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Curious, why did a project of programming language hire a multi-person moderation team in the first place? That's the OSS version of HR? Or is it equivalent to

Curious, why did a project of programming language hire a multi-person moderation team in the first place? That's the OSS version of HR? Or is it equivalent to a team of diversity and inclusion?

dathinab 5y ago
> hire Not hired, but voluntary. > moderation team in the first place Because a community of any larger size needs moderation (small communities tend to self moderate, larger communities without any form of moderation are at serve risk of becoming toxic and/or unwelcoming places). > OSS version of HR Oversimplified it's a Team which steps in when the Code of Conduct is (potentially) violated to moderate (i.e. resolve) the situation with the goal of keeping the community open, friendly and well coming.
- stillicidious 5y ago
  > it's a Team which steps in when the Code of Conduct is (potentially) violated to moderate (i.e. resolve) the situation with the goal of keeping the community open, friendly and well coming And how would you describe HR?
  - dathinab 5y ago
    Department responsible for managing employees? The difference is the moderation Team does only moderation. But HR does all kinds of things, which often (but not always) includes moderation.
isoskeles 5y ago
More likely the latter. HR usually has a mission to protect the company (project in this case). CoC and its moderation usually just serve the purpose of virtue signaling or maybe even carrying out a digital version of a struggle session, so D&I seems like a good analog.
strunz 5y ago
People have made fun of Linux having Linus as the dictator on top, but it seems like that model might be the best for long term project success...
- xtracto 5y ago
  Right, and Ruby has had Matz, Python had Guido and to a certain degree PHP had Rasmus. As soon as you have more than one captain in the ship, politics and drama seems unavoidable.
  - swagonomixxx 5y ago
    Agreed, a single point of authority is useful. Although in this scenario, isn't code of conduct something much more "local" that the ringleader doesn't really need to step in every time to enforce? CoC is just something I expect everybody to enforce when needed. Having a dedicated team to do that seems odd to me. I guess you still need someone to issue bans and to wield the ban hammer, but it _should_ happen infrequently that simply informing the violator of their violation should be enough (unless they're a troll and will continue violating, in which case they can be kicked).
  - nwsm 5y ago
    I think the case of Rust is a bit unique with heavy interest in the future of the language from powerful companies [0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28513130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28513130
    - azornathogron 5y ago
      Not sure that's unique; Linux surely also has powerful companies interested in influencing its future.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - nouveaux 5y ago
    Didn't Guido resign due to politics[0]? I think politics is an issue of organization size more so than structure. [0] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-committers/2018-July/005664.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-committers/2018-Jul...

Curious, why did a project of programming language hire a multi-person moderation team in the first place? That's the OSS version of HR? Or is it equivalent to a team of diversity and inclusion?

dathinab 5y ago

> hire Not hired, but voluntary. > moderation team in the first place Because a community of any larger size needs moderation (small communities tend to self moderate, larger communities without any form of moderation are at serve risk of becoming toxic and/or unwelcoming places). > OSS version of HR Oversimplified it's a Team which steps in when the Code of Conduct is (potentially) violated to moderate (i.e. resolve) the situation with the goal of keeping the community open, friendly and well coming.

stillicidious 5y ago
> it's a Team which steps in when the Code of Conduct is (potentially) violated to moderate (i.e. resolve) the situation with the goal of keeping the community open, friendly and well coming And how would you describe HR?
- dathinab 5y ago
  Department responsible for managing employees? The difference is the moderation Team does only moderation. But HR does all kinds of things, which often (but not always) includes moderation.

isoskeles 5y ago

More likely the latter. HR usually has a mission to protect the company (project in this case). CoC and its moderation usually just serve the purpose of virtue signaling or maybe even carrying out a digital version of a struggle session, so D&I seems like a good analog.

strunz 5y ago

People have made fun of Linux having Linus as the dictator on top, but it seems like that model might be the best for long term project success...

xtracto 5y ago
Right, and Ruby has had Matz, Python had Guido and to a certain degree PHP had Rasmus. As soon as you have more than one captain in the ship, politics and drama seems unavoidable.
- swagonomixxx 5y ago
  Agreed, a single point of authority is useful. Although in this scenario, isn't code of conduct something much more "local" that the ringleader doesn't really need to step in every time to enforce? CoC is just something I expect everybody to enforce when needed. Having a dedicated team to do that seems odd to me. I guess you still need someone to issue bans and to wield the ban hammer, but it _should_ happen infrequently that simply informing the violator of their violation should be enough (unless they're a troll and will continue violating, in which case they can be kicked).
- nwsm 5y ago
  I think the case of Rust is a bit unique with heavy interest in the future of the language from powerful companies [0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28513130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28513130
  - azornathogron 5y ago
    Not sure that's unique; Linux surely also has powerful companies interested in influencing its future.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- nouveaux 5y ago
  Didn't Guido resign due to politics[0]? I think politics is an issue of organization size more so than structure. [0] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-committers/2018-July/005664.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-committers/2018-Jul...