That is a lot of effort to complain about SQlite's Code of Conduct.
Well, I had never seen that before. As an atheist that was quite a, well, revelation.
I am not militant in any way and have a generally lax stance about these things. For example, I have had believer friends ask if they could pray over me when I was going through rough times. My response was "I would be honored". No sense being a complete asshole when someone offers something out of love.
The rules page includes this:
> No one is required to follow The Rule, to know The Rule, or even to think that The Rule is a good idea.
> The Founder of SQLite believes that anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life, but individuals are free to dispute or ignore that advice if they wish.
In other words, for me, very much my stance with regards to religious belief (or not). It's a "live and let live" position. Something I sometimes feel is sorely needed in today's hatred/outrage-first society.
I see this as similar to a company that says while all its current employees pledge themselves to a religious covenant, it has never discriminated against anyone on the basis of religious faith; and yet all current employees make that pledge. If in fact the wording on the completeness of the covenant is in error, it should be easy enough to point out a sqlite developer who does not make this pledge.
SQLite isn't and doesn't claim to be seeking contributions, so it seems to me that the existing CoC covers 100% of the surface area. If they started seeking contributions, I would agree that they should consider expanding the CoC.
Also, I think it's good to note that the CoC doesn't say that asshole-ish stuff will be tolerated. It's simply quiet on that. I would guess that (much like the vast majority of projects before the Contributor Covenant came about) they would not permit that sort of thing to occur, particularly given the values they've already expressed.
I do as well. I'm an atheist as well and I hate having people's religious opinions forced onto me. I believe firmly in tolerance and live and let live. I really like this Code of Conduct. It doesn't (IMHO) say that you can be a jerk to people and be part of the project. It doesn't say that you have to be a Christian. All (it seems to me) to say is that the people working on SQLite will be good and tolerant, and that the founder is Christian and believes strongly in tolerance. I fully agree, more of this is sorely needed these days.
The part I like is where they state, as their official position, that they are OK with people not wanting anything to do with this. As you said, tolerance, live and let live.
I also recognize I am able to exist as an atheist in a Christian nation precisely because of tolerance and mutual respect, with emphasis on "mutual". There are parts of the world where being atheist, LGBT, or <insert group membership here> can easily get you killed.
And then there's the fact that any decent person would agree with quite a few of the items on their list. Here are 46 I think might qualify:
Then, love your neighbor as yourself.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not covet.
Do not bear false witness.
Honor all people.
Do not do to another what you would not have done to yourself.
Do not become attached to pleasures.
Love fasting.
Relieve the poor.
Clothe the naked.
Visit the sick.
Bury the dead.
Be a help in times of trouble.
Console the sorrowing.
Be a stranger to the world's ways.
Do not give way to anger.
Do not nurse a grudge.
Do not entertain deceit in your heart.
Do not give a false peace.
Do not forsake charity.
Utter only truth from heart and mouth.
Do not return evil for evil.
Do no wrong to anyone, and bear patiently wrongs done to yourself.
Love your enemies.
Do not curse those who curse you, but rather bless them.
Bear persecution for justice's sake.
Be not proud.
Be not addicted to wine.
Be not a great eater.
Be not drowsy.
Be not lazy.
Be not a grumbler.
Be not a detractor.
Recognize always that evil is your own doing, and to impute it to yourself.
Keep death daily before your eyes.
Keep constant guard over the actions of your life.
Guard your tongue against evil and depraved speech.
Hate no one.
Be not jealous, nor harbor envy.
Do not love quarreling.
Shun arrogance.
Respect your seniors.
Love your juniors.
Make peace with your adversary before the sun sets.
I suspect this code of conduct would not hold in a court of law, because it has effects not related to this particular piece of software.
Additionally, it is already contradicting SQLite's safety culture. The safety regulation requires being conservative in code acceptance - you do not "let live" here or it can cause deaths.
I read it years ago, but cannot confirm.
(As to DRH's Code of Ethics... well, the product speaks for itself.)
> That is a lot of effort to complain about SQlite's Code of Conduct.
Anyways, given that the super-majority of the blog post was about features and the different directions that sqlite is being pulled in, and the only singular mention of the CoC was a paragraph at the very end of the blog, I don't really see the summarization of the blog post as just about the CoC as honest.
It should be obvious why, but if not consider a future where the SQLite team needs to replace a member. What's the plan if the best candidate is an Orthodox Jew? Are they going to update the CoE to read:
>The founder of SQLite and all current developers, except for Ruth Cohen, have pledged...
