in reply to Moderation of Open Source projects

Being recently trapped into a very heated discussion I wished there were some respected Perl leaders who would volunteer to step in and mediate. Do you think such a custom could work?

No, I think it would fail miserably. First of all, just because someone is a "respected perl leader" does not mean that they should have any say in the matter. Especially if it is not their module and/or they are not directly involved in the project.

Or perhaps TPF could offer a grant not to a Perl developer for coding but to a professional moderator for improving the communication in some important Perl projects?

Please, please, no. If two (or more) adults cannot settle an argument between themselves, what makes you think a professional moderator would actually help? To start with, you would be hard pressed to find a professional moderator with enough technical knowledge to actually do the job correctly, and as the other posters pointed out, both parties must agree to use the moderator.

And who gets to determine what is and what isn't an "important Perl project"? What is important to me as a web developer may not be important to someone who is primarily a system administrator or someone who works in bio-tech, etc etc.

Heated discussions with assholes is one of those universal constants of the open source world, I suggest you get used to it and/or learn to avoid getting into those discussions.

Remember, if I release my code open source, I am giving you many hours of my hard work for free, a sparkling personality costs extra.

-stvn

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Re^2: Moderation of Open Source projects
by moritz (Cardinal) on Feb 06, 2008 at 07:59 UTC
    just because someone is a "respected perl leader" does not mean that they should have any say in the matter.

    A moderator's job isn't there to decide anything, but to improve communication.

    Please, please, no. If two (or more) adults cannot settle an argument between themselves, what makes you think a professional moderator would actually help?

    So you think that professional moderators are entirely worthless?

    Actually in many cases moderators help to stop strikes, when the involved parties are at odds with each other. (At least that's common practice here in Germany).

    To start with, you would be hard pressed to find a professional moderator with enough technical knowledge to actually do the job correctly

    Agreed, that could be real problem.

[reply]
      just because someone is a "respected perl leader" does not mean that they should have any say in the matter.
      A moderator's job isn't there to decide anything, but to improve communication.

      Last I checked, there was no "respected perl leader" that was also a professional moderator. Assuming that $repsected_perl_leaders[ rand() ] has enough free time to waste on people who are most likely just being ridiculous and immature, why would they want too? Adults should be able to settle their differences, or be smart/mature enough to just walk away.

      Please, please, no. If two (or more) adults cannot settle an argument between themselves, what makes you think a professional moderator would actually help?
      So you think that professional moderators are entirely worthless?

      Actually in many cases moderators help to stop strikes, when the involved parties are at odds with each other. (At least that's common practice here in Germany).

      Moderators are not worthless, in something important like a strike. But a "professional moderator" being pulled in because someone got yelled at on a mailing list by someone else who was likely just having a bad day, that's a little silly.

      Open source software is "free" in terms of money, but not in terms of developer time and effort. If I choose to use an open source project, it is ultimately my responsibility to make it work, and not the responsibility of the author. There is a reason why people put things like this at the end of their modules:

      BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

      IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

      -stvn
[reply]
[d/l]
        I think you perceive that idea as a something that could be used to put pressure on the project leaders - it could be like that - but I would do it that way. I would rather make it as an available tool for the project leaders to solve the conflicts in a civilized way.
[reply]

In Section Meditations