I could be wrong, but I don't think I remember any discussions that go out of line, in this forum. I don't remember any politics discussions, any religious or scientific, that went out of line. Is this, really a such a big problem that requires it's own policy? We don't need this policy, just as much as we don't need a sexual harassment policy. just like we don't need a policy for the restaurants we go together. IMHO most of us are internet educated enough, to ignore signatures, as long as they are not a big hate message. My guess is most of the people know the limits, when they ask themselves "Can I afford to loose a code, written by someone who is offended from this line?" This will probably give you a good estimate to what to write and what not.
On Oct 12, 3:59 pm, Massimo Di Pierro <massimo.dipie...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hope nobody gets offended by this email and I have no option but bring > it up because I have received few emails on the topic. > > This is a multinational, multicultural community and this is a very > good thing. We want to keep it this way. Each of us has different > believes. Some people have expressed their believes (political, > religious, metaphysical) but occasionally when this conflicts with > believes of another person, the other person may feel offended. It has > happened. > > I do not think anybody has been doing anything wrong, because 1) we > have no policy about this; 2) because nobody ever tried to convince > anybody else on matters not related to the mailing list topic. In > those cases when religious or political statement was made, it was > done in the form of a signature. > > Do we need a policy about this? > Do we want see other people political/religious/philosophical > statements in there emails? > > The problem with this issue is that everybody has a different > sensibility threshold. I too have mine. For example I would be very > uncomfortable if anybody were to post statements objecting what I > consider basic scientific truths. > > Perhaps having a policy that says we should make no political/ > religious/philosophical statements is the simplest policy to > implement. Or perhaps just being aware of this problem is sufficient > and people will act differently. Of course this problem cannot be > solved completely as new users would not always be aware of policy. > And there always be exceptions (what if a user if building a software > that is connected to his/her belief). > > I this point I am not suggesting a policy on this, I am just telling > everybody there is an issue. Some people have been raising it > privately. You may want to think twice about what you put in your > emails. You may get more people to help you if you are neutral. > > There is one policy I will be enforcing though (which is related but > does not solve thee issue above): > > ------ > If I see any statement that will appear discriminatory towards any > group of people, I will demand an apology and, depending on the > severity or lack of apology, I will ban the user who posted the > statement. (for the record. to my knowledge, this has never happend). > ------ > > Massimo
