On August 25, 2021 2:24:08 PM UTC, "David Lanzendörfer" leviathan@libresilicon.com wrote:
Maybe just a disclaimer somewhere to please TRY to avoid starting political debates on this mailing list?
what happens on the next "incident"? add that to the list of proscribed topics, too?
a Charter which has "always do good, never do harm" it is pretty obvious that a distracting off-topic political debate might irritate some people, but more importantly make the project look weird and thus "cause harm", as well as "waste time" (more "harm")
however, it *might* be the case that people *welcome* an amusing distraction if under a lot of pressure to get a job done. they can let off steam, and, importantly, they know that whoops they just wasted time, and, with the contrast now clear, get back on topic with more focus simply out of sheer embarrassment.
thus it is really down to context, each and every time, and that's not in the least bit possible to put into something as strictly defined as a proscribed list of topics and behaviours.
this is what particularly angered and upset me about the FOSSI Foundation, whose dictats can only be described as urban-dictionary-definition (2) "fascist", when they banned me from their lists *based on their own judgemental and day-to-day mistakes*, completely without asking what was going on, in any kind of empathic or context-sensitive way.
bottom line is, you know exactly when a topic has crossed a line, because people will get upset and go off topic and be distracted and so on and so forth. that is by definition "harm" and you can watch out for it in all its forms... *without* needing to actually spell it out.
NCoC without a [N]CoC :)
l.
(2) https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fascist
2. A lesser authority (corporation, mayor, cop, boss, parent) who legally issues harsh, burdensome, micro-managing, insensitive, or uncaring orders -- especially when they know, or should know, that their goals can be accomplished with more autonomy and much less hardship or distress.