From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Iq68S-0006mS-Qr for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:05:25 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.2/8.14.0) with SMTP id lA8C5Bkf030912; Thu, 8 Nov 2007 12:05:11 GMT Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.2/8.14.0) with ESMTP id lA8C5AV1030888 for ; Thu, 8 Nov 2007 12:05:11 GMT Received: from gentoo.org (c-67-171-150-177.hsd1.or.comcast.net [67.171.150.177]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC667657BA for ; Thu, 8 Nov 2007 12:05:09 +0000 (UTC) Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 04:05:07 -0800 From: Donnie Berkholz To: gentoo-council@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-council] CoC enforcement proposal Message-ID: <20071108120507.GJ5516@supernova> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-council@gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="OgqxwSJOaUobr8KG" Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.16 (2007-06-09) X-Archives-Salt: 1a7fc614-c461-486b-8a61-f6eafeed8c93 X-Archives-Hash: cbfe572adb090dfba1cc004b1cca6979 --OgqxwSJOaUobr8KG Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline This is a bit later than I intended because of real life interference, but here's some ideas for how to enforce the CoC. It's a little long, sorry about that; we can push off the vote again if we don't have a majority of people prepared for it by the meeting. I separated it into problem, conceptual solution, and implementation so you can decide which levels you like and which could use tweaking. Thanks, Donnie --OgqxwSJOaUobr8KG Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="coc.txt" CoC enforcement proposal ======================== Consider this entire document a draft open to council discussion. I appreciate the people on the gentoo-project list who contributed to the discussion. The problem ----------- My basic philosophy is: compliment in public, criticize in private. One of the problems with the proctors last time around was that their actions became too public, embarrassing the parties involved. Another problem with the proctors was that real action was not taken soon enough, and too long was spent talking. Real action in this context means that someone is temporarily blocked from posting to the relevant forum (mailing lists, IRC, forums), rather than sitting around talking. A third problem with the proctors was the difference in interpretation of the CoC within the group and with the council. It's particularly important to discriminate technical discussions from personal attacks and misconduct. The conceptual solution ----------------------- A primary focus of CoC enforcement is deterrence from continued violation, so permanent action is unnecessary. Thus, what seems necessary is a way to take rapid, private, temporary action. By making initial actions temporary (e.g., 6-12 hours in most cases), they can be taken rapidly with little negative consequence in the case of a mistake. The goal is to provide developers with a cooling-off period but allow them to rejoin the discussion with little loss. Since the actions are always private, the only reason other developers will learn about them is that either the affected developer or whoever took the action (the actor) leaked it. Leaks by the actor will be taken seriously as a CoC violation in their own right. The basic idea behind the time frame is that the longer the action, the fewer people who can choose to take it. Perhaps only one or two people besides the council could decide to take any action longer than 12 hours, which would severely impede a developer's ability to participate in a discussion. Whoever's taking action also needs to have a similar interpretation of the CoC as the council, which is the problem that came up with the proctors. To ensure this, the council will need some kind of role in deciding who could take action. But we don't want to fall into the trap of writing down every little rule and every possible infraction; that just makes it easy to find loopholes. The implementation ------------------ One way to enable Gentoo to enforce the CoC with these ideas in mind is to create a highly selective team with only short-term abilities and a strong lead to ensure the team's actions fit the council's CoC interpretation. Adhering to the principles mentioned above is what discriminates between this group and the former proctors. All this team's actions must be approved by the lead within a short time period or must be reverted. It's expected that many actions will range from 6-12 hours, so 12 hours seems like a reasonable time to require lead approval. Whenever the lead is unavailable, approval falls to the council. (Remember, two council members together can make decisions.) The lead of this team must gain council approval for any action lasting 3 or more days. To ensure that this process remains temporary, in no case can any action last longer than 7 days. These actions must also be forwarded on to devrel or userrel, depending on who's involved, and they will consider longer-term suspension or termination. There is no conflict of interest between the council and this team's members, because the council is considered to have the best interests of Gentoo in mind. Developers can be members of both groups. The council must approve all members of this team, and it must reassess them annually to ensure they still interpret the CoC in the same way. Furthermore, the team's lead will be appointed by the council to further ensure a cohesive CoC interpretation. It is expected that membership on this team will be highly selective and not all who wish to join will make the cut. The team will be limited to 3 people for a probationary period so we don't get dumped in the deep end right away, and it will never have more than 5 people. Once appointed by the council, the team lead will choose applicants for the rest of the team to forward on for council approval. --OgqxwSJOaUobr8KG-- -- gentoo-council@gentoo.org mailing list