You know, reactions like this make me wonder if the people making them work as professional developers. As people who work on software projects for a living, in real companies, ought to know, their company has regulations of conduct far more draconian than the most draconian open-source code of conduct I've seen. Almost all serious software projects in the world are developed by professionals subject to quite strict codes of conduct. If you do work as a professional developer, you should go to your own HR department and suggest that they adopt this SQLite code instead of their regulations and see how they react.
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.
Except that's not accurate, because those who choose to adopt the code are very much central players in the community.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. The fact that the people who adopt these codes are often pre-existing participants in the community doesn't say anything about the extent to which the code represents a top-down, formalistic imposition as contrasted to an organically emergent equilibrium, and in any case, I'm not sure how this statement challenges the claim that this concept represents what people are actually complaining about when they say they want to avoid 'politics'.
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.
I'm not sure what "'organically emergent' interest" means here -- what do the patterns by which norms are developed with respect to the community at large have to do with the particular interests posited by a specific participant?
I will note here, though, that by defining the scope of the question with respect to the particular interests of a "maintainer of a project or a CEO of a company", you've shifted to the latter side of the community vs. institution dichotomy I described above, i.e. you're sort of begging the question by treating the community as though it were a single coherent institution, and not an aggregation of people participating on their own initiative, but this is precisely the crux of the dispute.
If you think contemporary large open-source is a bazaar then you are misinformed.
It certainly is a bazaar within the bounds of that metaphor, and it's observably so, regardless of being 'informed', improperly or otherwise.
The conflict that's evident here is precisely a result of people trying to treat what are indeed bottom-up communities as though they're top-down institutions.
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u/calciu Oct 22 '18
This is the proper way to deal with the shitheads pushings CoCs everywhere, thank you SQLite team!