I. INTRODUCTION ------------ (A) Pisthetaerus. I want a town where the father of a handsome lad will stop in the street and say to me reproachfully as if I had failed him, "Ah, is this well done Stibonides! You met my son coming from bath after the gymnasium and you neither spoke to him, nor embraced him, nor took him with you, nor even once twitched his parts. Would anyone call you an old friend of mine?" -- Aristophanes, "The Birds" (414BCE) (B) -- It's 30 degrees out there. You're going out dressed like that? (C) Ladies and Gentlemen, Please step back, take a deep breath and avoid posting to this thread for 24 hours. For those of you not already 'in the know' humor is not universal. It normally fails at language and cultural boundaries. For that reason alone, it should normally be avoided in international forums such as are provided by Gentoo. Regards, Roy Bamford, (NeddySeagoon on behalf of gentoo-proctors) ========================================================================= ========================================================================= So, what's going on here? In (A), we see that what passed for expected behavio(u)r 2500 years ago will get the practitioner thrown in prison today. In (B), yes, it's unpleasant out, and you are not dressed for it. But is it hot, or is it cold? The general principle in (C) ties these together. That's all intellectually interesting, but what does it have to do with Gentoo? Gentoo, you recall, has a written Code of Conduct. Why written? Roy's memo along with the examples (A) and (B) gives a clue. Gentoo's official language is English, and its culture is generally Western European or North American. But even there, there are differences: French culture is not Icelandic culture; Canadian English is not US English. Yet in Gentoo, we expect unambiguous communication and civil interaction. We as a group of individuals are unlikely to always "get it right", but guides of various sorts can help. In particular, a written Code of Conduct can aid us by defining the norms expected by Gentoo, and perhaps we can use the Code when we communicate within Gentoo. But perhaps we cannot. Suppose I come from Czamistan, where a term of high respect is "big-balled goat lover." If in Gentoo I am impressed by something you have done and call you a "big-balled goat lover," you might take it the wrong way, and our coversation will go downhill from there. This is where the proctors come in. If a proctor notices that I am calling you a "big-balled goat lover", the proctor might consider this to be someplace between inappropriate. The proctor can contact me to find out what is going on (or issue a warning, which will have the same end effect). Eventually, the proctor and I will figure out what is going on. The proctor most likely tell me that "big-balled goat lover" might not be taken as a term of respect in Gentoo, so it would be better if I'd use something else. II. Traffic Cops ------- ---- So what is a proctor? A proctor is a traffic cop. What is a traffic cop? In the US, at least, "traffic cop" is colloquial for highway patrol police officer --- a mobile police officer who cruises highways, looking for drivers violating the highway legal code. What are the characteristics of a traffic cop? Here are the important ones: A. The traffic cop looks for infractions, but will miss most of them. The cop is effective largely because drivers know that cops are out there someplace. B. When the cop sees a violation, he has discretion to make a traffic stop or to ignore it. C. If the cop makes a stop, he has lots of options, based on the violation, on the driver's record, on the driver's attitude, on whether or not something more serious turns up (no driver's license, drunk driver, stolen car, assault rifle on passenger's seat, and so on). Some examples: 1. Minor violation (cracked tail light, cooperative driver): "Please get the tail light fixed" and nothing else. 2. Broken tail light: warning. 3. Speeding, but not excessively: Driver has no other violations on record and does have a good explanation: warning. 4. Normal speeding (not too fast): warning or ticket as the cop feels appropriate based on other factors. 5. 200 in a school zone: ticket or arrest. 6. Erratic driving: nothing if, say, driver is looking for an address. Arrest if driver is inebriated. 7. Speeding and license is suspended: Confiscate license, issue ticket, make sure driver does not drive away. D. If the cop sees a violation, he acts now. There is no option to think about it --- either make a stop or let it go. The driver is not going to wait around to see what the cop wants to do. How does that apply to the proctors? If you change the meaning of "traffic" from cars on a highway to Gentoo email, IRC, and so on, the application is exact. But the proctors' options are different of course. Examples: 1. Miss a violation (of Code of Conduct): default condition 2. Ignore a violation: at the proctor's option. 3. Talk to the violator and nothing more: Depends on the nature of the violation, circumstances, whether the violator is a repeat offender, or so on. 4. Informal warning: Please don't do this, thank you. , reasons as above. 5. Formal warning: On serious violations, a note to the violator "This is a warning" which is placed on record. 6. Brief ban: For serious violations or for people who are collecting warnings. USE WITH CARE! 7. Longer ban, ban from multiple communication paths: USE WITH EXTREME CARE. 8. Suspension: Requires concurrence of 3 proctors. Don't do this; call on devrel to be the decision makers. How are proctors different from highway patrol? Ignoring the differences in the violations, the environment, and so on, one stands out: highway patrol almost always acts instantly. Proctors necessarily cannot do that (how do you "react instantly" to email?). Instead, proctors react very quickly. If the proctors do not act quickly or if they overreact, they lose their effectiveness. This comes with experience. III. Proctors and Devrel -------- --- ------ Why both proctors and devrel? This is a natural question, and in most cases it has a natural answer. As we have seen, the proctors are concerned with individual behavior which falls outside the norms suggested in the Code of Conduct. They work "real time" to identify problems, to correct them, and to educate the offenders in proper conduct when such is appropriate. Proctors work both with developers and with users. Proctors work very quickly. By contrast, devrel is mostly concerned with conflict. Devrel works to mediate disputes among developers in order to effect a settlement satisfactory to all involved. Devrel generally works from complaints --- bugs or email. Devrel also tries to work quickly, but a mediation takes as long as it takes, and devrel will not close a dispute until it is resolved. In extreme cases (once in the history of devrel) devrel will adjudicate a case, but this is strongly discouraged. Note further that devrel is concerned with developers, not with users; devrel seldom if ever bans anyone from participation; devrel can suspend developers; devrel can dismiss developers from the project (very seldom invoked). Nonetheless, occasionally the proctors and devrel will overlap. This overlap arises when two developers get involved in a flame war. As a practical matter, in this case it does not matter which organization (proctors or devrel) handle the situation, and there is no reason the two should not cooperate. In that case, the flaming developers see that (1) they have attracted unwelcome attention from two organizations, (2) one of which can temporarily ban them if they don't behave, (3) the other of which can move their flame war into mediation (if it isn't already). The wise developer wishes a visit from neither organization, and after some conditioning, I expect the developer base to become more sensitive to flame situations and to work to avoid them.