Post-meritocracy

[Kilgore T.M. Replicant]

(or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the CoC)

The Free Software (and open source) world has been much too focused on producing software. Instead of striving for excellent code quality, we must focus on what's really important: feelings and diversity. The Post-Meritocracy Manifesto outlines the wave of the future: no more judging based on merit, but inclusion based on ethnicity, gender identity and expression, or socio-economic status.

The main weapon in this fight for justice is the Code of Conduct from the Manifesto author. Recently, it has replaced the Linux "Code of Conflict", getting rid of regressive cruft such as

Your code and ideas behind it will be carefully reviewed, often resulting in critique and criticism.  The review will almost always require improvements to the code before it can be included in the kernel.  Know that this happens because everyone involved wants to see the best possible solution for the overall success of Linux.

and focusing on the main point of Free Software:

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers pledge to making participation in our project and our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

Concurrently, Linus Torvalds has been convinced that shouting at people and calling crap code crap is holding his hobby project back and that he must clean up his act. A clear victory for us! That foul-mouthed, long standing blemish in Free Software's face has finally been fixed. Now you can feel safe to post your wonderful patches and not be put down in a blunt manner. If you still are, complain and get the rude developer excommunicated. Nobody's time is more valuable than your feelings, regardless of your level of experience.

Further inquiries revealed that Linus adopted our CoC for exactly the right reasons:

I absolutely do not want to be seen as being in the same camp as the low-life scum on the internet that think it's OK to be a white nationalist Nazi, and have some truly nasty misogynistic, homophobic or transphobic behaviour.

The Manifesto urges you to seek out members of various minorities to include and personally coach in your project. Drop that $EDITOR and get your posterior on Twitter! Remember that diversity brings salvation and focusing of technical issues alone won't get your project far. Your time is better spent on outreach than coding.

Instead of simply accepting code from anyone (or anything), we must enumerate our under-represented and repressed classes in our guidelines and promise punishment for those who cross the line. Let's fill out the forums with discussion on identity politics instead of C/C++, bugs or 25 year old games. On the Internet, everyone knows you're a dog. And if they do not, shout it aloud!

We need more tribalism, harassment, censorship and discrimination in our Free Software. Linux has finally joined us on our path. Embrace the post-meritocracy world and take in a CoC today! Or are you a Nazi?

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the content of their patches but by the color of their skin.

PS. Enlightened by Python's move, I shall replace every instance of "Master" with "Parent" in my projects.

[Stoddard]

I am sorry for you.

The feeling of being morally superior is infectuous and self-reinforced.

It blinds.

And it compels one to enforce one's own 'moral' 'standards' upon everyone else.

All those CoCs are but the tools to do that.

It is disgusting, but to see that one  first has to reject the notion of own infallibility. Which is very hard once the superiority complex settles in.


Citing wikipedia:

Pride (Latin, superbia) is considered, on almost every list, the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins: the perversion of the faculties that make humans more like God—dignity and holiness. It is also thought to be the source of the other capital sins. Also known as hubris (from ancient Greek ὕβρις), or futility, it is identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness, the putting of one's own desires, urges, wants, and whims before the welfare of people.

In even more destructive cases, it is irrationally believing that one is essentially and necessarily better, superior, or more important than others, failing to acknowledge the accomplishments of others, and excessive admiration of the personal image or self (especially forgetting one's own lack of divinity, and refusing to acknowledge one's own limits, faults, or wrongs as a human being).

[KZad Bhat]

I have been wondering why the color of skin of your four little children was blue. After all, isn't that a sign of a lack of oxygen?

[Kilgore T.M. Replicant]

And it compels one to enforce one's own 'moral' 'standards' upon everyone else.

All those CoCs are but the tools to do that.

What is the point of Free Software if not to impose morals on others?

Some misguided individuals such as Richard M. Stallman think that instead of our CoC we should have some guidelines for getting along with each other. That gun nut Eric S. Raymond has made the preposterous suggestion of replacing our beloved class enumeration with "every individual".

The previous Linux Code of Conflict simply urged to "be excellent to each other". It was replaced for a reason: the deconstruction of meritocracy.

Citing wikipedia:

I thought Pride was when we don our leather chaps and dance on the streets. That quote speaks of the divine. Perhaps you'd prefer the SQLite CoC? (EDIT: link changed to archived version from when this post was written)

Meanwhile...

Oh no! The Linux folk are about to water down the CoC by removing an essential part:

Maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good faith may
face temporary or permanent repercussions as determined by other members of the
project’s leadership.

How can we build a better tomorrow if punishing community members for wrongthink is not the responsibility of all maintainers? Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for our ddreamland!

I have been wondering why the color of skin of your four little children was blue. After all, isn't that a sign of a lack of oxygen?

Revolution, children. Asphyxiation's cheap!

[Yankes]

I thought Pride was when we don our leather chaps and dance on the streets. That quote speaks of the divine. Perhaps you'd prefer the SQLite CoC?

I think this is good idea (second part not former)

[Stoddard]

What is the point of Free Software if not to impose morals on others?

If you do not see anything wrong with imposing your will on others then you accept that you are against freedom and self-determination, and, consequentally, any possible form of inclusiveness and diversity (whatever that last one means).

