Thoughts on the Code of Conduct Controversy

My overall perspective here is that the PostgreSQL community needs a code of conduct, and one which allows the committee to act in some cases for off-infrastructure activity, but that the current code of conduct has some problems which could have been fixed if efforts had been better taken ensure that feedback was gathered when it was actionable.

This piece discusses what I feel was done poorly but also what was done well and why, despite a few significant missteps, I think PostgreSQL as a project is headed in the right direction in this area.

But a second important point here is to defend the importance of a code of conduct to dissenters here, explain why we need one, and why the scope needs to extend where it needs to extend to, and why we should not be overly worried about this going in a very bad direction.  The reason for this direction is that in part I found myself defending the need for a code of conduct to folks I collaborate with in Europe and the context had less to do with PostgreSQL than with the Linux kernel.  But the projects in this regard are far more different than they are similar.

Major Complaint:  Feedback Could Have Been Handled Better (Maybe Next Time)

In early May there was discussion about the formation of a code of conduct committee, in which I argued (successfully) that it was extremely important that the committee be geographically and culturally diverse so as to avoid one country's politics being unintentionally internationalized through a code of conduct.  This was accepted and as I will go into below this is the single most important protection we have against misuse of the code of conduct to push political agendas on the community.  However after this discussion there was no further solicitation for feedback until mid-September.

In Mid-September, the Code of Conduct plan was submitted to the list.  In the new code of conduct was a surprising amendment which had been made the previous month, expanding the code of conduct to all interactions between community members unless another code of conduct applied and superseded the PostgreSQL community code of conduct.  I objected to this as did several others with actionable criticism and alternatives.  Unfortunately we were joined by a large numbers of people wanting to relitigate whether we needed a code of conduct in the first place.   Those of us with actionable feedback were told that no changes would be made for about a year.  In essence what looked like a public comment period was not and the more actionable feedback was, the more clearly it was ignored.

Had there been an actual comment period on the proposed language, I maintain that things would have been more tame, but ignoring even actionable feedback in such a period, in my view, helped throw fuel on the fire regarding those who wanted to re-litigate the whole concept because it further helped push the view that a plan was announced and then any concern ignored.  This was unfortunate.  If there had been a comment period, a deliberation, and a final draft things would have gone better.

I hope that next time such a process is followed, where feedback on proposed final wording is taken before the decision is made to refuse to make changes for a year.

Why We Have Codes of Conduct

Humans are social animals.  Groups of humans form social groups, which often have group infrastructure which needs to be managed.  Open source thus has all of the political considerations of a multi-national collaborative community and this includes management of common infrastructure, and how we treat each other.  The kinds of social relationships and interactions that we have in the community are shaped by our culture, gender, and outlook on life, and in an international project there can be a lot of problems.  When national political issues are kept out of the project and the project consists mostly of people who are willing to defend themselves possibly aggressively, a project can get along ok without a code of conduct, but as things change, it is important that there be a means of resolving conflicts within the community.  Hence one needs a dedicated committee and a document which reminds people to act in ways that keep the peace.

Codes of conduct thus have a role in ensuring that people can come together and work in a collegial and civil manner across cultural, political and other disagreements, and continue to build the great software that we all rely on.  In this regard I think the PostgreSQL community has hit the most important milestones and begun to build a code of conduct infrastructure which can last and ensure that the code of conduct does not turn into a way of one group of people forcing a political agenda on the world.

I have been to many conferences.  Often at some point discussions turn to politics in some way.  With the exception of one conversation, these comments have been thoughtful, receptive, and mutually entertaining but in that one exception, I saw a certain degree of aggressiveness that might, for others, even rise to the level of physical intimidation.  A reminder that we all need to genuinely be nice to eachother is a step in the right direction.

Codes of conduct cannot create fairness.  They cannot create social justice.  They cannot broaden meritocracy to community contribution beyond code.  Those things have to be done through other means, but they can remind everyone to treat each other collegially and to respect differences of opinion and so forth.

However, codes of conduct cannot enable merely formalities to defeat this purpose.  A campaign of harassment that is taken off-list is at least as much of a problem as discussions on-list.  Therefore community-related conversations are things which might have to sometimes fall under the jurisdiction of community conflict adjudication mechanisms such as the Code of Conflict.

What PostgreSQL is Doing Right

The danger in any code of conduct is that an internal controversy from one country or culture will be read into disputes in a way which ensures that other cultural groups do not feel comfortable participating.  GLBT issues are an area where this commonly comes up, and in a project where you have a lot of involvement from countries where the views are very different from those of the US, this leads to big problems.  On one hand, some people may see others' cultural views as invalidating their sexual identity, while others would see views pushing universalism in GLBT rights as invalidating their cultural identity.  These issues cannot be resolved without retreating to a single cultural context as the norm, discouraging participation from much of the world, and thus need to be outside what a code of conduct handles.  In this case it does not matter what one believes to be the right approach, but rather the fact that the consequences of siding with either side in such a controversy would be devastating for the community.

One of the key points of the current Code of Conduct is that the committee is itself geographically and culturally diverse.  This ensures that the intra-committee cultural divisions will help ensure that the committee cannot just bull-doze a political orthodoxy out of fear of how a domestic controversy might be perceived.  The cultural diversity thus is an immense protection and it effectively ensures that there is a right to engage in the free struggle of political opinion in one's own country.

From a responsibility to civic engagement comes a right to such a free struggle of political opinion, and in my view this is something which is effectively preserved in the community today.  Note that this would not apply to trying to position the PostgreSQL project as against any political, cultural, or other group.  Nor should it protect actual personally directed harassment against any member for any reason.  I believe that the committee is capable of drawing these lines and hence I see the PostgreSQL project as off to a shaky but viable start.

Unlucky Timing

The Code of Conduct controversy accidentally coincided with the Linux Foundation adopting the Contributor Covenant as its code of conduct.  The Contributor Covenant is a code of conduct which transparently attempts to push certain norms of certain parts of the US political spectrum on the rest of the world (see, for example, Opalgate).   While I believe this to be a mistake, time will tell how this is handled.  The Contributor Covenant was soundly and decisively rejected by the PostgreSQL community early on as too transparently political.

A lot of the emotional reactions in this controversy by dissenters may well be in relation to that.  This is one of those things one cannot plan for and it makes it harder to have real discussions today.

Calls to Action and Conclusions

I have submitted a couple of requests for wording changes to the code of conduct committee.  For others who see a need for a committee to help ensure a collegial and productive community, and see opportunities for improvement I suggest you do the same.  But simply arguing about whether we need a resolution process is not productive and that probably needs to stop.

I also think the community needs to insist on two modifications to the current process:

1. There needs to be a comment period and deliberation over feedback between a draft of a new revision and its adoption
2. The code of conduct committee needs to reply with reasons why particular suggestions were rejected.

However on the other hand I think PostgreSQL as a project is off to a viable start in what is likely to become the right direction.  And that is something we should all be thankful for.