On Oct 17, 2018, at 11:34 AM, Brian Curtin <brian@python.org> wrote:
I think this type of issue is better solved internally to our team, perhaps via some form of mediator(s) I mentioned earlier, rather than involving a wholly external group. Time is of course a finite resource in open source, and people work is often/usually harder than code work, but I think we do have some people around who care about the success of the project to spend time mediating these kinds of conflicts so that we keep everyone involved and solve whatever problem at hand in a satisfactory manner.
Honestly, I think an independent group managing these issues is the right way to handle them. I’m loathe to bring it up because the situation was a long time ago, and has been resolved, but I’ve personally had to engage the CoC process in regards to another core developers behavior. At the time the way that was handled was contacting the PSF board, if the process was instead to contact python-committers or something I likely would’t have done it at all. I think it is important that if someone feels they’re having a problem in a particular space, that they feel they have an impartial and independent group of people to raise those concerns with.
With regards to whether the CoC can evict a core developer of Python.. I think it absolutely needs to be able to do that. Otherwise it’s basically stating that it’s fine for someone to harass someone else… as long as the person doing the harassing is a core developer. If anything, core developers should be held to a higher, not a lower standard. Obviously excommunication is not step 1 on any CoC, and such a thing would only be used after a history of repeated, on going unacceptable behavior, but if the CoC doesn’t have any teeth, than it’s not worth the metaphorical paper it’s written on.
So, when it comes to the conduct we expect from people, core developers should not be treated specially in either expectations nor process.