Richard Stallman prepared recommendations for benevolent communication in the GNU project, the GNU Communications Guidelines.
The codes of behavior that are popular in various communities are in the form of rules whose violation carries punishment.
Richard Stallman would not like to impose some kind of framework, so that, rather than giving a clear indication of what is possible and what is not, developed general recommendations that show that the community prefers a friendly communication style.
With the help of these recommendations, you can immediately make it clear in what direction the behavior should be and help the participant to make their communication more friendly, without waiting for disputes or serious insults to appear on the basis of which the person can be accused. participant breaking the rules.
Richard Stallman hopes that the recommendations, rather than the strict requirements and restrictions, will help make the discussions calmer and more engaging for all participants.
By including Stallman, the recommendations will attract more women to the community, while he is against imposing ideas to achieve "social justice" in the community.
Richard Stallman wants to take it easy
The recommendations themselves determine the opening of the GNU project to the participation of anyone interested in the development of the projectregardless of your gender, race, religion, cultural level, political views, or any other demographic characteristics.
The project does not welcome a hostile and rude form of communication, it asks to treat the other participants with respect, not to criticize for anything, to tolerate mistakes, not to respond to attacks with verbal aggression and not to raise political discussions.
Triggered by discussions about the Code of Conduct on Linux and other projects, the GNU Project now receives guidelines for communication.
Strict regulations should not be made explicitly, decided project founder Richard Stallman.
The GNU project will have guidelines for friendly communication in the future.
This announces the project leader and founder of the Free Software movement Richard Stallman on the project mailing list.
"On behalf of the GNU Project, I ask all GNU contributors to do their best to follow these guidelines in discussions of the GNU Project," Stallman writes.
The new guidelines may contain a direct response to the discussions surrounding the introduction of the Code of Conduct, in the Linux kernel, even if Stallman refers only indirectly.
According to Stallman, this has also led to a discussion among the maintainers of GNU, in which some called for the adoption of a code of conduct-, others threatened to resign, a code of conduct should be introduced in the GNU project .
The GNU project receives guidelines for good communication
After consulting with many participants the new guidelines were created, which listed quite extensively, what behavior was appropriate for discussion on the mailing lists, and which parties should pay attention to the best.
The difference with a code of conduct is the basic approach to creating an environment in which all participants feel comfortable and want to contribute to a project.
For example, a Code of Conduct contains clear rules with corresponding penalties for infractions and therefore it is a rather clumsy way of teaching people to behave differently.
Also, these types of rules do not lead to positive behavior, which goes beyond the established rules. However, the communication guidelines of the GNU project should be able to achieve exactly the latter, that is, make people relate to each other in a more friendly way.
This would be achieved through a type of learning process in which the participants were guided by the new guidelines.
stallman writes that he hopes the guidelines will lead to calmer discussions in the project, that new contributors feel more welcome and that discussions are more effective.