Here is what I am proposing for a open debate as a start for policy making on drupal.org
I think it is important that 'Drupal Community' word is given some credibility with a status like 'good status'.
Those with 'good status' should get support from community and those not having 'good status' can still be a member but can only get limited things done on drupal.org. 'good status' also brings accountability and responsibility for everyone so that they behave in fair, transparent manner.
Here are few scenarios : (Others can add more scenarios too)
1) Should a user-id have in his profile First Name, Last Name that is realistic to have a good member status?
2) If the profile associated with user-id does not have First Name, Last Name or has 'fake name' but doing good work would that id have a 'good status' ?
3) If Company 'corp' has different user-ids with 'corp', 'corp-user', 'corp-user1' being used by different team members rather than 'john' and 'geoff' would that be a good 'Drupal Community' status for Company 'corp' ?
4) If 1 person has multiple companies and uses his user-id to write about products of various companies and other useful posts, would that user-id and user have a good member status?
5) If Company 'corp' has a user-id 'corp' and that is used by team members to provide support in forums, contribute code on behalf of company, etc would this company have a good member status?
6) If 1 person with userid 'user-a' owns stake (major/minor) in multiple separate legal entities 'corp-a' and 'corp-b' (some may be in other countries) filing separate IT returns and for each entity there is different user-id would that be a good status for 'user-a', 'corp-a' and 'corp-b'
7) If in #6 above if 1 person uses all 1 id mostly and other 2 ids occasionally while other 2 ids are used by respective company directors, would that be given a good member status
8) If a user-id 'user-a' makes racial statements or targets 'user-b' or 'corp-a' would 'user-a' be a good member status?
9) Under the scenario listed in Q4) below - if a community member seeks clarification on posting of the user-a as to which 'hat' he put on while making the post and user-a does not reply to this - does this 'user-a' still have a 'good status' ?
10) Individual user-a with multiple user ids 'user-a', 'user-b'
Q1) Which of the above scenarios with usage of Drupal.org user-id are considered good community behavior?
Q2) Can anyone not having 'good status' continue to have advanced access rights like site-maintainer, etc on drupal.org? If so, under which scenarios?
Q3) Under which instance would any 'corp' lose a good member status ? If so, would they get privileges like front-page postings, advertisements on drupal.org or listing in services directory? If so, under which scenarios ?
Q4) If a user-id 'user-a' wears multiple hats like site-maintainer, drupal association board member or perm member, employee of a company, individual - how would his posts on drupal.org be interpreted i.e for which hat would it be under? If any of the actions from this 'user-a' are illegal, where would the onus fall?
I hope that there is some concrete policy is put for EACH of the above items.
Any-time an allegation is made and any user comments on it, effort must be made by that user to take inputs from both or at least the target and review any email / audio records. Putting blanket allegation would be illegal and the target should have right to protest and put it forward to 'review committee' and provide evidence that there has been a wrong allegation. The users who are putting wrong allegation needs to lose 'good status' if committee agrees of wrong-doing or that user-a has done it at personal level no matter what his/her stature is on drupal.org.
Those who are using email marketing campaigns will know 'good sender' practices. We do need 'good community status' policy. This policy should be first and governing policy around with other policies can be drafted.
Comments
Comment #1
roshan_shah commentedchanged title 'with' -> 'which'
Comment #2
roshan_shah commentedThe following feedback was provided on my blog
#1, #2, #8 and #10 can't be given 'good status'. They can still continue to operate at individual level.
#9 - if user has multiple roles, he should either create separate ids for it or by default his posts should be considered 'individual' posts. If he puts on a different hat than individual - he must explicitly state in footer which hat he is putting on. It may not go well for individual to put on this on every post if he is adding lot of comments either as a site-maintainer, etc and it would be best if he creates different ids for each. If a person has added privs and/or is drupal association member, he/she has much higher responsibility and in case of Q4) illegal activities, the 'good status' should be removed and all his positions relinquished. If such users can't show good behavior, they don't deserve the position in community
Comment #4
chx commentedComment #5
roshan_shah commented@chx - saw the status changed to won't fix.
