Hello all, For some time now, I've been meaning to put up a code of conduct for the Linux man-pages project. I've put a draft up at: https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/code_of_conduct.html The draft is for the most part a direct lift from the Linux kernel's Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct (https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/code-of-conduct.html#code-of-conduct). which in turn is derived from the Contributor Covenant (https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/1/4/code-of-conduct.html) I've marked the CoC as draft, since some people may have suggestions for improvements. In particular, I wonder if there is something better than this for "Enforcement": [[ Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting the project maintainer, Michael Kerrisk, at <mtk.manpages@xxxxxxxxx>. In the event that you have a problem with the maintainer, there is no formal process, but it is suggested that you send a report to the Linux Kernel Code of Conduct Committee at <conduct@xxxxxxxxxx>. ]] I have two doubts with the above: In the first paragraph, the kernel CoC has by contrast an email alias (conduct@xxxxxxxxxx) that redirects to a small committee (https://www.kernel.org/code-of-conduct.html) to look at reports. Ideally, any project would have the same approach. Practically, I'm not sure that it's feasible approach for man-pages, which is a much smaller project. (Any volunteers for a committee?) My doubts with the second paragraph stems from the first paragraph. If I am listed as the receiver of reports, then what happens if someone wishes to report an issue about me? The only thing I could think of so far is that the report should go to the Kernel conduct committee email alias, since the kernel is a closely related project, and the committee is unrelated to me. I'm not sure whether that's a responsibility that that committee would want to have. Perhaps someone there can comment. Of course, practically speaking, there might never be any reports in a low volume project like man-pages. Nevertheless, I think it's worthwhile for any project to put out a message about desired project conduct. Thanks, Michael -- Michael Kerrisk Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
