[Osmf-talk] Proposal - OSMF Should **NOT** Adopt a Code of Conduct

Rafael Avila Coya ravilacoya at gmail.com
Sun Dec 3 18:29:25 UTC 2017


Hi all:

I am deeply against the adoption of any code of conduct for our (IMHO) 
very civilised OSM community. Even the name sounds scary for me, and 
have never read any CoC; I have more interesting things to do in life, 
like mapping for example.

Any code of conduct will make people more or less autocensure. I can't 
see any interest of having that thing, unless for control.

I also think it's a simple non-sense on what respects to the diversity 
of cultures we have in a worldwide community: what is unacceptable for 
some, it's fairly fine for others.

I would see a CoC committee a kind of new Inquisition. I wouldn't trust 
it at all, whoever the members of that committee (even if they were my 
own family!). And whatever their resolutions, they would be simply 
subjective. Please, don't compare that with meassures the DWG takes, 
that are way more objective.

We are (I hope) not interested in companies to be happy just because we 
have a CoC or whatever they like we have. Because we are a community of 
mappers who love mapping, not business people who want to attract 
companies or institutions. We don't need to grow to be big. We are 
great, because we have a healthy, free and independent environment to 
practice our favorite activity: free mapping. We are bigger than any 
(awful) ngo, institution or company full of restrictions and so called 
Codes of Conduct.

Some people feel frightened to participate in mailing lists? Well, I 
think it's very exaggerated and makes me smile in general. But even if 
that was an issue, the price we would have to pay for "solving" that 
would be much bigger than the imperfections of a community that is 
already very healthy in my opinion.

I only hope that those of us who oppose any such move are a majority. I 
don't think I would loose my interest in mapping, but I would certainly 
loose interest in participating in the many OSM mailing lists (among 
other media) that populates our lovely community.

Cheers,

Rafael.

On 02/12/17 19:53, Clifford Snow wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sat, Dec 2, 2017 at 8:27 AM, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch 
> <mailto:simon at poole.ch>> wrote:
> 
>     The WMF is of particular interest, not just because they, at least
>     in theory, have a similar role in their overall movement as the
>     OSMF, but because they have multiple CoC or similar documents tailor
>     made for the venue, activity and groups that they concern. Taking
>     particular care on the hand to allow people working together on a
>     specific task do so in a friendly non-discriminatory environment (in
>     our case this would be mainly the working groups) and on the other
>     hand being careful not to stifle debate and critical discussion of
>     matters that concern policies, elections and the central
>     organisation  (in our case the OSMF).
> 
> I'm glad you brought in Wikimedia. Yes they are a similar organization 
> to OSM but with a code which as you point out seems to work for them.
> 
>     Now I do make the admission that for somebody that has never been
>     involved in OSM in an active way before, being dropped on to this
>     mailing list has to be bewildering, which goes for any mailing list
>     in times of high traffic, but to turn it in to an essentially
>     moderated list on which you don't dare raise issues or say your mind
>     because you might frighten somebody away that doesn't have the
>     context of the discussion yet, cannot be the solution. Maybe we
>     should simply revive osmf-announce and not automatically subscribe
>     everybody to this list, though I'm sure that will simply result in
>     people complaining that they are being cut out of important discussions.
> 
> I may have not made my proposal clear enough. My proposal is for OSM, 
> under the policy guidance of OSMF, to adopt a code of conduct. Not just 
> the osmf-talk list, but all OSM lists, forums, and events.
> 
>     That, very seldom, we have events in which unacceptable language is
>     used, I count three in seven years of OSM (the major one being two
>     Americans calling each other names on talk-diversity,). is the risk
>     that we take by providing open communication forums, no CoC will
>     stop that happening, except of we turn this list in to fully
>     moderated. But that risk is by far outweighed by the benefits.
> 
> OSM seems to be doing okay not moderating edits. I think the same 
> approach should be used for mailing lists. OSM has a good process for 
> handling issues of copyright violation, disputes, vandalism, etc. How 
> DWG handles issues would be a good example for a group responsible for 
> CoC reports.  What this proposal does is provide an avenue for people to 
> report violations of the code which is similar to the role DWG fills. 
> Looking at the list of organizations with a code, I'm not aware of any 
> that operate fully moderated.
> 
> Best,
> Clifford
> 
> osm_seattle.snowandsnow.us <http://osm_seattle.snowandsnow.us>
> OpenStreetMap: Maps with a human touch
> 
> 
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