[TriLUG] Code of Conduct

James Olin Oden james.oden at gmail.com
Mon Aug 13 14:10:58 EDT 2007


On 8/13/07, Kevin Otte <nivex at nivex.net> wrote:
> James Olin Oden wrote:
>
> > Not really.  You can just say, "Your out of line".  You don't need a
> > documente to reference.  Repeated infractions can incur banishment, as
> > the person clearly doesn't take the health of the community seriously.
>
> But to what rule do you refer as justification for banishment?
Don't need too, IMO.

> started a LUG at my alma mater, and we had a rather nasty flame war in
> the forums.  Some of the participants in this flamewar were officers of
> the organization.  It was so bad I felt justified as the duly elected
> president of the organization to shut down the forums for a couple days
> to try and get things to cool off.  Rather than everyone take a deep
> breath, their ire was immediately directed toward me.  I was informed
> that I had no such authority.  I attempted to argue my side based on our
>  rather weak constitution and failed.  Realizing I had no ability to
> maintain order, I promptly resigned.

Essentially, you had a group of people that were not worth your time.
Even if your constitution was strong it would not have mattered (such
is the fallacy of democracy...the mob rules).
>
> This LUG is a very strong group with a long and proud history which I
> have been privileged to be a brief part of.  It is only now that we
> start to see some cracks.  This is not a sign of total failure, rather a
> sign that it's time for a little maintenance.  A chance to patch the
> hole *before* it consumes us.
>
> I feel the CoC is a good idea.  It, as others have pointed out, lays out
> and reinforces the already existing "gentlemen's agreement" we all
> supposedly have.  As such, I fail to see why anyone is opposed to having
> it written down.
>
Because rules make more rules when people don't take them to heart.
And soon enough you have "judges" that don't understand the principles
that the rules were based on, making decisions.  If you keep things
very simple people tend to not loose focus on what is really
important.

Mature people need very few rules.  Children need more.  A begininer
at anything must pay attention to the forms, but one who has grasped a
matter no longer considers them.  If its true that you have a group of
childish individuals then maybe you need the rules, but my guess is
its been a long time since they needed to be forced to live without
them.

Cheers...james



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