The Linux Kernel Adopts A Code of Conduct

[varikonniemi]

This is probably the most worrying development in Linux to date. Political correctness will end up driving away the skilled people and invite in those with non-technical motives. I don't know one professional that would agree to start publishing their work related emails for the world to see, precisely because the language used is what is effective, not what is considerate of your feelings. Management by perkele exists for a reason, if someone screws up with the responsibility they were given, then harsh words are the only effective way to deal with the situation, short of firing them. The harsh words are a kind of filter: Acknowledge it and own up to your mistake, or quit your job.

[oleid]

It's the other way around. There are many kernel developers which were driven away from the kernel development by it's harsh climate. A lot of people stick around despite the bad situation, as they get paid to do so.

[ermo]

If this works, more people might contribute to the kernel and stick around without tanking the technical quality of the Linux kernel and its subsystems.

I don't buy the argument that you cannot be technically competent and focus on code (and documentation) quality while also being civil. I remember reading an article about "Radical Candor" that posits that it is quite possible to be frank and forthright while still being supportive and non-abusive of the people you are supposed to lead in a technical capacity (source).

If you happen to be on the autistic spectrum (not unusual in highly technical fields AIUI), it might make sense to ally with someone you know and trust and to whom people skills and empathy flow more naturally.

[sverris]

I see this as the begining of the end for linux kernel as we know.. im not happy with whats coming along..

Wording will change, nothing else.

[sarfarazahmad]

I would rather take some abuses and write better code. than lower the quality of software that well in one way runs the world ?. This is just a maneuver to get Linus out.

[Cthulhux]

A "code of conduct" usually leads to a big influx of SJWs, destroying even the last remaining bit of meritocracy. Goodbye, Linux.

[L_A_G]

Read trough the thing and it seems to be one of those very simple and straight forward common sense CoCs similar to what Ruby and PostgreSQL use. It doesn't have any of the typical complains people have towards these things where anyone feeling slighted, regardless of how dumb the reason is, should have their feelings automatically taken as a grave injustice towards them or having it also apply to the lives of developers/maintainers well outside of the project and even their private lives (like what happened to that Durpal dev/maintenance lead). Additionally it has a section on having to gracefully accept constructive criticism, which should guard against misuse of this by the histrionic types that tend to push these things.

The mistake FreeBSD made was that it accepted a CoC that has all the issues people have with it and not a "sane-ized" one like the Linux kernel just did. We've known for years from projects like Ruby and PostgreSQL that you can have a very common sense CoC and it won't cause any issues.

Just waiting for them to remove Master/Slave terminology like Python did because some people found it offensive... haha

I don't think anybody found it actually offensive, just a bunch of white people doing something pointless because they fear it could put off and/or offend black people.

*If you're not familiar with what happened, the guy is basically into a somewhat odd S n' M kink involving roleplay, but very much in private with completely consenting partners. However the particular kink he's into is seen by many feminists as being misogynist, despite their communities typically having more women than men, so another lower ranking dev spent years essentially cyberstalking the senior dev/maintainer on invite-only forums for the kink communities. Once he had enough in-private and in-character messages stored up he then passed on what the senior dev/maintainer had said on these very private forums, to the project leadership who then kicked the senior dev/maintainer off the project without really even letting him defend himself.

[sverris]

Honestly, I don't really care if the Linux kernel has some "non-discrimination policy" section in their Code of Conduct since it's common sense that you should be nice if you can while still getting your point across.

What scares me a bit in the new Code of Conduct however is that it removes almost everything related to "good code is our primary objective" and now almost the whole text is just related to avoid harassment.

IMO they should have kept the old Code of Conduct and in the end just added a few more statements about that harassment (which you should not confuse with critique) will not be tolerated.

A Code of Conduct is about conduct. And the intended conduct is also intended to help the primary objective. And it is common sense that the primary technical objective is good code.

[Cthulhux]

The primary objective of a source code development team is to develop acceptable source code. If you can't contribute acceptable source code, it is the duty of the project leader to stop you wasting his time with bad code.

The only "code of..." needed by any technically oriented project is the Code of Merit.

http://code-of-merit.org/

[jukk]

Management by perkele exists for a reason, if someone screws up with the responsibility they were given, then harsh words are the only effective way to deal with the situation, short of firing them. The harsh words are a kind of filter: Acknowledge it and own up to your mistake, or quit your job.

This is bullshit. That's a hard world you are living in. Linus himself has acknowledged that he has used too harsh words sometimes. Maybe in some cases it is justified, but you will not be able to create a culture where people like to work if you are doing this a lot. And if you are doing it a lot, you definitely have other problems that needs dealing with in entirely other ways. I think many people are mistaken in how the straightforward Finnish mentality works (and supposedly how Finnish companies are run). It is a big difference between personal insult and a clear way of stating and expressing facts, without small-talk or hidden agendas etc. Mentioning things by their names doesn't imply that you must be rude. Which Linus definitely has been, even more when considering his position. I admire him for being able to acknowledge this and trying to improve on things. We have seen many projects with stubborn leaders refusing to acknowledge their faults.