Hi Andy, Thanks for the feedback. If we were voting I'd treat your response as a -0. Indeed, part of understanding where another person is coming from is respect, but respect does not go far enough.
The word empathetic (or empathic, a spelling variation) appears in many of the other upstream codes of conduct. I had a feeling there might be some confusion around the word in different languages, which is why I placed a reference definition at the bottom of the document. As an Apache project, we "value community over code." Translating this into our code of conduct means that, all other things being equal, we should prioritize good interpersonal relationships over good code. Let me explain how I see this choice being a net positive to CouchDB. Empathy differs from sympathy and compassion. It describes a human ability to comprehend others through identification with their logical and emotional viewpoints. This is especially important to call out in an environment like ours, where we are a fully distributed team who communicate almost exclusively via the printed word. We all have a shared goal - improving CouchDB - but we will all have different hopes, dreams and expectations about what that means and where the project will go. It is critical to recognize another person's feelings and argument position when it comes to any sort of discussion about the project, whether there is agreement or not. It is also a community, like most of software development today, where there is a statistical abundance of atypical human behaviour. This includes but is not limited to individuals who behave along the autistic spectrum, those who are are extremely antisocial or narcissistic, or have difficulty in the regulation of their own emotional state. For these individuals in particular (but not just for them!) empathy is challenging. Calling out that it is valued here is a gentle reminder to these populations to reinforce acceptable interaction patterns. This is an inherently subjective matter and cannot be sidelined or ignored simply to focus on more cut-and-dry topics like technical code reviews. Further, it tends to be a less lawful area, one that is harder to systemize, so it requires special consideration and focus, especially for those to whom such thought does not come easily. We are also acknowledging that people will not act without emotion, especially when they are working on a volunteer project they join because of their own wants, needs and desires. As developers in this community, it behooves us to empathize with users, developers, committers and PMC members prior to reacting to them. It explicitly acknowledges our own emotional reactions as well as those around us. I hope this analysis is clear. Empathy, not just respct, is crucial to the long-term success of our project. -Joan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Wenk" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2014 10:27:25 AM Subject: Re: Code of Conduct & Diversity Statement draft needs your feedback! Hi Joan, thanks a lot. I have read the post the first time and it is really awesome. It is very clear and I think also non-native English speaking folks can understand everything. The only thing I stumbled a bit upon was "Be empathetic, welcoming, friendly and patient:" - here empathetic. The German translation is "einfühlsam". I personally would not use this word for a behaviour I expect in a technical project. I would use it in a community where I discuss very personal things like how I can have a better life or how to be a better partner. Maybe others have this feeling also. It's a bit too much "power flower" for me. Regarding the endnotes and explanation why this word is used, I would change it to "Be respectful, welcoming, friendly and patient:" But finally it is NOT a blocker for me also. I will read everything again later. Thanks again :) Cheers Andy On 18 May 2014 01:19, Joan Touzet <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > The draft CoC and diversity statement have been published at: > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=41812010 > > The wiki is a bit slow today so if it doesn't load the first time, hit > reload and be patient. > > Please take the time to review this and post comments here on the dev > ML. > > Outstanding items (2 and 3 are specifically for the PMC): > > 1. Create expanded CoC for conferences/events > 2. Determine appropriate venue and scope for diversity ML > 3. Determine appropriate private reporting compliance mechanism > > -Joan > -- Andy Wenk Hamburg - Germany RockIt! GPG fingerprint: C044 8322 9E12 1483 4FEC 9452 B65D 6BE3 9ED3 9588 https://people.apache.org/keys/committer/andywenk.asc
