Rust Moderation Team Resigns

>burntsushi ripgrep · rust 31 points 2 hours ago

>If we had an answer to your implied question it will necessarily reveal things (via obvious logical inferences) that we carefully avoided revealing in our statement.

https://old.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/qzme1z/moderation_tea...

“My assessment of the claim that I am a hindrance to inclusivity efforts is that it hinges on the singular matter of moderation and control of discourse that occurs amongst the technical team. From the beginning I have strongly maintained that the technical team should retain authority over its own space. That its independence also involves its ability to enforce the rules of social interaction and discussion as it sees fit. This has lead to disagreements with individuals that would rather insert external arbiters into the moderation process; arbiters who have not earned the right to stand in judgement of technical team members, and have not been held to the same standards by which technical team members are judged to earn their place in the project. On this matter I remain staunchly opposed to the dilution of independence of the technical team and will continue to advocate for its ability to make such critical decisions for itself. This is not only a question of moral (earned) authority, but of the risk of subversion of our organisational structures by individuals who are attracted to the project by the possibility of pursuing a personal agenda, regardless of the impact this has on the project itself. I see current moves in this direction, as in this week’s moderation policy proposal at nodejs/TSC#276, as presenting such a risk. I don't expect everyone to agree with me on this, but I have just as much right as everyone else to make my case and not be vilified in my attempts to convince enough of the TSC to prevent such changes.”

I hear this "a lot" very often, but then it seems to be from people who have no real interest in technical work of kernel/OS core development. Linux is not the only way to scratch your itch for interest in low-level system dev. Like, this is just personal experience, but I have heard this on the order of 50-100 times: someone parroting how toxic Linux kernel dev is because of drama they heard -- but then you kind of dig a little bit and see what kinds of software stuff interests them, what do they work on -- probably only once or twice has it been anything embedded, hardware related, close to the metal. I would need compelling evidence to change my opinion that most of the complainers have no interest in the work being done by the community they are complaining about -- and I am fully aware that a number of people have departed Linux development, but we are talking about a tiny number of the thousands of contributors over the years -- you can't please everyone.

The hobby OS, emulation and demo scene is a pretty good indicator for "natural"* gender breakdown. These tend to be tight, tiny communities or often lone wolves working on projects. It is male dominated. This can't be explained by any systemic or community gatekeeping - because there is no system nor any mandatory community for participation or distribution. Nothing prevents anyone from putting their work out there.

* I am not discounting there may be other systemic reasons that set up this condition - but it has to be societal conditions that are in place in early childhood -- something that happens a bit before one considers contributing to the Linux kernel.

I genuinely can’t think of a more dramatic way to drag this into the public sphere than saying “we all quit due to unspecified violations of the vague code of conduct - go make your best guesses what those were”