[ripe-list] Communities & Codes of Conduct

Good Afternoon,

In the last few days there have been a few emails about the draft CoC documents and, without any hat on, I want to address a few things.

The RIPE community is special. It's amazing and wonderful and I love it… but also in so many ways, it is not special at all. It is not immune to the issues that have cropped up elsewhere and, importantly, also crop up in RIPE. This may be hard to hear but it's true. There are people who have left our community due to unwelcome attention, incidents of sexual harassment or repeatedly being told - through deeds if not words - that they are not welcome here.

Worse are the people who could contribute so much to the operation of the Internet who look at our community, talk with others about it, and simply shake their heads - "That's not a place for me."

These are the sad commonalities between communities, these are the ways in which RIPE is decidedly not special.

A suitably, carefully, fairly, enforced Code of Conduct is just one of the many ways of making things better. It sets out the norms of behaviour and, importantly, it says "If you come here and people act badly towards you – we want to know about it, we will care, and we will act." If you want, you can think of it like MANRS or similar. It says that as a community, we have thought about things, that we acknowledge the issues we have, and we are working to improve them.

This is not a court of law. It is a community driven effort, and so, like every other effort, we put our trust in those who we appoint, while maintaining the ability to course correct, knowing that there are checks and balances. In fact, I'm extremely happy for those that need to make reports that it isn't a court of law, as such courts, in countries around the world, have been seen to be adversarial towards those who seek justice for things like sexual assault. They put great hurt on the victims and have a truly awful record in bringing that justice. But again, this is not a court of law.

Nor is it a way to attack the correct (or whatever passes for correct) use of grammar. But it can be a way to improve communications. It can be a way for a community to clearly say "That isn't a good way to interact, especially if we want to be open." There are many, many ways to have robust technical discussion without giving people the impression that their opinions are not wanted, as has happened many times in the past. And we are getting better at this as a community, but a CoC will help us more.

As I have said repeatedly over many years, things happen at RIPE Meetings that the community does not, or should not, want to happen. The previous system gave the victims of those things someone to talk to, which is important, but little more than that. A CoC provides a means of recourse, which has been proven to work in communities around the world.

There will be a few growing pains, for sure. There will be people who prejudge all of this, who decide that this changes the community too much. It might even cause them to leave. In many cases that will be a great pity and I hope they stick around - but if this prevents others leaving because they feel unsafe, or from being subjected to behaviour that all of us agree is unacceptable, then, well, I know where I'm happier.

No process is perfect, we're humans, but this is a really, really good next step (and yes, I would say that, of course). I believe it will make a difference in who joins our community and for how long they stay. I believe it will, in some small way, improve the sector in which we all work. And thankfully my beliefs are backed up by what we've seen in other communities.

Importantly, we can do other things at the same time and I look forward to what other new things this community does, and what excellent initiatives it continues, which will make it better for all.

I know I will not convince everyone (this is not the first time I've had this discussion in a community, not even in the RIPE community), and I know that a lot of people in the community are convinced (or convinced enough) already, but I didn't want to stay silent on this thread. This is too important for the community right now, and for the future, for those of us here, and those of us we hope will join us.

Thanks,

Brian


Brian Nisbet (he/him)

Service Operations Manager

HEAnet CLG, Ireland's National Education and Research Network

1st Floor, 5 George's Dock, IFSC, Dublin D01 X8N7, Ireland

+35316609040 brian.nisbet at heanet.ie www.heanet.ie

Registered in Ireland, No. 275301. CRA No. 20036270
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