On 10/06/14 00:23, [email protected] wrote: > * The introduction is more clear that the goal of the document is to > help new volunteers with their experience at Mozilla. > > * The tone is more welcoming and has less legalese in it.
I think the "Agreement" framing is still problematic. Other free software projects allow people to just come along and get involved. They may have Community Participation Guidelines which explain how people are expected to act, and that newcomers are encouraged to read. But an "agreement" is something I have to consider whether I agree to all of, when I'd rather just be participating. In other words, doing it this way seems to assume from the start that someone is likely to be a jerk, and we have to address that possibility up front. That doesn't help build trust. Looking through, I think there are only actually 3 things you need to say to someone. Here's a blow-by-blow: * As a volunteer for our Project, you will be working with Mozilla staff, employees and other volunteers; -- How is this useful and new information? * As a volunteer, you will not receive any payment from Mozilla; -- Well yes, that's what "volunteer" means in English. This seems redundant. Have we had people start volunteering at Mozilla with a strong expectation of being paid and then going off in a huff when they weren't? * As a volunteer, you cannot bind Mozilla to any agreements or sign any agreements on behalf of Mozilla, but you can introduce Mozilla to different ideas, processes and ways of doing things; -- OK... but what happens if I do this anyway? Are we actually going to sue? Have there been any cases of this actually happening? * You are not an employee or contractor of Mozilla and should not represent yourself as such; -- This one is OK. * You cannot engage in any activities that violate the laws of your locale, Mozilla's policies, or the rights of any group or individual; -- Others have explained why this is unnecessary or even actively wrong. * You agree to behave in a professional and respectable manner when acting as a Mozilla volunteer. See our Participation Guidelines [link] for more information; -- This is useful. * It's definitely okay to talk about your contributions to Mozilla, but before you use Mozilla's logo or trademarks, please read through our trademark policy [link]; -- This is useful. * This Agreement is about you and only you. You may not transfer or give this to any other person or group; -- This feels very "sign-y". * If you violate any of these rules, Mozilla has the right to end this agreement and your volunteer activities. -- The key point is, we don't need to detect an "agreement violation" to decide that someone should no longer volunteer with Mozilla, and stop accepting their help. So enumerating all the badness in order to be able to conclude with this is just not a helpful approach IMO. > * The name of document hasn't been changed. As I said originally, > this is not intended to be a document that people sign, although it > is still an agreement. The proposal is to ask people to opt-in to > this when coming in through the Get Involved page, just like we ask > potential volunteers today to opt-in to our Privacy Policy. If one has to agree to it, then it's a "signed document" in nature, even if a signature isn't required. Gerv _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
