[Osmf-talk] [OSM-talk] LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee holding public discussions on Etiquette Guidelines

[Richard Fairhurst]

These guidelines look like a genuine step forward - thank you for working on these.

I am worried that they might not do enough to address overbearing behaviour, which is the main issue I've seen on the mailing lists over the years - where a contributor makes so many, often verbose communications that it dissuades other people from voicing their own thoughts.

This is a difficult challenge - here and in other communities - because those contributions are usually polite and well-considered, which makes them difficult to legislate against. They just arrive in such volume that they suck the oxygen out of the room for everyone else. We have had, and continue to have, instances of this in several OSM sub-communities.

As the guidelines are currently phrased, I worry that they won't provide moderators with a strong enough foundation to take action. "Stay on topic and be concise" gets some way there, but I'm reminded of a particular contributor a few years back who managed to stifle debate by writing concise one-line putdowns to anything and everything he took exception to.

Perhaps a phrase such as "Leave space for others" or "Don't dominate the conversation" would give moderators the freedom to act on this behaviour when it occurs.

Richard
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