An Open Letter to the Open Source Community

[Arwyn Hainsworth]

If the victim, the women in this case, say there is a problem, then I
think we can all agree that there is a problem. And while we might not
all agree on the severity of the problem, I didn't see any arguments
against trying to prevent it getting any larger than it already is.
Although there does seem to be a few people who think any effort will
be futile. My opinion on that is: you never know until you try and
sometimes even the fact that the effort is being exerted helps.

I hope the above is a generalised enough view of everyone's posts so
far, so that we can all agree with it and move onto the more important
discussion on the actual methods for dealing with this problem. Here
is what I suggest we do (some of these ideas were mention before):
1) Amend the Code of Conduct with stricter wording, reminding people
that this is a multi-racial, multi-sex community and that we should
keep that in mind at all times.
2) Remind everyone to be vigilant not to make remarks that might
offend people. The announcement of the CoC could be used for this.
3) Actively enforce[1][2] the CoC, in public where necessary. These
public reminders to keep to the CoC will also help keep the rest of us
vigilant, so we don't make the same mistakes.

They might seem simple measures, but if actively taken to heart by
most of the community, they should be quite effective.

Any other suggestions/comments? It would be nice to hear some more
female input on this topic, especially in ways which we can help
solve, or at least, reduce the problem.

One other thing, Women: do not tolerate the abuse! If someone says
something insulting, tell them so. If you quietly ignore it, others
might think it is OK to say such things.

Respectfully,
Arwyn Hainsworth

[1] The only person who knows when they are offended is the person
offended, as such, it will, in some cases, be up to the women to
actively enforce the 'no-sexism' rule.
[2] Naturally the strength of the enforcement should be on
case-by-case basis. Sometimes people are just forgetful, so a reminder
of the CoC will suffice. Other time more stricter measures should be
taken.