Re: We're not the only community with problems (Fwd: Open Letter to Debian election candidates about Debian vendettas)

Hi Manu,

I have observed tribalism in its many manifestations since the late 90s [OMFG, someone on the internet is wrong, we should go fix it!] and the ugly flares in Debian and other FOSS communities like it. In essence every volunteer community which is governed by principles will invite the subjective nuances to amplify when expressed from leadership.

It feels that what healthy communities have in common are: 1) no issue calling out such behavior and 2) shorter threads in going through those “flares”. My reflection is therefore inviting our community to learn from others, be at ease calling out politics, othering and behavior that might avalanche in a negative way across the community – preferably in a manner inclusive and understanding, allowing quick recovery.

Cheers,
Kalin

From: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
Date: Saturday, 19 March 2022 at 14:17
To: W3C Credentials CG <public-credentials@w3.org>
Subject: We're not the only community with problems (Fwd: Open Letter to Debian election candidates about Debian vendettas)
Just a reminder that these "politics" and "other-ing" isn't some weird by
product of the "identity community", or DIF, or CCG, or OpenID... it's endemic
in any long-lived community composed of human beings.

It's not something you're ever rid of... it's something you manage over time;
leadership plays a big part, as does the community's action (or inaction).
More communication helps at times, but not always, knowing what methods to
apply and when is a bit of an art.

The Debian community is 29+ years old at this point, and they still have
ongoing community issues that requirement management (see below).

I'm only providing this as a data point and not intending this to kick off a
"So, how do we fix this!?" thread -- please avoid starting one, it's
emotionally draining for everyone involved, is not why most of us are here,
creates more work for everyone, and rarely results in things that are lasting.
That's not to say the Chairs shouldn't be talking about this, just that many
in the community don't want to be exposed to the drama.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Open Letter to Debian election candidates about Debian vendettas
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 10:28:08 +0100
From: Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>
Reply-To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
To: Felix Lechner <felix.lechner@lease-up.com>, Hideki Yamane
<henrich@iijmio-mail.jp>, Jonathan Carter <jcc@debian.org>,
debian-devel@lists.debian.org, Stephanie Taylor <sttaylor@google.com>

Felix, Hideki, Jonathan

You all nominated as candidates in the Debian election

In August 2018 I publicly resigned from mentoring the Google Summer of
Code internships.  My resignation email[1] was written diplomatically
and did not contain any hints about the intern relationships and other
problems in Debian.

Over four years since my polite resignation, rogue volunteers associated
with Debian have been making attacks through emails and web sites that
are causing harm to reputations, families, careers of both volunteers
and interns, past and present.

This culture of attacks was cultivated by a series of emails sent from
the leadership role in 2018 when Chris Lamb occupied that position.  No
subsequent leader has shown any remorse or contrition for the way Lamb
misused this position.

Other volunteers, for example, Dr Norbert Preining, have resigned[2] in
disgust at the same culture crisis in Debian.

The recent legal verdict against Red Hat, Inc has explicitly stated that
overbearing and controlling tendencies of people in leadership roles
amounts to harassment[3].

As a leader, can you identify anything that is more important than
stopping, retracting and apologizing for these vendettas that were born
out of the leadership post you hope to occupy?

Will you publicly denounce the culture of denouncing people?

Does anybody else support an end to hostilities in Debian?

Regards,

Daniel

1. https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach/2018/08/msg00108.html
2.
https://itwire.com/open-source/debian-developer-demoted,-quits-after-two-decades-with-project.html
3. https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/16/red_hat_fedotra/