Re: [ATTEND] How to act on LKML

Sarah Sharp
2013-07-17T14:40:43Z

On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 09:01:02AM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> I know you think "being nice" is better, but do you actually have any
> evidence for this, or is it just wishful thinking? If you don't have
> hard evidence, then I'd say you have to admit it's simply your
> opinion, and I don't think the most successful software project in
> history should change one if it's core principles simply because *you*
> think it should.

I haven't shared any "hard evidence" that civility works better in open
source projects, because to do so would be to bring gender politics into
the equation. I don't want to make this into a gendered issue, but
since you want hard numbers, I will.

Go look at Dreamwidth, the open source Livejournal fork. It has a good
code of conduct, so developers are civil to each other. They encourage
all patch submissions, and take the time to work with people who don't
understand their community rules.

The result: 75% of their developers are women. If you give a flying
fuck about diversity, and want to attract women to your open source
project, your developers need to be civil, and not verbally abuse each
other.

Sarah Sharp