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@balupton
Last active November 15, 2017 22:42
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Seems the open-source world requires a code of conduct for everything right now. So here is a draft one I’ve done up for Bevry. Feedback welcome.

Bevry Draft Code of Conduct

TLDR: Be a productive member of civilised society, no more, no less.

Results > Character > Identity.

We care only about your character and your results. We discriminate at the individual level, not the group identity level. You can be whatever identity you want, your identity is your thing not ours, identity is meaningless to us.

Libertarian Values.

We believe civility is working together despite political differences. We believe working together is producing results cooperatively. We believe cooperation involves collaboration and competition. Collaboration is assisting each other to accomplish a shared goal, and competition is challenging goals and approaches to ensure best outcomes. Work is for work. Family is for family. We are coworkers, not family. Friendships are interpersonal, not a right.

Social Good.

We care about making the world a better place. This is hard as different nature and nurture factors result in naturally different opinions on how to do this. For us it is about using our technical expertise to save others time through free market innovation and assistance. The more redundancy eliminated, the more self-actualisation achieved.

Trusting.

Despite bad actors existing in the world, we believe better results occur when one believes others act in good faith. As such, we will level you up in the community expediently with the approproate permissions for you to accomplish great (yet reviewed) work. If a violation occurs, it should be reported to a leader of the community. The community leader should treat it confidentially and reach out to all parties involved to act appropriately. If a perceived illegal action occured, we will not handle it internally, and request it instead be delegated to law enforcement so they can handle it appropriately and expertly. Legality will be considered to be local to the region of the incident.

Respect.

Respect people, not ideas. Ideas should be ruthlessly challenged to purge the weeds and keep the fruit. This should be done without ad hominem attacks. Offence is not considered as a currency, as offence is a personal matter. If a criticism is true, it doesn’t matter if it is considered offensive. Although if a criticism is true but unrelated to the topic at hand, it is likely unnecessary and probably rude, so try to stay on point instead. Unnecessary personal insults and offence doesn’t help anyone, and will be hard to tolerate. Accurate criticisms of ideas and actions are helpful, so stick to that. Note that if a discussion escalates, it may not be worth pursuing at that given time, as escalations may affect the safety of people with merciful psychological conditions such as autism. As such, moderators should attempt to work with the community to find a good balance. This will never be perfect, as people are hard. We should all try our best to be strong and let good ideas win with compassion for people.

Views.

“We” refers to the stance of Bevry, and not the stance of any particular individual within Bevry. This limitation applies to any member of Bevry, even to the leaders of Bevry.

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balupton commented Jul 12, 2017

Here are some draft considerations around points that can be weaved into it, taking into account recent feedback requesting statements on our approach to conflict.

  • You can never protect someone all of the time, nor is aiming to be omnipresent and all-powerful over others a good thing, you can however assist in making others stronger, so that they can protect themselves.

  • Identity matters are personal matters, and as such are not the responsibility of an authority to resolve. Authorities intervening in personal matters is a reduction of agency, it treats adults as children. Which is unfair, we should strive for adults to mature, rather than promoting prolonged adolescence. Adult life should not be a daycare centre.

  • Life is messy. We expect people to grow up, accept life is messy, behave as adults, and work things out as individuals. Not deprive the rights of individual agency over to outraged lynch mobs conducting empathetic witch hunts so they can destroy the lives of potentially correct individuals in order to protect some insensible sensitivities. If a power difference exists in someone’s head, but not in law, then the discrepancy is likely not in law but in that person’s head, and thus will need to be addressed there. Figuring which is which takes humility and honesty, hence why life is messy. Denying people the ability to grow stronger by reducing their agency by making the world a daycare centre does not protect them from danger, it just annihilates their ability to defend themselves in the face of danger, making the damage worse. If you wish to protect the vulnerable, then equip them with the ability to overcome their own obstacles, to solve their own problems, so that they no longer need you constraining their potential and agency from fear of missteps and growth. Having them dependent on your assistance, rests their power in you, not in them. Training wheels are better than a bubble. You should protect people only to the extent it does not inhibit their abilities, as you do not wish to rob them of their independence which leaves behind dependent adult infants, rather than independent adults that don’t need you and can protect themselves in this messy world.

Next steps:

  • Improve on the above to keep it as simple as possible. The more that people have to read and/or memorise, the more perceived rules lay upon them, which is not desirable and defeats the purpose of the goals of this code of conduct. It should be a communication of expectations, and only the essence, and not more. So will need tidying up. As it stands, I am happy with the original above, but I am tempted to add the above comments to cater towards feedback.

Resources:

Some influences in no particular order:

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