On 12/12/2014 8:48 AM, Mike Hoye wrote:
To that end, we are going to propose that Planet have a participation
policy including words to the effect that "in discussing contentious or
personal topics outside of Mozilla's mission, please consider
invitations to conversation welcome, position statements not, and
exercise your judgement with the growth of a kind and inclusive
community in mind."
From my admittedly limited perspective, the way that Mozilla has gotten
into the worst trouble in the past has been along these lines:
1) Something from a conservative perspective surfaces in the community.
2) People from a liberal perspective (the vast majority in Mozilla) take
offense, and organize a mass condemnation.
3) Mozilla accepts the condemnation within the community, but then gets
blasted from the outside because Mozilla's liberal bias is not universal
in the world.
So when I read proposals to manage discussion, I fear that they will
simply serve to reinforce the existing biases in the community, and not
manage to accomplish the real goal (which I would say is to allow
discussion, but protect Mozilla from harm from positions that are
unrelated to its core mission). Also I hope you recognize that "foster
an inclusive, diverse community" already is liberal-bias language that
you would not see in a conservative-biased community. Just like "stop
the political-correctness police from shutting down voices they don't
agree with" is language you would not see in a liberal-biased community.
My suggestion? When you do these guidelines, please make a deliberate
effort to reach out to people from a more conservative or religious
perspective, and get them to participate in the content. They may not
want to come forward on their own (think the Brendan Eich fiasco) but
they are the voices that you really need to hear from.
(Full disclosure: I would consider myself a typical liberal-biased
Mozillian on most issues).
:rkent
_______________________________________________
governance mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
