On 06/23/2016 02:52 PM, Michael Cullum wrote:
Hi all,
Over the past 8 weeks, we [the secretaries] have had a number of
voting members, former project representatives and well known
community members alike approach us regarding a situation they believe
is being detrimental to the continued success of the FIG and the
harmony in the group. It is, essentially, the impact of Paul M Jones
on the harmony of the mailing list and the impact his contribution is
having on making this group welcoming or pleasant to be involved with.
To avoid putting words in mouths but still convey the common
grievances, we’ll quote from those who have complained:
*
“This individual is toxic to the group and is therefore directly
affecting the ability of the group to perform its aims”
*
“I believe this individual is the sole biggest cause of loss of
respect and members for the FIG”
*
“I stepped down as a voting representative due to this member”
*
“The presence of this individual makes me not want to contribute
or get involved with to the PHP FIG”
*
“My main problem with him is that every time I opened a threads
lately to read up, he's getting into some tantrum with other over
small meaningless things. Sometimes he might even be right but
honestly I don't even care whether he is right or wrong. They is
just plainly disrupting the FIG at this stage. He used to be
annoying, but I was fine with that, this is just disruptive though.”
The following complainants said they are happy to be named (Nobody
asked not to be named, but some we never asked if they were happy to
be named):
*
Ross Tuck - Community figure
*
Larry Garfield - Drupal project representative
*
Graham Daniels - PHP League project representative
*
Fabien Potencier - Symfony project representative
*
Mike van Riel - PHPDoc project representative
*
Jordi Boggiano - Composer project representative
*
Anthony Ferrara - Community figure
*
Phil Sturgeon - Former project representative and community figure
*
Christopher Pitt - Former project representative and community figure
*
Rafael Dohms - Community figure
*
Marc Alexander - phpBB project representative
*
Cees-Jan Kiewiet - ReactPHP project representative
In total the number of complaints about this individual totals about
20 however there have also been other concerns aired about this
individual publicly and a number of individuals who contacted us said
they in turn had heard complaints about Paul from others; as a result
of this, and being explicitly asked what we can do/to do something
about this situation, including requests of this specific course of
action we are starting this discussion on PMJ’s membership. It is not
the role of the secretaries to handle this kind of thing or pass
judgement on member projects so we are posting this topic to invite
discussion from both sides of the table out in the open.
We believe having this discussion going on for too long will not be
conducive to the FIG so a vote [to request a new representative from
Aura, which will result in Aura’s expulsion unless a new
representative is provided] will then commence unless a conclusion has
been reached agreeable by all sides before that point. That vote
should then put an end to the current situation.
To clarify further, this topic does not indicate the opinion of
secretaries that this project representative should be expelled, but
that we have been asked by a significant number of voting members and
community members to do something about it so we are moving those
complaints into public for discussion by voting members as we can do
nothing but move the discussion and complaints to the mailing list for
the attention of voting members.
I know this is a difficult discussion to avoid making personal, but
please try and keep it civil and respect self-throttling. People have
requested we ensure we always have two week discussion periods before
voting on matters which means that we will not lock this topic unless
we have no other option open to us but will be issuing temporary
mailing list bans on anyone not respecting rules about civility or
self throttling; more than 3 responses in a 24 hour period will result
in a 24 hour temporary ban, as will repeatedly making posts that cross
boundaries into flaming. If rules are broken multiple times, we will
increase the time period of bans.
Many thanks,
The Secretaries
This is an important moment for FIG, as we look to hold one of the
group's founders accountable for his actions. I therefore want to lay
out why it is imperative that we do so.
"The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the
leader is willing to tolerate."
-- Gruenter and Whitaker (undated), as circulated widely on the Internet
in the past year
By design, FIG doesn't have a single leader. It was founded as
unstructured as possible. That means that all FIG representatives are,
collectively, "leaders", for better or worse. That means the culture of
FIG is defined by the worst behavior we are willing to tolerate.
Let's review some of Paul Jones' recent behavior:
* Repeated passive-aggressive snarking at Secretary Michael Cullum about
not commenting in voting threads[1][2], specifically when...
* Being called out by the Secretary about claiming to speak for a series
projects that are not FIG members, but simply small libraries he happens
to maintain. As has been stated dozens of times, FIG's bylaws are very
clear that, at this time, projects are represented by people; People
aren't members by virtue of having a long resume, although Paul
routinely declares his intention to ignore that fact. The call out was
on the voting thread as a correction of Paul's presumptive behavior.
* Repeated, continued harassment of the Secretaries over a minor
procedural point, even after an apology was given within hours of the
original point in question. For the record, I believe the Secretaries
did make the wrong call in the Roman Tsjupa expulsion vote as excluding
the individual in question is not supported by the bylaws, even though
it ought to be in the future. But that does not justify the repeated
haranguing that resulted, led primarily by Paul. (I count 37 posts,
just by Paul, on the relevant threads in the span of about 3 days.)
* Paul's primary objection to the FIG 3 proposal was an oblique claim
that more rules == bad[3]. In itself that is not a crime. In the past,
he has been a proponent of letting reasonable people make judgment calls
rather than having lots of rules[4]. That sounds great on the surface,
because it gives the maximum leeway to the calm bully to seem
"reasonable" without accountability. Of course, as soon as the
Secretaries exercised their authority to make a judgment call, his
response was to call for "more rules" to force more minutia into a
public discussion and vote, where it is easier for a reasonable-seeming
bully to get his way. That is, Paul is a hypocrite.
