In open-source software development, people from all over the world collaborate to contribute to the software. As such, people from different backgrounds and skill levels can have different ways to approach ideas. It is crucial to have a code of conduct because it lays out the foundation for the community on how to interact with other people. It limits people from making mistakes or gussing the code of conduct, when it is written out in plain text and the same for everyone. I think it is crucial for every open source project to have a code of conduct page, as it makes interacting with the project much easier for everyone.

Two differences I have noticed between the Go code of conduct page and the Covenant Code of Conduct is that the go code of conduct is much easier to read at the start. By giving a summary (tldr) style view at the start of the conduct it made it much easier to read. This allows people to glance over the code of conduct to get a general sense of the conduct and not drown in reading multiple pages long conduct before even interacting with the project. Another difference is that the Go code of conduct has decided to add a section on conflict resulation “Conflict Resolution” which is missing in the Covenant Code of Conduct. I think the reason for this is that it is crucial to establish how different ideas are handled when it comes to contributing to a programming language which can be very opinionated based on who is maintaining the project. It is curcial that these opinions and disagreement does not lead people away or cause harm but makes the project better. Establishing how to handle conflict without disrecpeting people makes it more welcoming. Here the code of conduct of the Eclipse Foundation which was also adapted from the Contributor Covenant, but also have subtile difference. In the Eclipse Foundation’s code of conduct we can see a new section called “No Retaliation” which details how to protect people who have raised an issue in the likes of harassment, discriminaion etc. The foundation may have added this section to encouge the community to report any misbehavior and protect the reporter against retaliation to create a safe and efficient environment for everyone to collaborate.

The code of conduct document of Sugar Labs project is slightly different from the Covenant Code of Conduct one. The Sugar Labs one is based on the Ubuntu code of conduct which is similar but to me seems more welcome. As it clearly ask people ask questions when in doubt, the ones from earlier can be seen more daunting.

The arch linux code of conduct is another example of a slightly different styled code of conduct. To me this code of conduct seems less beginner friendly compared to other ones as at the start it writes “The Arch community is a technical community” which might scare off beginners who are just starting their linux journey with arch linux. Compared to the ubuntu one this seems more like dedicated for already technical people, where the Covenant Code of Conduct seems like a more general one. Although there are sill similarities on how to handle trolls and people misbehaving/being disrespectful.

Reflection on “How to Drive Consensus & Transparency in OpenSource Communities - Jill Lovato & Trishan de Lanerolle”

Watched this talk today which goes over similar rules as the code of conducts mentioned above. I have personally felt like the talk made it much more welcoming and easy to understand the general code of conducts compared to the readings. I agree to most of the points mentioned in talk, like for example communication being critical where you are not only transparent but not just asking to ask. I have learned a lot about not only how to intereact with other people working on the same project but also how to ask questions and collaborate better.