From http://drupal.org/node/156119, I read won't fix as :
Won't Fix
It has been decided that this issue will not be fixed. This includes feature requests that are deemed to be outside the scope of the project, and bug reports that cannot be reproduced or are unsupported.
Can you give some context on status change on this item? or if anyone can give some URL where I can find 'acceptable user-id' and 'good community status' policy, that would also be fine because I couldn't find it.
Comment #6
webchickI agree with a won't fix status on this issue. I am not at all interested in setting up rigid rules on member conduct, nor some strange "labels" for Drupal.org members. This would siphon off valuable volunteer resources on something that has absolutely no tangible benefit that I can see, other than to perhaps make people feel excluded or.. actually I am not really clear on what the goal is here.
At the end of the day, we're all just people. You either contribute something or you don't. If you consistently go out of your way to help others, are constructive and generally positive in your comments, and work hard in tangible ways that visibly benefit the community, then you generally get looked upon favourably by your peers. If you are consistently rude, inflammatory, demanding, unhelpful, and/or walk around with a huge sense of entitlement, you generally are *not* looked upon favourably by your peers. We don't need some sort of rigid rule structure to enforce this; it's human nature, and it's as simple as that.
Comment #7
roshan_shah commentedAngie,
Hmm.. so does this mean something like 1 person having multiple user-ids, 1 user id used by multiple people, 1 user id representing multiple companies, targeting a user or community, going out of the way on meddling in other's businesses(so far I have not done that - but am just.. just at a point of doing it - if it is ok ) would be fine? I am fine with it but it seems some site-maintainers have issues on many things.
Even if there is no policy drafted, wouldn't it be worth the discussion to let the community know what has been followed till date by site-maintainers and what is acceptable?
Roshan
Comment #8
webchickAs I said, determining whether something is 'good' or 'bad' is a simple matter of common sense.
- One person having multiple user IDs breaks the trust model in the community, because people have no idea who they're talking to. This would be 'bad'.
- One user used by multiple people breaks the trust model in the community, because people have no idea who they're talking to. This would be 'bad'.
- One user representing multiple companies breaks the trust model in the community, because people have no idea who they're talking to. This would be 'bad'.
- One user going out of their way to be a pain in the ass is obviously 'bad'.
We do not need guidelines for common sense. It's a complete waste of time and energy.
And furthermore, the only thing I've ever seen out of codifying some sort of rules/guidelines around community conduct (in any community, online or off) is the same negative people who routinely engage in 'bad' behaviours going out of their way to find loopholes so they can continue to engage in 'bad' behaviours that are not explicitly covered by the rules. It then becomes a cat and mouse game of trying to expand the rules to cover all possible 'bad' behaviours, and inevitably the web of rules becomes so vast and convoluted that one of the generally 'good' people slip-up, and that gives the negative person the platform to go, "HA! That person is 'bad' and should therefore have punitive measures taken against them or else your community is biased!" No, thanks. I have not even the tiniest shred of interest going down that road.
The webmasters team discusses and defines acceptable behaviour all the time, in individual issues and on a case-by-case basis. This is fine, and indeed how it must be in order to retain the agility to deal with any unforseeable issue that comes across our desk.
Comment #9
roshan_shah commentedThanks for your views. I respect them. Here is what I think.
Without rules, things are subject to interpretation. It can also happen that 'good' people with advanced privs purposefully target other 'good' people by 'bad behaviour' and when challenged these people with advanced privs term other as 'bad'.
Some basic fundamental rules always help. Common sense is there all around still we have legal system, constitution, etc for people to follow. Honestly - common sense is so uncommon nowadays and hence the need for rules. Without even getting input from others or keeping it open for community comments, the issue was marked "won't fix".
If Webmaster queue is not where this can be debated, let me know where this can be discussed to open this to community. Wouldn't it be good to get some community feedback on this? I have put general scenarios without any user-ids to get everyone's idea for general guidelines.
Comment #10
chx commentedLocking this issue, all that needed to be said is said.