coc.txt

# The Standards of Conduct for YAPC::NA 2014

It appears the most common complaint about the Code of Conduct and the 
ensuing events at YAPC::NA 2013 was about the meta-conversation about 
the Code of Conduct at YAPC::NA 2013. As the lead organizer for 2014, 
I would like to make some comments early so as to (hopefully) quell 
this meta-conversation long before anyone has to make a decision to
attend the conference.

1) There will be a Standards of Conduct for 2014. 

The last time I organized a YAPC::NA there was a Standards of Conduct, 
the reasons I had for implementing a Code then have not changed. 
The Standards of Conduct is a lot like a Contributors Guide to the Perl Community. 
It is written for people who may not have participated in the Perl community 
before as to what we  consider the line for being "That Guy" is. 

If you don't feel we need to define where that line is, well not everyone has lived 
a life that leads them to that same feeling. It costs us nothing to state in 
general terms what we find acceptable, and if it makes people more 
comfortable with an explicit line then why on earth should we *not* make that 
effort?

If you're someone who feels that any discussion about a Code of Conduct should 
be obvious, well not everyone has lived a life that leads them to that same feeling. 
Telling reasonable people they need to guard against the bad behavior of people they 
consider friends, makes them feel defensive unwelcome. 

The point of a Standards of Conduct is to make *more* people feel welcome in our community,
we will not do that if we make the current people feel unwelcome.

2) The Code of Conduct does not prohibit swearing.

The Code of Conduct explicitly prohibits abusive and offensive behavior. 
It gives some examples of such behavior, none of the examples includes swearing. 
All of the examples involve actions from one person (or group) against another 
person (or group) of a harassing or abusive nature. 

It says "Don't be That Guy" and gives some examples of what being a That Guy 
looks like. Reasonable people have a reasonable understanding of what being 
abused or abusive is. 

In the last six years I've been organizing Perl events we have never had an incident
that wasn't handled by the reasonable person principle. We will be prepared in case 
this isn't true in the future, but for now we hope that it reamins to be the case.

3) #yapc on irc.perl.org has its own Code of Conduct. 

I am confident that the The IRC Operators *will* enforce this. I know an 
incidient last year involved an IRC operator, and it was handled by a 
more senior operator and the people involved have all explicitly acknowledge 
their offending behavior or removed themselves. 

I am personally present on irc.perl.org for far more hours than are probably 
healthy, issues with that network's administration are something I am very 
aware of and will respond to quickly.

4) yapc@pm.org will be moderated, announce@yapcna.org will be read-only

John Anderson (genehack) has volunteered already to be the moderator for yapc@pm.org. 
This is a position he already fills for the perl-beginner's list. I expect him to 
wield the Cudgel of Tender Mercy and Cluefulness on yapc@pm.org. He has said that he 
will develop an independent Code of Conduct for the list.

For those who do not wish to deal with the conversational tone, and the resulting Cudgel of 
Tender Mercy, we have created an announce-list that will only be official 
announcements from the YAPC organizing committee. Going forward attendees will only be 
auto-subscribed to the announce@yapcna.org list.