* His ongoing feud with Phil Sturgeon (which is certainly bidirectional)
has spilled onto the list repeatedly; I cannot recall seeing Phil post
of late without a snarky or insulting response from Paul Jones.
* After the inappropriate and off-topic attack on Secretary Samantha
Quinones by an anonymous party[5], his response was to obliquely
attack... well, anyone who spoke in favor of Samantha[6]. His claim to
the contrary notwithstanding, his post was, in essence, a hypothetical
strawman against everyone present. (For the record, I do not believe
the anonymous individual in question was Paul. I do not know who it
was.) Of course, that isn't surprising given that...
* He openly attacked Secretary Candidate Michael Cullum as "against
freedom of speech"[7] for daring to speak out in favor of the proposed
PHP Internals Code of Conduct. Since he saw it fit to drag Internals
into a FIG process, I will note that Paul's own behavior in the
Internals Code of Conduct discussion was abhorrent and insulting.
Declaring anyone who even remotely supported a CoC as "fascist",
"anti-freedom", etc., repeatedly, is not conducive to a mature
discussion. Disagreeing with the PHP Internals CoC is fine, and Paul or
anyone else is entitled to that position. Vitriolic attacks in the name
of that position are not appropriate. Those are the actions of a bully.
And the above is only going back to the start of this year. Going back
further, we see the same pattern of behavior: seemingly calm
passive-aggressive bullying that technically stays within the letter of
the law, such as it is, but is clearly designed to intimidate and
belittle opponents, and objection to any structural changes or actions
that would restrict his ability to do so.
His passive-aggressive behavior extends to technical discussions as
well. For instance:
* Apparently Paul feels it's appropriate to slam those who are trying to
improve FIG's process[8], based on feedback from the community that he
even sought[9], when complimenting a technical proposal. Yet if you
look at his own activity on this list in the last 6 months, it is 99%
process/politics, not technical discussion.
* "Intellectual self-stimulation" is his description for activity on
PSR-12 that doesn't follow the process he considers preferable. That's
on top of, in the same thread, attacking Korvin Santo (PSR-12 Editor)
for the same, not doing precisely the tasks that Paul saw fit to
demand[10]. When called out for it, his response was that he was
"exhorting the PSR-12 team to excellence".
* Going through my mail archive, I think the last time Paul actually
commented on the technical content of a PSR proposal, rather than the
meta process around it, was in August, when talking about PSR-11
(containers). (More recent nods to technical content would be arguing
if non-PSR-7-using projects like Symfony mattered when discussing
middlewares, when talking to Fabien Potencier, the project lead of
Symfony.) So despite his exhortations that we need more tech, less
process, he appears to be as much of a problem himself as anyone. It is
possible I missed another more recent example, but the difficulty in
finding more examples should be telling.
The net result is people being driven away from FIG, including leading
members of the PHP Community. Several of them have spoken out above. I
hope that others that have remained silent will do so.
Such behavior contributes to a toxic and hostile atmosphere in and
around FIG, discourages participation, and generally contributes to a
flippant and contemptuous attitude towards FIG in the community at large.
The bylaws permit FIG to eject representatives who in their judgment,
are "acting inappropriately and to the detriment of PHP-FIG's ability to
meet its objectives"[11]. I believe the preceding paragraph
demonstrates that such behavior does exactly that.
None of the above should be taken to dispute that Paul is a sharp,
intelligent developer. He is, and I actually agree with him on most
technical issues. Nor is it to suggest that Paul has not also
contributed positively to FIG over the years as well. He has. However,
that does not excuse inappropriate and toxic behavior. The phrase here
is "Jeremy Clarkson Effect":
https://blog.vanillaforums.com/help/how-to/dealing-with-toxic-community-member/
Paul Jones is, at this time, a net-negative for FIG. It is indeed
possible that he doesn't realize just how damaging he is, and that the
above behavior is unintentional. I do not know if that is the case. In
the end, it doesn't matter. The behavior is real, the toxic effect is
real, and our responsibility to state that we will not tolerate it is real.
*
I will be voting in favor of Paul's removal from FIG.
--Larry Garfield
[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/6rZPZ8VglIM/uf3JHrgJNgAJ
[2] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/f2-FppEpRJs/PvA5WZoKNgAJ
[3] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/h3wrQePdzfc/3ryZCAtlCAAJ
[4] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/FV4aL-noVZk/mg8qcuAtCgAJ
[5] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/K9KyPzCNmss/HIEJG7YPAgAJ
[6] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/K9KyPzCNmss/nkNG6vxnAgAJ
[7] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/wPePxyC8vHA/Czwu80icEAAJ
[8] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/php-fig/vTtGxdIuBX8/dIG7KVCADQAJ
[9] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/php-fig/oqO1ZH5tJKU%5B76-100%5D
[10] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/php-fig/VVZe7eI0Clg%5B51-75%5D
[11] http://www.php-fig.org/bylaws/membership/#voting-representatives
*
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