[diversity-talk] OSM code of conduct: starting points

[Dan S]

2014-10-11 23:48 GMT+01:00 Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org>:
> On Oct 10, 2014, at 19:45, Paul Norman <penorman at mac.com> wrote:
>> One last thought - where would the forums fit in this? They're on
>> openstreetmap.org, but not run by the OSMF, so the forum admins would be
>> perfectly capable of saying no to any code of conduct. What would happen then?
>
> Does OSMF not have any control over what’s on openstreetmap.org? What’s wrong with saying “You can agree to the code of conduct, or you can get off of openstreetmap.org and we’ll replace the forums”?

Probably in theory that's possible, but such a "stand-off" situation
is extremely unlikely, given the social and admin structure of
OSM/OSMF, in particular OSMF's oft-stated ambition to support rather
than control OSM. But more importantly, we don't need to worry about
these particular hypotheticals, since we have no need to ensure
roll-out across all channels. As others have said, it makes more sense
to develop our CoC usage incrementally rather than as a top-down
dictat, for many reasons.

It wouldn't worry me if the gatekeepers to one particular channel
decide against adopting/enforcing a particular CoC. We can develop the
approach in other channels, and try to spread good practice as we go,
learning from the experience we accumulate.

> Here’s my question, and this needs to be clarified (probably deserves its own thread):
>
> Who is responsible for deciding what action needs to be taken in the case of CoC violations?
>
> A CoC without a body willing and able to enforce it is just window dressing.

Well I disagree that it would be "just window dressing": written
guidelines can often serve as community norms, even with no official
enforcers. Having said that, it definitely helps to have some
responsiblity for making it happen. But we already have that! It seems
likely that the people who moderate the individual components of OSM
(forum moderators, mailing list moderators, the Data Working Group)
would decide, just as they decide now when to block spammers/vandals
or whatever. We already have these moderators, and the responsibility
is decentralised across them.

Best
Dan