Proposal for ML conduct

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

On 14.05.2009 20:46, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> The Board had a long discussion today about the increasingly toxic
> nature of discussions on Fedora Project mailing lists.  The meeting
> minutes are available on the wiki[1], as always.  I wanted to point
> specifically to the proposal currently before the Board.
>
>
> The problem:  The Board is disappointed at the degradation in tone and
> signal of some Fedora Project lists.

I completely agree that there is a problem but sorry, I strongly dislike 
how the board acted/acts here.

IMHO those that complained should have first made attemts to discuss a 
proper solution on the effected lists (which didn't really happen 
afaics) before going to the board for asking for help. Everything that 
comes from the board like this feels like "some magic group at the top 
of the hierarchy decided something without even bothering those that are 
effected first". That is IMHO not how community project should act.

IOW: yes, we need a board for the hard decisions, but it IMHO should 
only get involved after other ways to solve the problem have failed. 
Otherwise the contributors feel like small unwanted bees that are needed 
to do the leg-work, but there opinion doesn't count.

> The proposal:
>
> To resolve this, the Board appoints one or more Board members or other
> Board-approved volunteers to monitor Fedora Project mailing lists.
> The Board will warn violators of our "Be excellent to each other"
> policy in the form of a one-day list moderation (with notice to the
> poster).  Messages not allowed through will be returned to the poster
> with explanation as to why they were not allowed.  If after one day of
> moderation, the violation continues, the case will be brought to the
> Board for further action, which could include permanent moderation,
> complete removal from the project, or other remedies.
>
>    Being excellent to each other == No personal attacks, profanity
>    directed at people or groups, serious threats of violence, or other
>    things seen by the monitor as to be purposefully disrespectful.
>
>
> * * *

Counter proposal: Let the community regulate itself. Ran all the mails 
through a procmail recipe or something like that adds to links at the 
bottom of all mails like this:

**
You mostly agree with the poster? Click here:
http://ml.fedoraproject.org/<msgid>&status=likedit

You think the poster was not nice to others
http://ml.fedoraproject.org/<msgid>&status=notnicetoothers

Check how others see this mail:
http://ml.fedoraproject.org/<msgid>&status=query
**

Of course we need a small app on the server to count that.

If someone then was "not nice to others" then at least some of the 
people will click the link. The one that wrote the mail gets direct 
feedback from those that read the mail and not from a magic board police 
guard that should use his time for better things.

CU
knurd