On Fri, Oct 9, 2020, 5:30 AM Christian Heimes <christ...@python.org> wrote:

> On 09/10/2020 04.04, Ivan Pozdeev via Python-Dev wrote:
> > I don't see the point of requiring to "write an apology", especially
> > *before a 12-month ban*. If they understand that their behavior is
> > wrong, there's no need for a ban, at least not such a long one; if they
> > don't, they clearly aren't going to write it, at least not now (they
> > might later, after a few weeks or months, having cooled down and thought
> > it over). So all it would achieve is public shaming AFAICS. Same issue
> > with the threat of "zero tolerance policy" -- it's completely
> > unnecessary and only serves to humiliate and alienate the recipient.
>
>
> I have been the victim of Stefan's CoC violations on more than one
> occasion. He added me to nosy list of a ticket just to offend and
> humiliate me. For this reason I personally asked the SC to make a
> sincere apology a mandatory requirement for Stefan's reinstatement as a
> core dev.
>
> I would have been fine with a private apology. However Stefan has also
> verbally attacked non-core contributors. In one case another core dev
> and I contacted the contribute in private to apologize and ensure that
> the contributor was not alienated by Stefan's attitude. Therefore it
> makes sense that the SC has requested a public, general apology.
>
> Why are you more concerned with the reputation of a repeated offender
> and not with the feelings of multiple victims of harassment? As a victim
> of Stefan's behavior I feel that an apology is the first step to
> reconcile and rebuild trust.
>

At the risk of putting my nose in where it doesn't belong... I think that
Ivan has some good general points.  And i think that they could be
distilled as this: if you are looking to correct bad behavior but allow a
contributor to learn about proper behavior and then return to the
community, the steps taken here seen counter-productive (1).  I would add a
second piece to that: If, on the other hand, the goal is to remove a toxic
person from the community whoneeds to go through major personality shifting
changes before they can be allowed back, then this may be appropriate (2).

For (1), what I'm getting from Ivan's post is that these measures are at a
level that few (if any) people would be willing to fulfill them and then
come back to be a non-bitter contributor. When the requirements are too
costly for the violator to pay, they won't be able to learn and then pay
those costs until they can disavow their former selves.  "i'm sorry i acted
like that; i was a *different person* back then. I'm sorry that *past me*
felt the need to hurt you."

I would think that in general, not necessarily this specific case, the
steering committee would want to try taking steps to get people to learn
proper behavior first and only resort to something which amounts to a de
facto permanent ban when it becomes apparent that the person has to go
through some major personality changes before their behavior will change.

For (2), the steering committee is charged with protecting the community at
large. A toxic person can cause great havoc by themselves and set the tone
of a community such that other people feel that engaging in bad behavior is
the proper thing to do in this community.  With that in mind, at some
point, this kind of action has to be on the table.  It is great that pep-13
lists banning as a possibility so that people know where their actions can
lead.

One thing i would suggest, though, is documenting and, in general,
following a sequence of progressively more strict interventions by the
steering committee.  I think that just as it is harmful to the community to
let bad behavior slide, it is also harmful to the community to not know
that the steering committee's enforcement is in measured steps which will
telegraph the committee's intentions and the member's responsibilities well
in advance.

This specific case may already have been out of hand by the time it came to
the committee, the steering committee is relatively new and problems could
have festered before they formed and started governing, but a new member of
the community should know that if they step out of line, the committee will
make it apparent to them what the expectations are and whether their
ongoing behavior is putting them onto a disciplinary track well before that
discipline gets to the point of a one year ban and a public apology.

Thanks for reading,
-Toshio

>
_______________________________________________
Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org
To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/
Message archived at 
https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/IDFQDRHRA2JJ6OJAK2265UHCBEI45PIM/
Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/

Reply via email to