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>The diversity initiatives in the Rust community are one of the primary reasons I attempt to stay part of it, file bug reports, fix code, and attend conferences
by magduf 9y ago
>The diversity initiatives in the Rust community are one of the primary reasons I attempt to stay part of it, file bug reports, fix code, and attend conferences, in a way that I don't in communities which appear divided over whether or not it's socially acceptable to harass me based on my gender and/or medical history.
>You're suggesting that it's better that we allow people to continue harassing people over things that have literally nothing to do with their ability to code
I don't know about your work situation, but I work in a pretty conservative industry as a software engineer, and many (but definitely not all) of my coworkers are probably Trump voters, and certainly conservative. But there's also women here, Muslims, one guy who's physically disabled, etc.
We don't talk about politics at work here, nor have I heard much open talk about politics in my last workplace that had a bunch of conservatives. People focused on the work. I certainly haven't seen any kind of harassment of people of religious minorities, people with medical problems, or women; everyone seems (and seemed at the previous jobs) pretty happy with the workplace. But there haven't been any "diversity initiatives"; they just seem to hire the best applicants, given the conditions they have (who's applying, etc.) and their goals (wanting to hire a certain number of "fresh-outs" for instance).
Why you seem to think that you need "diversity initiatives" to prevent harassment is completely beyond me. You don't need diversity initiatives to make sure people act civil towards each other and treat their coworkers with respect. In fact, most workplaces with college-educated professionals seem to have little trouble with their employees acting poorly this way. When they do, they get reprimanded or fired.
- vertex-four 9y agoWorkplaces != voluntary organisations. You could lose your livelihood and sink into crippling debt if you were fired - not so much if you're kicked out of a community. And, of course, people generally pick communities that they'd like to be part of and which contain people they generally agree with, whereas people are often willing to put up with a hell of a lot in return for money. You do, in fact, need active community management in order to convince some minority of people to treat each other with respect if there's otherwise no downside to failing to do so.
- magduf 9y agoI'm not so sure about your assertions here. AFAICT, the people I've worked with who are conservatives just generally wouldn't be that interested in working on a volunteer software project like that. They'd rather spend their free time with their fishing boat or something. I don't think they really care enough about software to get involved in a FOSS project. So I think FOSS projects may attract personalities that are more extreme than typical developers, with more personality defects. But I completely agree about needing active management. I think this is true for any organization. You're just not going to get good results if you don't have some kind of leadership keeping people in line.