Re: Code of Conduct: we need one (… in parallel / in addition to HBR)

[Aaron Wolf]

I have many opinions about the topic of CoC but don't feel up for 
getting into depth here.

I like much of what I see from that Funkwhale adaptation. My general 
concern for CoC in practice is that there's usually not enough 
combination of methods for cutting off immediate harm ASAP while also 
having restorative process focused on learning and growth. Most of the 
time, subtle harms are allowed to continue for too long and then after 
they get worse, punitive and threatening actions are taken that cause 
people to get defensive and everything leads to limits and bans. So, 
there is neither a truly high-standard of healthy interactions being 
maintained nor an effective learning and restoration process.

I've given talks about this in the past, and I like this article:
https://authenticengine.com/2016/adopting-a-code-of-conduct-is-an-adaptive-challenge-not-a-technical-one/

And FWIW, I'm a co-author of both
https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/community/conduct
and https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Code_of_conduct

neither of which I feel is ideal but which bring up some other 
approaches that some CoC are missing

I'm working on a much longer-term project that will eventually offer a 
different class of CoC and practices altogether but it's not yet usable 
enough to discuss practically here.

I would just urge the core ideas that:

- tensions should be addressed sooner rather than later
- tensions should be processed *privately* while following some fair 
predetermined method
- the goal should be to get everyone back to good standing and continual 
learning and improvement *without* letting conduct issues be noise that 
disrupts or distresses the community or turns anyone off

Some of this is technical, like it's unfortunately not possible with 
email for me to make a mistake that upsets someone, see it, edit and fix 
it. There's no editing with email. But I'll say personally: if I ever 
say something that upsets anyone in any way, I would like to know about 
it ASAP, discuss privately (with that person or someone else who is 
facilitating), and figure out the best way to fix/resolve things. I do 
NOT want minor issues to be ignored nor to make lots of public noise. 
Clear up any tensions while they are still subtle.

I wish I could suggest a simple pop-in solution but it's not that easy 
because of the interacting problems with mediocre social-norms and 
mediocre communication moderation tools.

All for now,
Aaron

On 7/11/25 7:41, Xavier Coadic wrote:
> FunkWhale did a particular adaptation of this CoC / Contributor 
> Covenant that I find very inspiring
> https://www.funkwhale.audio/code-of-conduct/
>
>
> Xavier Coadic
>
> *https://xavcc.frama.io *
>
>
> -------- Message d'origine --------
> Le 11 juil. 2025 à 16:19, Ben Cotton < bcotton at funnelfiasco.com> a écrit :
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 9:09 PM Bradley M. Kuhn wrote: > > I'm curious 
> if folks have a particular CoC template that they particularly > like 
> and think would be good for copyleft-next? > > I did some poking 
> around and discussion with colleagues well-versed in this > area, and 
> frankly there is no clear standard, and I don't think (other than > 
> the HBR addendum) that we should write our own from scratch. I'm 
> generally in favor of the Contributor Covenant 
> (https://www.contributor-covenant.org/), although it's been long 
> enough since I had to think about it that I don't remember any 
> particular details of what I liked or disliked about it. Fedora's 
> "new" (it's been several years now) code of conduct is largely based 
> on it, with some modifications, and it has served well. -- Ben Cotton 
> (he/him) TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis 
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