[UbuntuWomen] Use full real name policy

[Clytie Siddall]

To: Ubuntu-Women
Cc: Linuxchix Grrtalk (FYI)

On 16/09/2007, at 2:57 AM, Vid Ayer wrote (in part):

> Heh :) I was rejected too when I didnt sign the real name agreement.
> So I sent a polite "Thanks but no thanks, I prefer using a nick
> online" reply. Frankly, its not worth my time to get harassed for what
> is essentially free labour. Its impossible to stop harassment online
> (heck, it occurs in real life too) and I dont need to waste my time
> fighting that.

Vid, while I agree that the situation is extremely difficult, I do  
not agree that it is not worthwhile fighting it. It's not impossible  
to stop harassment online: we "just" need to build the infrastructure.

I was discussing this with my husband recently. He, like a surprising  
number of otherwise educated and aware guys, had the attitude, "What  
harassment? I don't see it happening." Well, of course you don't...  
it's not happening to you.

I mentioned how it if a guy walks up and propositions me on the  
street, I can charge him with breaking the law, and (in Australia at  
least), he won't get away with it. Online, we don't yet have a system  
for reporting harassing behaviour and implementing consequences for it.

But we do have the beginnings of it in any Code of Conduct document  
for a project. I believe Ubuntu has such a statement? If so, Ubuntu  
members need to report each and every breach of that Code within the  
Ubuntu project. Each person who is penalized within the project, or  
actually banned from the project, for harassing women (for example),  
sets a strong example for the rest.

Then we need to work for a Code of Conduct within every project,  
especially the ones affecting a lot of people, because they have more  
influence.

While it is true that reporting people to some ISPs [1] seems to have  
limited utility, since they simply open a new account under a  
different name, it is more difficult for them to build a personality  
and contribution online within projects. Once you've worked hard to  
become a key developer, for example, you won't want to lose that  
status and have to start over.

It will take work, but I believe that work will be not only  
worthwhile, but extremely valuable to women (and all marginalized  
groups) online.

from Clytie

Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team
http://vnoss.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=projects:l10n

[1] Other ISPs take the ID situation much more seriously, so they  
make it much more difficult to register accounts under other names.  
Not all ISPs are slack about this.

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