Jen 3:49 pm on August 31, 2010
Tags: code of conduct

Most of the time, all WordPress contribu…

Most of the time, all WordPress contributors are polite, congenial even, and hold themselves to a professional standard of behavior when interacting with other contributors, whether it’s here, in the dev chat, the forums, etc. Occasionally, though, we forget to put a priority on professional interaction, and we devolve into bickering or other less-appropriate behavior. Drupal has just adopted the Ubuntu code of conduct for their community, and I propose we do the same (or some slightly modified version thereof, if people have suggestions). Thoughts?

#code-of-conduct

scribu 4:04 pm on August 31, 2010

I don’t see why not.
Andy 4:16 pm on August 31, 2010

I think its an excellent idea!
Banago 4:19 pm on August 31, 2010

That a great code of conduct – why not.
demetris 4:28 pm on August 31, 2010

No.

We can regulate ourselves fine without signing codes of conduct.

Fortunately, the most prominent contributors to the WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. behave impeccably for the most part, setting a live example of the kind of conduct that is expected. That is much stronger than a document (and, of course, a huge asset for the WordPress project).

A few people here and there seem to think sometimes that they are above standards of good behaviour, but I don’t think an official Code of Conduct would do anything in those cases.

Just because Ubuntu (which has a HUGE number of people involved) does this, or just because Drupal adopted it, it does not mean we have to do it too.

Avoid unneccessary complexity!
- Mark 4:41 pm on August 31, 2010
  
  People in the community know this, but what about those daring to dip their toes in the water?
  
  You are right, signing a code of conduct (or a declaration, or a constitution, or…) doesn’t by extension mean anybody who subscribes to it will actually adhere to it when push comes to shove. The idea, *I think*, is more to show the community at large that there is some position of authority that will waggle their finger at misbehavior. It’s PR, and it’s not bad PR in any way, so I say go for it.
- Jane Wells 4:55 pm on August 31, 2010
  
  Right now, when we self-police, sometimes people get into a ‘who says i’m being inappropriate? that’s just your opinion, take a hike’ kind of thing. Having a code of conduct (not something people sign, just something posted on the website) to point to as the standard we’re judging by to help educate people is the goal.
  - demetris 5:52 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    A code of conduct isn’t going to solve the “Who says I’m being inappropriate?” problem. To solve that, you need an authority that rules on particular cases and decides whether particular actions are appropriate or inappropriate. (sivel says this too, a few comments below, when he speaks of a community council.) Do we need that? Only if common sense and common decency fail us completely, in which case the project would be beyond repair.
    
    So, to repeat myself, avoid unneccessary complexity.
    
    Live example is the most forceful code of conduct. We should simply, all of us, try to keep our behaviour to the standards set by the best-behaved, and correct and acknowledge our mistakes when we happen to lapse.
Joe Hoyle 4:42 pm on August 31, 2010

I agree with demetris, the people who are not being polite (etc etc) are not likely to be reading the Code of Conduct.
- Mark Jaquith 4:56 pm on August 31, 2010
  
  But when they violate it, we can point to it and say “here, this is our standard.” That way it’s not just someone taking arbitrary offense or imposing their personal standards of decent interactions.
  - Alex M. 10:36 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    +1
Andrew Nacin 4:56 pm on August 31, 2010

+1. I think it’s better to have one now, when we don’t necessarily have a specific need to reference one, versus having nothing to reference when we do need one.
Matt Martz 4:57 pm on August 31, 2010

I think if we do this, we however need to also define a community council.
- Jane Wells 4:59 pm on August 31, 2010
  
  To what end? If the point of a code of conduct is to have something on record, having a council (sounds awfully close to a tribunal) makes it sound like we’re going to have a punishment hearing process or something. We’d still self-police, we’d just have a common basis for judging if someone if stepping out of bounds.
  - Matt Martz 5:02 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    Ubuntu has a community council that among other things decides how to ultimately deal with poisonous people within the community. Per that Ubuntu code of conduct:
    
    “On matters of community governance, the Community Council can make a final decision.”
    
    One thing that I wish we had is some sort of formal policy on those poisonous and how to deal with them.
  - Jacob Santos 5:08 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    Having an independent council to decide is better than having those making the decisions rule with what could end up being an iron fist.
  - Mark Jaquith 5:12 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    Ultimately, the lead developers (or the slightly expanded coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team) perform that task. This is not so common that it needs to be formalized. There are only a few times that I can think that we’ve needed to consider asking someone to step back and take a break from WordPress.
    
    What is being proposed here is not a formal process, just something to point to when someone is being a jerk. No need to complicate it beyond that.
  - Ryan Boren 5:23 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    An iron fist usually doesn’t develop without the complacency of the fistees. I don’t think we need to design for the possibility of us all becoming demure.
  - Jacob Santos 6:00 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    I’ll put it this way, based on what happened when I joined the community; I do not think I would have contributed to WordPress, if it was based on a committee formed on standards of conduct.
  - Rich Pedley 6:21 pm on August 31, 2010
    
    @Mark Jaquith – Support forumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations. moderators should also fall within that scope.
Aaron D. Campbell 7:49 pm on August 31, 2010

I’m all for it. Having a standard to point to is a great idea.
Mr Mist 7:56 pm on August 31, 2010

It’s a neat idea… But.. It kinda sounds like something that you’d expect most professionals to behave according to without having to set it down on paper. Then if folk did sign up to it, what happens if the code is broken?
Is the intention that by signing up to the agreement, the issues it covers go away? I’d expect that to be unlikely. It’d surely hold for the majority, but then the majority are not often the cause of trouble.
So I guess in the end my problem with it is that, to be effective, you’d need an actual set of “punishments” to deal with what happens when the code is breached, and that just seems to be against the whole spirit of collaborative work.
- Jacob Santos 8:52 pm on August 31, 2010
  
  I don’t exactly understand this. I think I’m a little jaded because I’ve read about and seen first hand really bad arguments get out of hand and require someone jump in and cool down and also require a ban. None of which has occurred in WordPress community.
  
  Another thing I don’t understand is the punishment. Presumably, I would guess that future contributions will no longer be accepted. If that is one of the punishments, then I fail to see who that really harms. So you basically are punishing someone by giving their time back that they could otherwise spend helping the project you are lead on?
  
  I guess with a project as large as a contributor base as WordPress, it is no harm to the project to lose 1 or 2 contributors.
filosofo 8:22 pm on August 31, 2010

My first reaction is that a toothless statement like this serves no real purpose: if you believe in these things you’ll do them anyways; if you don’t, you’re not going to care about some random statement.

But I think it was the author of Predictably Irrational who mentioned a number of studies that have shown that just being reminded to behave leads to better behavior (some were even reminded of non-existent codes of conduct and improved their behavior) . So it’s irrational–but apparently it works.
Melvin Ram 5:18 am on September 1, 2010

Sounds like a sound idea. It should give everyone a common foundation, even though it should be common sense.

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