Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] code-of-conduct: Fix the ambiguity about collecting email addresses

Michael Tirado
2018-10-20T22:37:33Z

James, and our other friends,

On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 2:59 PM James Bottomley
<James.Bottomley@hansenpartnership.com> wrote:
>
> The current code of conduct has an ambiguity

More than one ambiguity. This whole file needs to go.

>* Trolling,

Who decides what is trolling, and what is a technique for raising
awareness or sparking discussion on an issue?

> * Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a
> professional setting

Why should this last bit remain? Any literate person with access to a
dictionary should know how ambiguous the word professional is. As an
amateur contributor to the FOSS ecosystem I am more than a bit
offended by the decision to use such divisive, politically charged,
and financially discriminatory language in a project of such massive
technical importance. This entire file should be expunged from the
repository and replaced by well defined minimalistic guidelines for
maintaining order on the mailing lists, rather than a set of ambiguous
codes that force maintainers to take politically motivated actions
against contributors for undefined reasons.

Using words like professional is a distressing red flag because it
doesn't add any clarification on the issue (what was the issue
again?), it only raises more questions. I can't think of any reason
that word would be needed unless you're trying to push out unpaid
contributors. Why should someones employment status be held against
them when contributing ideas or code to a technical project that has
benefited greatly from amateur contributions?

I fear for the kernels future now that irrational politics are
beginning to creep.