Open Source / Free software used to be about, well, open source and free software. The moment "Code of Conducts", "Diversity advocates" and the likes swamp into a project, a situation like this one is bound to happen sooner or later.
Smaller projects are usually immune to this because they often are small, well-knit communities. Large projects attract people who are not about technology, but "to be a part of something bigger", and in today's climate, this attraction extends to people who mean well, but are in fact destructive.
I guess it is time to make sure OSS projects do not become too large for their own good - let's get back to what we are really good at, which is technology, and keep all the diversity / orwellian minilov-stuff to the Humanities. As long as the code is good, noone should give a damn if it comes from a Hindu, a Muslim, an agnostic, a homosexual, someone with green skin or someone who enjoys the consensual presence of their prefered gender in leather. We need to go back to https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
I agree with what I think is your main point. Specifically that:
>As long as the code is good, noone should give a damn if it comes from a Hindu, a Muslim, an agnostic, a homosexual, someone with green skin or someone who enjoys the consensual presence of their prefered gender in leather.
At the end of the day, the code eventually shipped is what an open-source project exists to produce.
However, I'm more hesitant than you are to blame what happened here on diversity advocates. I don't think we want to live in a world where software is produced by homogeneous groups developers of the same age, race, and gender. And I'm not sure diversity happens by accident either. Surely being open and honest about diversity issues helps us build more accepting groups?
In my opinion, what happened here can be considered a failure in diversity, as the leadership of Drupal project decided to discriminate against one of their developers for his lifestyle decisions. This is where a diversity advocate should step in to provide education about consensual BDSM and demand that the leadership not discriminate against someone for their sexual preferences. What happened here is no different than shaming someone for who they sleep with.
I certainly am willing to recognize that projects can be damaged by individuals who push diversity issues too far because, as you said, they want "to be a part of something bigger" but are in fact destructive. But we need to find the right balance, not pretend like diversity will happen automagically.
As a member of the BDSM community I can honestly say that I would no longer feel comfortable participating in the Drupal project. So an advocate here would be perfectly acceptable to me.
> I don't think we want to live in a world where software is produced by homogeneous groups developers of the same age, race, and gender.
Do you own any Chinese or Japanese products? Not necessarily software ones. You almost certainly do.
It's virtually impossible to migrate to China and very, very difficult to migrate to Japan. Therefore most of their products are created by people of the same race. Do you regularly go out of your way to buy other products instead of Chinese/Japanese ones?
My point is: As a consumer I don't really care who provides the best product in terms of price and quality. And if diversity really does provide competitive edge, then I believe we should simply let the market sort it out. As long as there is no discrimination in providing equal opportunities for access to the market for everyone.
Open Source / Free software used to be about, well, open source and free software. The moment "Code of Conducts", "Diversity advocates" and the likes swamp into a project, a situation like this one is bound to happen sooner or later.
Smaller projects are usually immune to this because they often are small, well-knit communities. Large projects attract people who are not about technology, but "to be a part of something bigger", and in today's climate, this attraction extends to people who mean well, but are in fact destructive.
I guess it is time to make sure OSS projects do not become too large for their own good - let's get back to what we are really good at, which is technology, and keep all the diversity / orwellian minilov-stuff to the Humanities. As long as the code is good, noone should give a damn if it comes from a Hindu, a Muslim, an agnostic, a homosexual, someone with green skin or someone who enjoys the consensual presence of their prefered gender in leather. We need to go back to https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence