3 ms·

The comparison to BDSM is incorrect. BDSM is about "abuse" that one enjoys due to established parameters. I don't think anyone at the receiving end of abuse wi

The comparison to BDSM is incorrect. BDSM is about "abuse" that one enjoys due to established parameters. I don't think anyone at the receiving end of abuse within F/OSS enjoys the abuse and seeks it out. That's why the codes of conduct exist, to... bring F/OSS in line with the expected ethical standards of scenes such as BDSM, so to speak.

derefr 7y ago
Certainly. I wouldn't expect a big, open-membership FOSS project to "get away with" being abusive in a non-consensual way. That isn't what BDSM is—which I had hoped was carrying some of the weight in explaining what exactly I meant here, by making you picture what an actually-analogous-to-BSDM software community would be like. But my question still stands. Let me be more precise with it. Is Code-of-Conduct-space actually wide in practice, or is it narrow? Is there really only one societally-acceptable way to run an open-membership out-in-public software project, with the differences coming down only to the fine details; or is it actually possible to do something very different, e.g. having a CoC containing "We like to call each-other names here. Only join if you're into that."? Would a project that claims different limits than the ones of wider society, be tenable? Or would it, and every other project attempting such a thing, be boycotted, simply for its members being weird and liking things people don't normally like (and therefore making it squicky to contribute to the software if you don't like what they're doing, which must therefore be a moral failing on their part)?
- frandroid 7y ago
  It think it would be difficult if it isn't feminist, in particular, considering prominent biases in the software development community.
  - zozbot234 7y ago
    What does "feminist" mean in this context? Many of the people who claim to be radically feminist on places like Twitter, etc. are in practice quite hostile to the bulk of female engineers and developers, especially to those who aren't very vocally aligned with their political stance. It's not real feminism, it's just extreme hypocrisy and pushing fringe politics.

derefr 7y ago

Certainly. I wouldn't expect a big, open-membership FOSS project to "get away with" being abusive in a non-consensual way. That isn't what BDSM is—which I had hoped was carrying some of the weight in explaining what exactly I meant here, by making you picture what an actually-analogous-to-BSDM software community would be like. But my question still stands. Let me be more precise with it. Is Code-of-Conduct-space actually wide in practice, or is it narrow? Is there really only one societally-acceptable way to run an open-membership out-in-public software project, with the differences coming down only to the fine details; or is it actually possible to do something very different, e.g. having a CoC containing "We like to call each-other names here. Only join if you're into that."? Would a project that claims different limits than the ones of wider society, be tenable? Or would it, and every other project attempting such a thing, be boycotted, simply for its members being weird and liking things people don't normally like (and therefore making it squicky to contribute to the software if you don't like what they're doing, which must therefore be a moral failing on their part)?

frandroid 7y ago
It think it would be difficult if it isn't feminist, in particular, considering prominent biases in the software development community.
- zozbot234 7y ago
  What does "feminist" mean in this context? Many of the people who claim to be radically feminist on places like Twitter, etc. are in practice quite hostile to the bulk of female engineers and developers, especially to those who aren't very vocally aligned with their political stance. It's not real feminism, it's just extreme hypocrisy and pushing fringe politics.