[License-discuss] Evolving the License Review process for OSI

[Russell McOrmond]

On Sat, May 25, 2019 at 1:45 PM Pamela Chestek <
pamela.chestek at opensource.org> wrote:

> I've seen a few people who have said, essentially, "it's a little rough
> and tumble, so what, deal with it." But we lose voices that way. Some
> people with very smart views don't like confrontation, or internalize it as
> an attack. But we need to make room for them too. I've never heard of a
> forum where people won't participate because it's too polite (but I'd be
> interested to hear if there are any). I believe an elbows-out style of
> engagement is to all of our detriment. We don't need it; calm, rational
> argument is far more persuasive than bluster any day.
>

The line between passion and rudeness tends to be very subjective, and who
is being polite and who is being abusive will be interpreted in part by how
much someone agrees with the message being conveyed.  Objectivity is a nice
ideal, but isn't how humans tend to operate.

I am someone who avoids participation in forums that focus too much on
specific interpretations of a code of conduct, which are themselves used as
hammers to reduce participation from passionate people who don't share some
perceived 'silent majority' opinion.  I don't agree it is a matter of "too
polite", and I can easily see calling someone out for suggesting something
was absurd is itself impolite.

While I have been very active in the Free Software movement since the early
1990's, I'm not an active participant in the OSI lists partly because this
list gives me the impression the shared political values that made me want
to join are no longer the majority.
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