[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC][ALT PATCHES] Code of Conduct Enforcement

[Derek Buitenhuis]

Hello all.

This is a little rambling / stream of thought, but take it as you will,
and perhaps some discussion or change comes of it. Or, more likely, personal
attacks, flames, and no change. Or 1 few will reply and then the thread will
die and people will go on like it never happened. Sorry to be pessimistic,
but history speaks for itself.

Currently this list, and IRC, is a terrible place for developers and users.
Harassment is tolerated, and the CoC has never been enforced. There are
absolutely no repercussions as it currently stands. When develpers see others
being abused, do nothing and then continue to act and interact with the
abuses as if nothing happened, in the future.

This current set up of everybody flaming each other endlessly, and endless
harassment merely lets abuse proliferate, because nobody sticks up for each
other and no abusers have ever been removed, ever, in the history of FFmpeg.
Not one thing has changed, ever, since the introduction of the CoC. It is
an absolute failure by all metrics.

I know I am not alone having been driven away by such behavior. Even when
I started to contribute (a little, not much) again, upon joining IRC, for
example, I was immediately attacked. This is not just happening to one
person though.

To be honest, I am not really sure what can be done. Large portions of
the list simply do not support anti-abuse measures at all. Even the
concept of them. How does one manage to implement them without support
of even 50% of a community? VideoLAN managed to do this but it took a lot
of formal stuff on their board and people quitting to get it done. j-b
is some sort of wizard.

I know my opinion is not worth much, since I am now more or less an outsider
since 2015, but maybe someone cares about this stuff, too.

So, I present to you two possible options:

    1. Implement a formal CoC enforcement system. This has been mostly copypasted
       from VideoLAN's, and is meant as more of a blueprint. This will no doubt
       be controversial.
    2. Remove the CoC. If you're not going to enforce it, ever, there is literally
       no point in having one. I know some members of this community object to the
       very notion of a CoC, so this should please them, I am sure.

I'm sure this will be a civil discussion.

- Derek

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1.8.3.1