately. If you want details of your story shared, in some anonymized way, I can do that. I recognize the irony of making this offer on the racket-users mailing list — those who've had a bad experience are likely long gone. But I also know there are people here who, like me, want to help make Racket better, even on rough days. 2) Gently, I suggest that we work together to reduce the volatility of these conversations. I know that some feel that these matters are better handled away from the racket-users list. But this is counterproductive: it amounts to saying that we should feel free to harvest the benefits of Racket-the-technology while avoiding obligations to Racket-the-community. As a matter of logic and ethics, I can't see how they are divisible. 3) Today, I'm a reasonably well-adjusted adult (or at least my dog thinks so). But a long time ago, I was a fat and dorky and smart kid. For years, I was physically and verbally bullied at school. It was relentless and terrifying. But as was true for a lot of kids like me during that era, computers were a refuge. They never judged me. They rewarded my curiosity. I mention this not to put my experience on a footing with anyone else's. But it reminds me that while our contributions to Racket may be public, what Racket MEANS to each of us is necessarily private. Right now, there are people in our community for whom Racket is a bright spot in difficult times. If you haven't been there yet — you will. To my mind, discussing these matters openly is about preserving the paramount virtue of a community based on sharing knowledge: to accept everyone just as they are. When we're falling short in this regard, we shouldn't avoid these facts, lest we make a virtue of ignorance. Or if we can't do this, and people bypass Racket in preference to other communities, then we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. With much gratitude to everyone who makes Racket possible. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Racket Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/8964B1F7-C0A5-44BA-AFE3-FF87E038F3CE%40mbtype.com.
