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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 01 2016, @02:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the unintended-consequences dept.

Devuan, the once devil-may-care total fork of Debian, once linked to virulent internet sexism and gamer-gate affiliated image forums by Debian Developer Russel Coker, has mulled the option of enacting a Code of Conduct when one of its female members was insulted:

> https://botbot.me/freenode/devuan/2016-05-25/?page=2
>jaromil today i was scrolling through http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_...
>golinux Well, I tried but couldn't find anybody. Then nextime popped up
>jaromil jeez. we need to take precautions. and also I get the point from Sarah Mei we need a code of conduct on-line and later for on-site http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2015/02/01/the-fos...
> its never too early for that
>
>golinux One can only control one's own actions. ;)
>
>jaromil ah the wise one
...
>Wizzup he is doxed?
>jaromil that's him. we have a dossier yes

Devuan has been criticized for taking a "who gives a damn" and "real admins do it all by hand themselves every install" attitude towards security hardening scripts, and despise in particular any mention of the "bastille" linux hardening script (originally funded by Mandrake Linux).

Interestingly when Devuan was forming, the people behind Devuan cited the very person they are considering making the code of conduct against:

> http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20141027
>VUA: It will be a governing body that puts the benefits of the users first, not the mystification of a "doacracy" delivering all the power to the package maintainers.
>Originally, Debian was created as a universal operating system for the users. The Free Software movement itself is there to defend users' rights. Sgryphon explains it well in this thread. ( http://www.debianuserforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=3031 )
>We will likely reproduce the governing body of Debian to follow its original mandate, with the advantage of starting small and more focused, hopefully with less pressure from the interest of commercial developers.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday June 01 2016, @03:40PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday June 01 2016, @03:40PM (#353505) Homepage Journal

    S'why you write a CoC like this:

    No rampant douchebaggery.

    And only put people you trust to administer it correctly in a position to administer it.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tfried on Wednesday June 01 2016, @07:59PM

    by tfried (5534) on Wednesday June 01 2016, @07:59PM (#353635)

    Yeah, essentially I agree with your CoC. And for a small scale project it does not leave any questions unanswered.

    Once the scale gets a bit larger, though (and - ironically - as communication becomes more focused on technical issues, at large, and less on informal hanging-out-together), the question of whom do you put in charge of administering the CoC becomes more difficult to solve. You'll want to start discussing just how the person(s) in charge of this will react to offences, and just where they will draw certain lines. What sort of behavior will earn you a rap on your knuckles, what sort of behavior will warrant being kicked of the project, immediately, what are typical terms for those on probation? Also, importantly, how can an offender appeal?

    From those questions, calling for a CoC (aka code of law) looks rather understandable. I do agree, though, that the key questions are who should be in charge of a reaction and how should they proceed, while the what exact sort of behavior should be sanctioned is more of a micro-management question to be answered after those two others.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2016, @12:13AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2016, @12:13AM (#353728)

      Observation: if you find yourself regularly skirting the hairy edge of Code(s) of Conduct then you might want to do some thinking about how you get along with others in public. Just sayin'.