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GNU Kind Communication Guidelines
Lest you think this is yet another CoC, the guidelines assure you that they are not a CoC.
Announcing the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines
The GNU Kind Communication Guidelines, initial version, have been published in https://gnu.org/philosophy/kind-communication.html. On behalf of the GNU Project, I ask all GNU contributors to make their best efforts to follow these guidelines in GNU Project discuaaions[sic].
[ . . . ] The difference between kind communication guidelines and a code of conduct is a matter of the basic overall approach.
A code of conduct states rules, with punishments for anyone that violates them.
[...] The idea of the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines is to start guiding people towards kinder communication at a point well before one would even think of saying, "You are breaking the rules." The way we do this, rather than ordering people to be kind or else, is try to help people learn to make their communication more kind.
[ . . . . ] I disagree with making "diversity" a goal. If the developers in a specific free software project do not include demographic D, I don't think that the lack of them as a problem that requires action
The best way to avoid conflict and encourage diversity is to force everyone to voluntarily think alike.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 29 2018, @04:34PM (13 children)
You can't have diversity and avoid conflict. Diversity means differences and differences are what create conflict.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @04:46PM (5 children)
A man has a protuberance, while a woman has a hole. That's diametrically opposing diversity, but it need to be disagreeable opposition; indeed, it may be a complementary relationship that is found to be quite agreeable.
So, the real question is this: Why is there conflict at all? Somebody must be wrong; there must be some things which are not merely a matter of opinion; there must be some things for which it is impossible to agree to disagree.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 29 2018, @05:10PM (4 children)
Theoretically, no. In practice, yes.
That aside, wrong and right are irrelevant to your point unless you believe it is okay to control what others are allowed to think. Personally, I think it's vastly more ethical to be wrong on any matter of ethics (excluding the following) than it is to try to control others. Being wrong does not imply any action while attempting to control explicitly is an action.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @05:15PM (3 children)
Your statements imply that you believe taxation is an unacceptable way to organize society's resources.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 30 2018, @11:35AM (2 children)
Society doesn't have resources, individuals do. Society is an abstract concept useful only for generalized discussion not an entity in its own right.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30 2018, @04:04PM (1 child)
Not only is your "point" stupid, but I have no idea what you're trying to say, anyway.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 31 2018, @11:06AM
You don't understand what I'm saying and you think I am the stupid one? Thanks. I needed a laugh this morning.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday October 29 2018, @06:02PM (2 children)
> Diversity means differences and differences are what create conflict.
Resolving conflicts peacefully is how things move forward. Avoiding conflicts altogether often means a systems far too closed to potentially important input.
But when race or gender or anything else pops into application coding, that's totally bullshit. I don't care if a cat or a blue whale writes the code that fixes $problem without introducing new bugs. Leave the personal stuff on the chair side of the keyboard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @06:55PM (1 child)
Keep your chair-normative comments to yourself, mkay?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @07:49PM
Bigot!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by requerdanos on Monday October 29 2018, @08:54PM (3 children)
That's not an argument that differences are bad, because conflict is not a bad thing. Out of conflict can come either discord or growth, or a mix of the two. That growth (new approaches, new ways of thinking, new code, new improvements) is important enough, in many cases, to be pursued in spite of the risk of discord out of which it may be borne.
Raw diversity in order to stir up differences is not a great way to go about it, of course. Sufficient diversity will naturally arise in most internet-forum settings (and much free software is developed in such settings) that don't actively discourage participation of certain groups.
To sum it up: You probably don't want to avoid conflict, because some conflict and the benefit thereof is a good sign of a healthy, functioning environment. Thus, if avoiding conflict is someone's reason to flee diversity, they can be reassured of the lack of need of same.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 30 2018, @11:40AM (2 children)
It wasn't an argument at all, just a statement to be thought about at $reader's leisure.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Tuesday October 30 2018, @04:04PM (1 child)
No, of course not, but many people seem to take it so when they engage in binary thinking (either this or that) instead of considering the broad range of possibilities available at any given moment.
Thus, I point this out, along with some things for the grand audience to sagely consider and accept or reject as they see fit.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 31 2018, @11:10AM
Yup. People dislike having to think. They especially dislike learning something that changes their preconceptions and will become angry and even violent if you attempt to teach them such.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.