An Open Letter to the Open Source Community

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 09:13:02AM -0400, Peter Whittaker wrote:
> Long email. Summary: The CoC is sufficient as it stands, because of four
> key words. Be considerate. Be respectful.
> 
> Application of those four simple words in this context is described
> below. Please, read on.

The trouble is that while their application to this situation may be obvious
to you and me, this isn't universally true.  The CoC already offers some
specific examples in order to clarify its intent, such as:

"For example, when we are in a feature freeze, please don't upload
dramatically new versions of critical system software, as other people will
be testing the frozen system and not be expecting big changes."

What I'm suggesting is that it might be valuable to provide a similarly
specific example affirming that discrimination is not respectful, and that
it creates an environment where people feel (in the words of the CoC)
"uncomfortable or threatened".

-- 
 - mdz