Debian's Code of Conduct, and our technical excellence

[Matthew Vernon <matthew@debian.org>]

Hi,

There have a few posts in recent discussions by people suggesting (or, 
at least, appearing to suggest) that there is a conflict between 
technical excellence and our Code of Conduct (or aiming to increase the 
diversity of our membership, or similar).

I think there is no such conflict, and that the idea that there is is in 
itself harmful.

In particular, "X does excellent technical work, so we should turn a 
blind eye when their violate our CoC otherwise the technical excellence 
of the project will suffer" is both wrong and harmful. If we want to 
achieve technical excellence, we will do so by having many talented 
people working together. If we restrict our talent pool to "people who 
are prepared to tolerate a toxic environment", then we are harming that 
goal.

Our Code of Conduct is not an onerous restriction on behaviour, it's a 
tool to help us build the sort of environment in which excellent 
technical people will be able to do their best work.

Regards,

Matthew