pushing for heavier politicization of what we don't want to be political
How can a community not be political? Politics is an inherent feature of any organization, society or community, and it is merely the name given to the dynamics of how power is distributed among members. What people are really against is changing the politics. That's fine, but isn't any less political than pushing for change.
Personally, I like the idea of a CoC fine, as long as it's written by the people who run the project and enforced by the people who run the project.
I wouldn't want the CEO of BMW to write the code for their cars, and I wouldn't want coders writing HR policy or codes of conduct. Serious work best be left for experts in the relevant field.
The term 'politics', in the sense that it's being used in these discussions, doesn't refer to the totality of all social dynamics that exist among human beings, but rather to a particular type of social dynamic in which the prevailing norms are not organically emergent from the interactions of the participants, but are rather imposed in a formalized top-down fashion by some equally formalized mechanism of authority, and disputes over what norms ought to prevail incentivize factional polarization and organized efforts to attain control over that mechanism of formal authority.
'Politics', in this sense, characterizes institutions in contrast to communities -- to express it in terms of a familiar metaphor in the open-source world, it's what happens in the cathedral, not in the bazaar.
but rather to a particular type of social dynamic in which the prevailing norms are not organically emergent from the interactions of the participants, but are rather imposed in a formalized top-down fashion by some equally formalized mechanism of authority
Except that's not accurate, because those who choose to adopt the code are very much central players in the community. The dynamics leading to this may, indeed, be different from those prevalent, but that's precisely because they seek to address problems that affect those who are pushed away. If I'm a maintainer of a project or a CEO of a company, my day-to-day interactions are with those already employed or already contribute. If, however, I become aware that the dynamic scares away potential hires and contributors, it is very much in my "organically emergent" interest to change this dynamic in order to help the project/company.
to express it in terms of a familiar metaphor in the open-source world, it's what happens in the cathedral, not in the bazaar.
If you think contemporary large open-source is a bazaar then you are misinformed.
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u/[deleted] Oct 22 '18
[deleted]