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SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

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Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#211

Post by PurpleRamen »

awakeasleep wrote: post #191
PurpleRamen wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly how I understand it at the moment. And depending on the material, it would be a somewhat valid complaint, if the report included the material without prior warning. Though, not valid enough to call CoC on this, IMHO.

It would only be at all valid if it was forwarded to employees who weren’t in a customer facing role. Saying that you’re required to give a content warning to an account manager for material related to your business relationship puts the burden of responsibility onto the victim. Dealing with the psychological impact is the responsibility of their employer, not the customer.

No, even in a customer-facing role, you won't have to put up with every s**. I mean, it's a business for electronics, not a porn-shop or moderation for explicit material at some social media-platform. There should be a line on what they have to tolerate.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#213

Post by adolph »

robotfelix wrote: post #116
b112 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did check on archive.org, and the code of conduct is there on March 2025. So they didn't just add it in the last month or so, and then send this notice.

From the Code of Conduct: > Unacceptable behaviors include but are not limited to: offensive comments, insults, jokes or ridicule; gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior in spaces where they are nor other unappropriately aggressive behaviors; threats of violence or deliberate intimidation; creating additional online accounts in order to harass another person or circumvent a ban; harassment of any form. I c…

> sexual images are only a problem if they are gratuitous or off-topic

Well if someone was working on something like a medical device there might be some documentation that could be interpreted as sexual but that documenting it was not gratuitous.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#214

Post by bob001 »

Dangeranger wrote: post #94

For context: This post by ptorrone suggests that leadership at Sparkfun has been engaged in a long running harassment campaign against the founder of AdaFruit (Limor Fried) and is now attempting to weaponize their CoC to cast blame on the victim in order to deflect from their own behavior[0]. for anyone still reading: in july, we told sparkfun they needed to get their house in order. for years, sparkfun's leadership…

For more context: There's also social media posts accusing ptorrone of engaging in harassment campaigns against other people.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#215

Post by MaKey »

chasd00 wrote: post #198
MaKey wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overall I think Code of Conducts are a net negative. Alleged violations of them seem to be used to lend credibility to actions that otherwise would be hard(er) to justify.

It just dawned on me that CoC docs are basically HR for open source. Point to a violation and voila, that person is gone. “Sorry, nothing personal, CoC violation, there’s nothing I can do”.

Exactly. Without a CoC the persons making hard decisions have to stand behind them. With a CoC they can hide behind the CoC and wash their hands in innocence. This lowers the barrier for making questionable decisions and overall decreases honesty. We've seen this with the suspension of Python core maintainer Tim Peters.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#216

Post by account42 »

seanhunter wrote: post #166
MaKey wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overall I think Code of Conducts are a net negative. Alleged violations of them seem to be used to lend credibility to actions that otherwise would be hard(er) to justify.

Overall I wish we lived in a world where they are not needed. But in every community, some people are assholes so they are often needed.

It just means you get different kinds of assholes who are better at navigating around the CoC or even weaponizing it.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#217

Post by nikdoof »

hamburglar wrote: post #206

As an uninformed observer, here is a possible sequence of events that sounds somewhat plausible based on what we know so far: * sparkfun employee engages in some shitty behavior (maybe harassment, maybe photoshops) toward adafruit CEO * adafruit engages sparkfun to ask them to put a stop to it * employee leaves sparkfun * employee continues shitty behavior * adafruit continues to bug sparkfun about behavior * sparkfu…

Honestly, if I received an email like this from the MD of a customer, I'd probably want to wash my hands of them as well

https://gist.github.com/NPoole/df0ec196ac1db7e6eecfd2496b9b4...

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#218

Post by buildbot »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #196
buildbot wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they are claiming doxing based on connecting an email to a social media account.

Isn’t that a built in feature of most social media platforms?

Consensually, typically.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#219

Post by drakythe »

Obviously we don't know details, and Phil has made an effort at responding. However, both statements are (deliberately?) vague, and Sparkfun's CoC is laughably short. I am all for the rules being "Don't be a dick" but such vagaries can hide arbitrary decisions. All the vagaries amount to "trust me, bro" statements and when two well loved groups (AdaFruit/Sparkfun) square up in a game of trust everyone loses, at least in the short term.

Hopefully this gets cleared up one way or another, in a clear way that means we won't be re-litigating this for the next decade.

Re: SparkFun Officially Dropping AdaFruit due to CoC Violation

#220

Post by 306bobby »

behringer wrote: post #58
lelanthran wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would you have them publish instead? The statement that is published places blame, if not accusations of criminal behaviour, on their business partner. IOW, they already overshared with the intent of damaging the reputation of their business partner. In my mind, they are already behind; had they released the standard business line "Our relationship with $X has come to an end; we apologise for any inconvenience…

nobody wants corporate speak. They are saying they are cutting ties and it's not their fault. No harm in that if it's true.

There certainly could be harm if it's false though, which is the whole point. And they did not give any information to affirm who's fault (if anyone) it was besides hearsay
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