[CF-metadata] CF discussion etequette

From: Karl Taylor <taylor13>
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:11:56 -0800

Dear all,

As chair of the CF governing board, I am becoming increasingly concerned
at the hostile tone and degrading remarks included in some of the recent
email exchanges. As the CF list and ticket discussions are meant to be
largely democratic, I will rarely invoke my position in an attempt to
influence how we try to reach consensus about the evolution of CF, but
if this community effort is to be successful, we must follow certain
rules of common courtesy. Otherwise, valuable expertise and a diversity
of opinion will be lost, and CF and its valuable contributions to our
community will suffer.

Therefore, please refrain from personal attacks or degrading remarks of
any kind (no matter how subtle or cleverly sarcastic). In particular,
remember that we are trying to reach consensus about how to best do
things, and there rarely is a clear-cut correct way of doing this.
Also, remember that we are not deciding the fate of the world. If we do
something "wrong" after a reasonable number of people have thought about
it and discussed it, that's o.k. We're not going to achieve perfection.

Please remember that this is not a contest where individuals win or lose
arguments. I would also like to remind you that CF is a very valuable
thing that has been developed with minimal support from funding agencies
or from established formal programs. With this in mind, I am
particularly troubled that the individual who clearly has selflessly
devoted more time and thought to CF than anyone else has been subjected
to unkind remarks. I would think an apology is in order.

Best regards,
Karl
Received on Fri Mar 07 2008 - 11:11:56 GMT