Re: [Ksummit-2013-discuss] [ATTEND] How to act on LKML

Ric Wheeler
2013-07-16T23:31:20Z

On 07/16/2013 07:12 PM, Sarah Sharp wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 06:54:59PM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
>> On Tue, 2013-07-16 at 15:43 -0700, Sarah Sharp wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, that's true. Some kernel developers are better at moderating their
>>> comments and tone towards individuals who are "sensitive". Others
>>> simply don't give a shit. So we need to figure out how to meet
>>> somewhere in the middle, in order to establish a baseline of civility.
>> I have to ask this because I'm thick, and don't really understand,
>> but ...
>>
>> What problem exactly are we trying to solve here?
> Personal attacks are not cool Steve. Some people simply don't care if a
> verbal tirade is directed at them. Others do not want anyone to attack
> them personally, but they're fine with people attacking their code.
>
> Bystanders that don't understand the kernel community structure are
> discouraged from contributing because they don't want to be verbally
> abused, and they really don't want to see either personal attacks or
> intense belittling, demeaning comments about code.
>
> In order to make our community better, we need to figure out where the
> baseline of "good" behavior is. We need to define what behavior we want
> from both maintainers and patch submitters. E.g. "No regressions" and
> "don't break userspace" and "no personal attacks". That needs to be
> written down somewhere, and it isn't. If it's documented somewhere,
> point me to the file in Documentation. Hint: it's not there.
>
> That is the problem.
>
> Sarah Sharp

The problem you are pointing out - and it is a problem - makes us less effective
as a community.

Getting the balance right is clearly difficult in a large, diverse community,
but I do think that the key is to focus criticism on the code or technical
arguments and avoid attacks on the individual.

Being direct and funny in a critique is not the core of the issue,

Ric