Re: Age Ranges for contributors was: Salsa vs Github
On 5/16/19, Paul Sutton <zleap@disroot.org> wrote:
> Just a specific question from the thread
>
> Further to the comments by nik on the Salsa vs Github thread.
>
> Am I right in thinking that you can be _any_ age to contribute to
> projects hosted on Salsa and contribute to the Debian project in general?
>
> Granted there is probably a minimal age for practicality reasons.
I don't have a direct answer to your direct question but decided to
respond here instead of the other thread... that was already sitting
in *compose mode*..
I'd say *maturity level* is a better gauge rather than physical age.
If kids can communicate without trolling, who knows where they may go
one day with the right mentorships.
So I tried Debian's Code of Conduct:
https://www.debian.org/code_of_conduct
Didn't see a specific mention of age there but DID see a pointer
toward Diversity. Sounded even better than Code of Conduct so:
https://www.debian.org/intro/diversity
And they said:
+++++ BEGIN DEBIAN'S DIVERSITY STATEMENT BLURB +++++
The Debian Project welcomes and encourages participation by everyone.
No matter how you identify yourself or how others perceive you: we
welcome you. We welcome contributions from everyone as long as they
interact constructively with our community.
While much of the work for our project is technical in nature, we
value and encourage contributions from those with expertise in other
areas, and welcome them into our community.
+++++ END DEBIAN'S DIVERSITY STATEMENT BLURB +++++
One MAJOR problem is... children are preyed upon horrifically across
the Net. That's an important secondary reason why a website might make
the CHOICE to skip that age demographic in their project. If mentors
detect a young protégé, it wouldn't hurt to further mentorship with a
sidestep into childhood self-protection online as part of the
interaction.
** Afterthought while proofreading before sending: @MissingKids and
@DHSBlueCampaign on Twitter regularly present information about
preventing related travesty, really for all ages. Maybe they're each a
potential resource for tip ideas if someone was to put together a
template for others to use with respect to children participating in
primarily adult tech communities.
This is the first time I'd heard something about age over at Github.
It explains a WEIRD, quick interaction I saw couple weeks ago. A new
issue was opened then the Github "owner" responded with a rational
answer. WEIRD was when that answer concluded by saying EVERYONE EXCEPT
the issue poster was welcome to yada-yada.
Issue poster closed the issue without saying one more word. Issue
poster's profile.. said they were 13-years-old. This Debian thread
finally takes the question mark off of what the flock happened during
that Github exchange.
Poor kid.. Judging by their communication alone, I didn't know they
WERE a kid until I visited their profile page out of curiosity after
that WEIRD exchange. :)
Me.. I first touched my own "computer" when I was about 15-years-old.
Something super small with the name "Sears Roebuck" on it. You hooked
little TVs as your monitor. My memory of it is that it basically
worked with about two lines of code at a time.
Never got it to do much. I take a memory trip back to that thing every
so often. I actively wonder how differently my #Life would have
evolved if I'd found the right mentoring community back then...
mid-1970's... when so many of today's high tier tech folks first
touched their own first computers.... *hm* :)
Cindy :)
--
Cindy-Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA
* runs with birdseed *
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