[ruby-core:73091] [Ruby trunk - Misc #12004] Code of Conduct

[strand@bettermistak.es]

Issue #12004 has been updated by Strand McCutchen.


Matz:

The code of conduct which you provided, let's call it **The Ruby Code of Conduct**, is an excellent place to start. I like that it contains a pledge of respect, that it commits us to a harassment-free experience for everyone, that it provides a list of unacceptable behavior, that it clarifies how maintainers can enforce the code, and that it specifies how a member of the community can report unacceptable behavior.

I think it could be improved with the following changes:

  - Maintain a version number for every version of the code. This document will likely evolve and change over time. Perhaps on adoption, we could declare it the Ruby Code v 1.0.0, and use patch numbers to indicate how much the document's evolution.
  - Provide a list of expected or even excellent behavior. The Stumptown Syndicate Citizen's Code has [a great example of this](http://citizencodeofconduct.org/#expected-behavior).
  - Sadly, many people who harass others do not think their behavior is unacceptable. Defining what harassment is can provide maintainers some guidance on how to interpret ambiguous behavior and provides guidance to community members.
  - I realize you are hesitant to consider banning anyone from the community, and I understand this hesitation, but I think it is useful to clarify that temporary or permanent banning can occur. This is a nuclear option (when possible, I believe communities should follow some restorative justice process) but I think the last paragraph should be amended to read:

    > Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting a project maintainer at [INSERT EMAIL ADDRESS]. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances, **up to and including a temporary ban or permanent expulsion from the community without warning.** Maintainers are obligated to maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident.
   
  - I think it would be useful to clarify that folks in our community may be asked to stop behaving unacceptably. Sample language looks like: "Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately." 
  - License: In the spirit of open source, we should explicitly state the license which people can copy this with. Either the Ruby License or Creative Commons seems appropriate.

Matz, please edit the code however you see fit, and merge it into the codebase. What we have right now is a good start, and while there is still some ambiguity and room for improvement, it is more explicit than the MINASWAN motto.

Thank you for being open to feedback,
Strand


----------------------------------------
Misc #12004: Code of Conduct
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/12004#change-56316

* Author: Coraline Ada Ehmke
* Status: Assigned
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: Yukihiro Matsumoto
----------------------------------------
I am the creator of the Contributor Covenant, a code of conduct for Open Source projects. At last count there are over 13,000 projects on Github that have adopted it. This past year saw adoption of Contributor Covenant by a lot of very large, very visible projects, including Rails, Github's Atom text editor, Angular JS, bundler, curl, diaspora, discourse, Eclipse, rspec, shoes, and rvm. The bundler team made code of conduct integration an option in the gem creation workflow, putting it on par with license selection. Many open source language communities have already adopted the code of conduct, including Elixir, Mono, the .NET foundation, F#, and Apple's Swift. RubyTogether also adopted a policy to only fund Ruby projects that had a solid code of conduct in place.

Right now in the PHP community there is a healthy debate about adopting the Contributor Covenant. Since it came from and has been so widely adopted by the Ruby community at large, I think it's time that we consider adopting it for the core Ruby language as well.

Our community prides itself on niceness. What a code of conduct does is define what we mean by nice. It states clearly that we value openness, courtesy, and compassion. That we care about and want contributions from people who may be different from us. That we pledge to respect all contributors regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or other factors. And it makes it clear that we are prepared to follow through on these values with action when and if an incident arises.

I'm asking that we join with the larger Ruby community in supporting the adoption of the Contributor Covenant for the Ruby language. I think that this will be an important step forward and will ensure the continued welcoming and supportive environment around Ruby. You can read the full text of the Contributor Covenant at http://contributor-covenant.org/version/1/3/0/ and learn more at http://contributor-covenant.org/. 

Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.




-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/