On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 2:39 AM, Gervase Markham <[email protected]> wrote:
> Mozilla is not just a workplace. The vast majority of Mozillians aren't > employed by Mozilla. I was a Mozillian before I became an employee, and > I'll still be one if I ever stop being an employee. Mozilla is first and > foremost a community. > > Mozilla is also a globally diverse community. The idea that "we don't > talk about X, Y and Z at work" is pretty Western, AIUI. > I would not say it is entirely western although there is a saying about not discussing Religion, Politics or Sex among friends but I would say that view is pretty conservative. I think most people in Western countries are actually very open talking about these and other topics. I have quite a number of friends who hold political and religious views that are polar opposites of mine and while we both share things on Social Media and occasionally debate at the end of the day we politely agree to disagree. > > To my mind, employees are Mozillians who are fortunate enough to get > paid to do Mozilla stuff all day, but they are Mozillians and community > members first, and employees second. And as a community, a group of > friends working together on a common goal, as we go through life > together we discuss all sorts of things - just like any community does. > Unless we are in the rare case where we encounter an unfortunate direct > clash between that value and the law of a particular jurisdiction, I > think that value stands. > > We need to learn to disagree well. That means accepting a diversity of > expressed views, including the view that you or anyone else is wrong > about something, and choosing one of the possible mature responses which > are: > > 1) Ignore it > 2) Change your mind > 3) Argue your case > > This is as true in a discussion about the right way to architect layout > as it is in a discussion about whether MoCo should or even can be a > secular workplace (which started the Yammer thread which led me to write > my recent post). > > I continue to deny that "everyone getting along" means that no-one must > ever talk about anything controversial in our community. I deny that > saying someone is wrong about something is "being divisive". I deny that > insulating people from community views different from their own improves > community cohesion; I think it actually drives us apart. > +1 > > Choosing to be offended and then making "you offended someone" or "you > are being divisive" the cardinal sin can be just another way of > silencing people. (This is one way that people who object to "silencing" > silence people.) > +1 > > > Because I open my planet feed and see someone evangelizing their > > religion to me. I'm not interested but I need to read the feed in order > > to keep up with the overall Mozilla community. > > "Reading the feed" != "Reading every word of every post". As I > understand it, that's why Mike is proposing a topic sentence at the top, > so that you do not have to be upset by even a short part of such an > article passing under your eyes before you click "Next". > I wonder what these offended people do when they walk by a newsstand or read a news site and come across an topic in an article they disagree with. Do they write the author and demand the topic be censored or a disclaimer be added? Opinions and views that are shared politely should not come with a disclaimer. _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