Do you now see how your position is self-contradictory?

[SupSuper]

If you do not see anything wrong with imposing your will on others then you accept that you are against freedom and self-determination, and, consequentally, any possible form of inclusiveness and diversity (whatever that last one means).

Do you now see how your position is self-contradictory?

I think Kilgore is using that most dreaded of tools: sarcasm.

[Kilgore T.M. Replicant]

If you do not see anything wrong with imposing your will on others then you accept that you are against freedom and self-determination, and, consequentally, any possible form of inclusiveness and diversity (whatever that last one means).

It's like censorship: we must silence and (in the enlightened countries) imprison those who sprout hate speech. How can there be freedom if someone is free to say something blasphemous or hateful?

How can we be inclusive if we do not promise that they will not be harassed, regardless of

age, body size, disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation

? (Hmm, funny how that list does not contain "political opinion".)

The strategy of "patches welcome from anyone" lead to the current nightmarish Linux developer landscape: male and pale. How can they be expected to produce quality software? "Homogeneity is an antipattern", as the Manifesto states.

Self-determination is clearly not sufficient for diversity. This is why we need quotas for universities, companies, etc.

I'm sure James Damore can fill in on the details on what diversity is. He went to a seminar about it.

Do you now see how your position is self-contradictory?

Logical inconsistencies in a progressive movement? Impossible! Those are quite difficult to see for those who have drunk the Kool-Aid. Next you're telling me that punching Nazis or calling out [trigger warning]rape apologists[/trigger warning] is not cool.

As the Manifesto states, "interpersonal skills are at least as important as technical skills". Thanks for letting me practise those while I'm procrastinating on learning network programming.

PS. Have you read the 1oom CoC?

[KZad Bhat]

Allow to just point out one significant inconsistency! No one at Jonestown drank the Kool-Aid, not one single member.

Jim got a bunch of Flavor-Aid to spike with cyanide.

[Yankes]

PS. Have you read the 1oom CoC?

Is using our preferred pronoun "Royal We" a correct language in case of this CoC?

[Stoddard]

FWIW, here goes my personal CoC:

I do not recognize any project's CoC being of any consequence whatsoever apart from diminishing my estimate of said project's maintainers' sanity.

[Kilgore T.M. Replicant]

I think Kilgore is using that most dreaded of tools: sarcasm.

Poe's Law is a bitch bummer.

Is using our preferred pronoun "Royal We" a correct language in case of this CoC?

Well put, your highness. I was mostly aiming to get rid of poor spelling and grammar. And non-English.

When a participant (say, SupSuper) succumbs to the unacceptable behaviour of bad punctuation, I (the maintainer who does not enforce the CoC) face the repercussions I (the project leader) have chosen: self-flagellation.

I do not recognize any project's CoC being of any consequence whatsoever apart from diminishing my estimate of said project's maintainers' sanity.

This is a very healthy approach. The only winning move is not to play.

---

From the Manifesto:

We must make room for people who are not like us to enter our field and succeed there. This means not only inviting them in, but making sure that they are supported and empowered.

"Not like us" is the key to diversity. Any young, lean and sober person willing to port 1oom for OSX?

[Dioxine]

No wonder Linux is going to shit. I'm not really a linux expert, but how comes the Gnome interface reached its peak around 2010 (these crazy crazy multiple desktops, displayed on surfaces of spinning polyhedrons) and then was progressively cut down? Joke's on us.

However I do not like the title of this thread. What has any -cracy to do with Linux? OS should never be about any sort of power.

[Stoddard]

No, linux-the-kernel isn't going anywhere even though they managed to send Linus to a re-education camp, complete with a struggle session.

Linux-the-desktop is, well, not going anywhere either, because there is no such thing as  _the_linux_desktop_.

There's KDE, there's XFCE, there's Gnome (which decided on a seppuku for version 3 and it was successful as you've seen).
And tons of less visible stuff.

[Kilgore T.M. Replicant]

However I do not like the title of this thread. What has any -cracy to do with Linux? OS should never be about any sort of power.

It's not about the OS itself. It's about how the Linux (kernel) project is governed.

In the Free/Open Source Software world the power within a project is based on meritocracy. Simply put: the ones who write the software get to make the decisions about the project.

The Post-Meritocracy Manifesto is a direct attack on this prevailing F/OSS culture. It's a power grab by those who wish to value non-technical contributors equally to technical contributors. It's an attempt to inject a PR department to software projects. It's about focusing on building diverse communities instead of producing software. It's about shoving politics into blissfully apolitical places.

The manifesto and the new Linux CoC is written by the same person. Among the manifesto signatories is a certain Patricia Torvalds. The CoC was adopted shortly before this piece of character assassination was published. Draw your own conclusions; tin foil hat optional.

This thread is about what it says on the title. Linux is not the only project to be burdened by this nonsense.

"First they came for FreeBSD, but I did not speak because I do not use it.
Then they ..."

Dear F/OSS project leader: When someone makes a pull request adding a CoC, think very hard about who you wish to call the shots in your project.

No, linux-the-kernel isn't going anywhere even though they managed to send Linus to a re-education camp, complete with a struggle session.

Given your earlier note on sanity, "Linus lost his marbles" is an apt summary.