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Not really "never". I get where you're coming from, but sometimes, the behaviour outside the community does have consequences for the community; at least in tho
by virgilp 9y ago
Not really "never". I get where you're coming from, but sometimes, the behaviour outside the community does have consequences for the community; at least in those circumstances, it is appropriate - imperative, even - for the community to react and weigh in on the consequences. And you can easily imagine other cases, too (e.g. where behaviour outside community raises reasonable suspicions about behaviour inside the community - there should at least be the consequence of "increased oversight")
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y agoThis comment appears carefully composed to provide a lot of words that look engaging without much I can actually respond to. How about some examples?
- calcifer 9y agoI'll bite. Let's say I'm in charge of a FOSS project to which you and I are both contributing to. If I find out you are posting white nationalist propaganda on Twitter, I'll kick you out of the project, simply because I don't like white nationalists and don't want the project to appear welcoming to them.
- commenter1 9y agoYou probably wouldn't hire ex-cons either, because, you know, you don't want to appear welcoming criminals.
- Deestan 9y agoThat is a strained corollary. Ex-cons have a shitty past. White supremacists are currently and actively shitty.
- commenter1 9y agoAh, I see! So if one does a crime, but has done the time, one is ok. If one hasn't done a crime but does something you don't agree with, then it's bad. Thank you for clarifying!
- calcifer 9y agoI believe in rehabilitation, so I would most definitely hire ex-cons trying to go straight. People who are actively sharing white supremacist screed are not nearly in the same category.
- jhasse 9y agoI guess kicking out one of the top contributors would hurt your FOSS project more than the indirect connection to white nationalists. And if it helps against white nationalists, I think that's debatable.
- gwright 9y agoYour example is too easy. What if you find out that the other other person supports strong enforcement of existing immigration laws? What if supporters of that policy are being labeled as a "white nationalists" by others? Is that really evidence of "white nationalism"? What if that person simultaneously supports significant changes to the immigration laws that would result in more legal immigration?
- calcifer 9y agoIn those cases, I would still ask myself the same questions. Namely, am I fine with being associated with a person with these views? and am I fine with them being associated to my project? If the answer is no, I would kick them out just the same and that's ok.
- virgilp 9y agoLet me give an example: Justine Sacco is one famous case of a person that was fired from InterActive Corp. for a completely-not-work-related tweet. Setting aside the question of "should Internet have reacted like it did" - the reality is that her employer had little choice, given the circumstances. Yes, it was "outside-the-community behaviour", but the business impact was immediate & considerable, I argue that for the employer there was only one reasonable/rational way to handle the crisis. [edit] Or to take a somewhat extreme hypothetical example - I presume that if you found out that, for whatever reason, a prominent Mozilla exec was secretly funding anti-Net-Neutrality lobby (i.e "out of the community behaviour"), you would expect Mozilla to talk about it and "handle the issue", not just say that "sorry, his own money, his own personal time, he can do whatever he wants to".
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y agoFOSS projects are usually not businesses and are not held to the same standards.