Re: Abusive language on Debian lists

[Eldon Koyle <ekoyle@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 1:52 AM <tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Apr 09, 2021 at 06:22:57PM -0600, Eldon Koyle wrote:
> > I have noticed a pattern on Debian lists where we see:
>
> [...]
>
> > I would like to propose that we shorten this cycle by simply adding a rule
> > to bounce messages to public lists at #3 [...]
>
> The problem with this is... who is going to do that?
>
> - If you have just a few in charge, their biases will dominate:
>   what is and is not offending is bound to interpretation;
> - if you have some formal process in charge (voting, etc.),
>   someone has to bear its burden;
> - etc. etc.
>
> In short, you are posing That One Very Hard Question™: how does
> a group of people manage "getting along together"?
>
> You're not the first one to pose it, mind you :-)
>
> I think the current set-up in the Debian mailing lists is a good
> equilibrium: there is a moderation, but it only intervenes in
> exceptional cases. Usually, intervention is from the participants
> in the list.
>
<snip>

Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

I think I did a bad job of explaining.  I'm talking about English words that
universally accepted as swearing.  I have not seen this class of words used
constructively in lists, and they are already forbidden.

I don't think it would be fair to ask moderators to police these words.
There would be a cost to them both in time and in relationships with others.

I feel these words always contribute to a toxic environment, however they
are being used intentionally by people I respect who hold a lot of influence
in this group, in open defiance of the accepted rules.  Using a small shell
script (or regex) to catch the strongest of language (that should never be
used anyway) seems like a simple way to slow escalation in many cases.

-- 
Eldon