General Resolution: code of conduct

Time Line

Proposal and amendment Wednesday, 12th February 2014
Discussion Period: Monday, 10th March, 2014
Voting Period: Monday, April 14st, 00:00:00 UTC, 2014 Sunday, April 27th, 23:59:59 UTC, 2014

Proposer

Wouter Verhelst [wouter@debian.org] [text of proposal] [Accepting amendement] [Call for vote]

Seconds

  1. Andrew Starr-Bochicchio [asb@debian.org] [mail]
  2. Neil McGovern [neilm@debian.org] [mail]
  3. Thijs Kinkhorst [thijs@debian.org] [mail]
  4. Paul Tagliamonte [paultag@debian.org] [mail]
  5. Ian Jackson [iwj@debian.org] [mail]
  6. Sylvestre Ledru [sylvestre@debian.org] [mail]
  7. Stuart Prescott [stuart@debian.org] [mail]
  8. Lars Wirzenius [lars@debian.org] [mail]

Text

Choice 1: Accept CoC, DPL can update it

  1. The Debian project decides to accept a code of conduct for participants to its mailinglists, IRC channels, and other modes of communication within the project.
  2. Updates to this code of conduct should be made by the DPL or the DPL's delegates after consultation with the project, or by the Debian Developers as a whole through the general resolution procedure.
  3. The initial text of the code of conduct follows, in markdown format.

Amendment Proposer A

Neil McGovern [neilm@debian.org] [Text of original amendements] [Accepting amendements] [confirm accepting amendements]

Amendment Seconds A

  1. Thijs Kinkhorst [thijs@debian.org] [mail]
  2. Paul Tagliamonte [paultag@debian.org] [mail]
  3. Sylvestre Ledru [sylvestre@debian.org] [mail]
  4. Stuart Prescott [stuart@debian.org] [mail]
  5. Lars Wirzenius [lars@debian.org] [mail]

Amendment Text A

Choice 2: Accept CoC, updates via GR

  1. The Debian project decides to accept a code of conduct for participants to its mailinglists, IRC channels, and other modes of communication within the project.
  2. Updates to this code of conduct should follow the normal GR procedure. However, the DPL (or the DPL's delegates) can add or remove links to other documents in the "Further reading" section after consultation with the project and without requiring a GR.
  3. The initial text of the code of conduct follows, in markdown format.

Initial text of the code of conduct

# Debian Code of Conduct

## Be respectful

In a project the size of Debian, inevitably there will be people with
whom you may disagree, or find it difficult to cooperate. Accept that,
but even so, remain respectful. Disagreement is no excuse for poor
behaviour or personal attacks, and a community in which people feel
threatened is not a healthy community.

## Assume good faith

Debian Contributors have many ways of reaching our common goal of a
[free](https://www.debian.org/intro/free) operating system which may
differ from your ways. Assume that other people are working towards this
goal.

Note that many of our Contributors are not native English speakers or
may have different cultural backgrounds

## Be collaborative

Debian is a large and complex project; there is always more to learn
within Debian. It's good to ask for help when you need it. Similarly,
offers for help should be seen in the context of our shared goal of
improving Debian.

When you make something for the benefit of the project, be willing to
explain to others how it works, so that they can build on your work to
make it even better.

## Try to be concise

Keep in mind that what you write once will be read by hundreds of
persons. Writing a short email means people can understand the
conversation as efficiently as possible. When a long explanation is
necessary, consider adding a summary.

Try to bring new arguments to a conversation so that each mail adds
something unique to the thread, keeping in mind that the rest of the
thread still contains the other messages with arguments that have
already been made.

Try to stay on topic, especially in discussions that are already fairly
large.

## Be open

Most ways of communication used within Debian allow for public and
private communication. As per paragraph three of the [social
contract](https://www.debian.org/social_contract), you should preferably
use public methods of communication for Debian-related messages, unless
posting something sensitive.

This applies to messages for help or Debian-related support, too; not
only is a public support request much more likely to result in an answer
to your question, it also makes sure that any inadvertent mistakes made
by people answering your question will be more easily detected and
corrected.

## In case of problems

While this code of conduct should be adhered to by participants, we
recognize that sometimes people may have a bad day, or be unaware of
some of the guidelines in this code of conduct. When that happens, you may
reply to them and point out this code of conduct. Such messages may be
in public or in private, whatever is most appropriate. However,
regardless of whether the message is public or not, it should still
adhere to the relevant parts of this code of conduct; in particular, it
should not be abusive or disrespectful. Assume good faith; it is more
likely that participants are unaware of their bad behaviour than that
they intentionally try to degrade the quality of the discussion.

Serious or persistent offenders will be temporarily or permanently
banned from communicating through Debian's systems. Complaints should be
made (in private) to the administrators of the Debian communication
forum in question. To find contact information for these administrators,
please see [the page on Debian's organizational
structure](https://www.debian.org/intro/organization)

# Further reading

Some of the links in this section do not refer to documents that are
part of this code of conduct, nor are they authoritative within Debian.
However, they all do contain useful information on how to conduct
oneself on our communication channels.

- Debian has a [diversity statement](https://www.debian.org/intro/diversity)
- The [Debian Community Guidelines](https://people.debian.org/~enrico/dcg/)
  by Enrico Zini contain some advice on how to communicate effectively.
- The [Mailing list code of
  conduct](https://www.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct) is useful for
  advice specific to Debian mailing lists

Quorum

With the current list of voting developers, we have: 

 Current Developer Count = 1002
 Q ( sqrt(#devel) / 2 ) = 15.8271917913444
 K min(5, Q )           = 5
 Quorum  (3 x Q )       = 47.4815753740332

Quorum

Data and Statistics

For this GR, like always, statistics will be gathered about ballots received and acknowledgements sent periodically during the voting period. Additionally, the list of voters will be recorded. Also, the tally sheet will also be made available to be viewed. Additionally, the list of voters will be recorded. Also, the tally sheet will also be made available to be viewed.

Majority Requirement

The proposal needs simple majority

Majority

Outcome

Graphical rendering of the results

In the graph above, any pink colored nodes imply that the option did not pass majority, the Blue is the winner. The Octagon is used for the options that did not beat the default.

In the following table, tally[row x][col y] represents the votes that option x received over option y. A more detailed explanation of the beat matrix may help in understanding the table. For understanding the Condorcet method, the Wikipedia entry is fairly informative.

The Beat Matrix
 Option
  1 2 3
Option 1   128 205
Option 2 141   228
Option 3 72 53  

Looking at row 2, column 1, Accept CoC, updates via GR
received 141 votes over Accept CoC, DPL can update it

Looking at row 1, column 2, Accept CoC, DPL can update it
received 128 votes over Accept CoC, updates via GR.

Pair-wise defeats

The Schwartz Set contains

The winners

Debian uses the Condorcet method for voting. Simplistically, plain Condorcets method can be stated like so :
Consider all possible two-way races between candidates. The Condorcet winner, if there is one, is the one candidate who can beat each other candidate in a two-way race with that candidate. The problem is that in complex elections, there may well be a circular relationship in which A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A. Most of the variations on Condorcet use various means of resolving the tie. See Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential Dropping for details. Debian's variation is spelled out in the constitution, specifically, A.6.

Debian Project Secretary