Even if they're the nicest and most welcoming Christians in the world and will make a better change without hesitation it's still presents a disincentive for non-Christians. There's simply no place for that in any professional setting.
For some non-Christians.
Some of us non-Christians are open to reasonable people of every persuasion.
The CCCoC presents a disincentive to non-progressives or progressives who just happen to disdain identity politics and the race to the bottom in search of ever more fine-grained intersectional levels of oppression that involves.
71: Make peace with your adversary before the sun sets
2: Then, love your neighbor as yourself
8: Honor all people
9: Do not do to another what you would not have done to yourself
18: Be a help in times of trouble
19: Console the sorrowing
30: Do no wrong to anyone, and bear patiently wrongs done to yourself
66: Do not love quarreling
...is clear in its intentions without referring to any identity groups and without proposing a whole list of sanctions and sanctioning procedures. Compare the following preface to the list of 'rules' from the 'code of Ethics' from SQLite:
No one is required to follow The Rule, to know The Rule, or even to think that The Rule is a good idea. The Founder of SQLite believes that anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life, but individuals are free to dispute or ignore that advice if they wish.
The founder of SQLite and all current developers have pledged to follow the spirit of The Rule to the best of their ability. They view The Rule as their promise to all SQLite users of how the developers are expected to behave. This is a one-way promise, or covenant. In other words, the developers are saying: "We will treat you this way regardless of how you treat us."
...with the text of the CCCoC:
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community. ... Community leaders are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior ... This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces, and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces ... Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the community leaders responsible for enforcement at community@libsql.org. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly. All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident. ... Community leaders will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct: ... Correction ... Warning ... Temporary Ban ... Permanent Ban
Take your pick of policies, I've taken mine and will follow the path of Benedict.
I would be interested in knowing whether there are real instances that having a code like this one resulted in a better open source product as an innate feature of the code.
This?
>We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
>We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.
Specifically, what part of it do you object to?
>is clear in its intentions without referring to any identity groups
Uh of course if you exclude the parts that do refer to identity groups it doesn't. But when you do include them it's clearly a Christians only club:
1. First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole strength.
10. Deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
21. Prefer nothing more than the love of Christ.
41. Put your hope in God.
42. Attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good you see in yourself.
44. Fear the Day of Judgment.
45. Be in dread of hell.
46. Desire eternal life with all the passion of the spirit.
49. Know for certain that God sees you everywhere.
50. When wrongful thoughts come into your heart, dash them against Christ immediately.
57. Devote yourself frequently to prayer.
58. Daily in your prayers, with tears and sighs, confess your past sins to God, and amend them for the future.
60. Obey in all things the commands of those whom God has placed in authority over you even though they (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, "Do what they say, but not what they do."
62. Fulfill God's commandments daily in your deeds.
70. Pray for your enemies in the love of Christ.
72. Never despair of God's mercy.
No one is required to follow The Rule, to know The Rule, or even to think that The Rule is a good idea. The Founder of SQLite believes that anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life, but individuals are free to dispute or ignore that advice if they wish.
Understand that the developers used an existing document from 1500 years ago, not to transport SQLite back to the year 480 AD but because it encompasses the spirit of community. The original rule of Benedict was written as 'timeless spiritual guidance on how our lives should be an expression of mutual service and love, seeing Christ in all people, particularly the stranger'. Feel free to exchange 'Christ' for the virtues which are normally ascribed to him if the reference feels alien to you, it will not change the spirit of the document which is to strife for 'mutual service and love' instead of 'strife, oppression and conquest'.
Also note that I quoted the sections I did because those are the ones specifically noted in the 'code of Ethics', not to leave out any references to religion. It should not surprise anyone that a document from the founder of a monastic order contains references to religion so I have no problems with those.
As a last point I'd like to add that the rule of Benedict manages to profess true inclusivity - and in my eyes probably too much of it for current society - instead of the Nomenklatura-type of the same ordered by documents like the CCCoC where an ordained group of commissars gets to be judge, jury and executioner over the masses. That is not inclusion but exclusion of all who do not abide by the whims of those commissars. As far as I'm concerned the CCCoC and similarly authoritarian "policies" do not lead to "inclusive communities", they just make contributors walk on their toes when communicating to avoid becoming a target for the language police.
I for one think the Code of Conduct in SQLite is excellent.