The forked elephant in the room

[Paul Backus]

On Thursday, 18 January 2024 at 02:51:06 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
> Respect and professionalism is a two-way street. I've seen some 
> of these interactions up close and I can tell you it is not in 
> anyway 100% Walter/Andrei/Atila's fault. There's plenty of 
> blame to go around. [...]
>
> Yes, the DLF needs to find ways to prevent contributors from 
> feeling disrespected, ignored, undervalued, and all of that, 
> and we need to find ways to help them overcome those feelings 
> if they do arise. But please, let's also remember that everyone 
> on the DLF team is just as human as the contributors. We 
> deserve the same respect and professionalism as everyone else.

I agree completely. I think the DLF has a great opportunity to 
lead by example here, but regardless, someone else's poor 
behavior is never an excuse for one's own.

> There have been multiple occasions when I've gone into the 
> Discord server and regretted it, asking myself why I'm even 
> bothering to stick around here when the people I'm working for 
> keep crapping all over us and the work we're doing. It got to 
> the point where I dreaded opening it up. Being called stupid, 
> fools, morons, m*fers, and such is the very opposite of a 
> morale booster.

Many open source projects have adopted codes of conduct for their 
community spaces that forbid this sort of behavior. Perhaps D 
would benefit from doing the same.

By the way, this is not just a morale killer for the people being 
called names. It's also discouraging to everyone who makes an 
effort to behave well when they see rude, inflammatory messages 
get rewarded with attention and engagement.

> Anyone who is unhappy with a specific decision, process, 
> incident, whatever, is welcome to email me and let me know 
> about it. I'm happy to set up a meeting with the appropriate 
> people to discuss it in person, or facilitate an email 
> conversation with them, or whatever is needed to work it out. 
> Too often, people don't tell us specifically what their root 
> gripes are until they've reached the boiling point, and by then 
> it's too late. So please, let us know before that point comes.

I think most members of the D community are not even aware that 
this is an option available to them. It would help a lot if the 
DLF could proactively reach out to some of these people, rather 
than passively waiting for them to take the first step.