Perl Foundation faces more departures after pausing Community Affairs Team The bloodletting within the Perl community has continued in the wake of Community Affairs Team chair Samantha McVey's resignation. The CAT was established in March last year to maintain "a community led set of rules" with moderators who would respond to unhappy netizens complaining about "incidents at events or otherwise," but …
"It's the online version of road rage," Poe told The Register, "I know people who, at conferences, are absolutely lovely people ... face-to-face. But they're raging assholes online.
"I don't know if it's because they're out of punching range or because they forget that there are people behind the words they're reading.
wise words.
Agreed.
In communication intention is paramount. Intention is not easily conveyed in written communications. We've spent many tens/hundreds of millennia communicating face-to-face where body language fills in the gaps omitted from the spoken word. The signs existed before the spoken word. Online comms removes those indicators. It's not so much that those individuals ignore the non-existent signs, they're possibly not even aware that the signs are not there.
That's why "punching range" is a factor. Regardless of political correctness, we have forward facing eyes and incisors. That is lost in the on line world.
Except it has nothing to do with code.
Agreed.
It has everything to do with sociology.
Agreed (but I'd go for anthropology).
Which is by it's very nature outside the remit of the group. Or should be, anyway.
I'm assuming "the group" is: those in ICT professionally. (If I'm wrong, well, I'm talking about something else!)
If so, I'd say that depends on perception/context. From a purist's point of view (the creators and engineers et al), only the mechanics of the tool(s) are within purview. But these are tools, and how they impact us/society (sociologically/anthropologically) must be considered at some point. Not by all, but by some. Does a programmer only deal with only the guts of the program, or consider the useability of the interface? 'Cos a purist wouldn't care if "the user" can work out their shit or not (arguably). But that wouldn't go far. I think it's important to maintain both sides, and in-between.
So yeah, it should be outside the remit of some groups. But not all groups. And we need to keep the fekkin marketurds away from ICT progression. O! Lord!
If you feed the trolls, you get to keep them.
Kewl, they sooo cuddly!
From my perspective, all of the idiots, regardless of corner (and some of their collateral damage, alas) are bailing ... leaving those of us interested in perl behind to work on perl instead of some social experiment that we never signed on for in the first place.
A perl club for perl enthusiasts doing perl things in perl time. Imagine that.
Mailing list mostly, although the rot goes back to the comp.lang.perl days.
Between passive-aggressive replies (which I see everywhere in coders regardless of language) and a resistance to change in the coding "infrastructure" (which is paradoxical given the changes people are willing to make in the language), reading some threads can be unpleasant. I can imagine what it's like for the actual recipients.
Note, Perl is part of my set of languages, and I've even made a couple of contributions to the included modules, though not to the language itself. But I've kept off the mailing list.
To me it's a few prima-donnas who find issue with the slightest perceived hint of personality conflict, and then proceed to blow it completely out of proportion. Personally, I put those few folks on ignore, thus increasing the signal to noise ratio to something more meaningful. Same as have in comp.lang.perl.* these last decades.
Frankly, loud-mouthed complainers rarely, if ever, contribute meaningfully in any field. Plonk 'em (and their enablers) along with the obvious intentional trolls (and their feeders), and life becomes much more sane.
All communities that reach a certain size end up being torn apart by those that seek status through social means. It's just easier to see in technical communities where introverted nerds get removed by extroverted status seekers. Social recognition becomes more important than technical contribution and the technical contributors eventually abandon ship.
The recent year and a half imposed severe restrictions on all of us. They made us quite unhappy and angry. The problem is, there is no single one to blame. But the bad temper piles up. And the first person in the way serves as outlet for all the rage. In my communities, neighbourhood and the like I observe that regularly. :-( It's a pity really.
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