rationale.txt (revision 12)


The Code of Conduct (CoC) was written in a day by a single person and
revised by only a handful of others before it was posted on the Ubuntu
website.  At the time, there was no Ubuntu community.

With time, the CoC has taken up a more important role than any of its
authors imagined. It is now explicitly agreed to by thousands of
Launchpad account holders and by hundreds of Ubuntu Members as a condition
of their franchise. It has become the central written pillar of the Ubuntu
community and has provided the basis for dozens of similar CoCs in other
communities. As a result, it is not lightly that we approach the task of
creating the first revision of the CoC since its creation.

But over the last 5 years, the Ubuntu community has grown in ways and to
degrees that were unanticipated. The Code of conduct plays a very
different -- and more important -- role that it did at first. In order
to reflect these changes and to create a stronger and more appropriate
Code of Conduct for the Ubuntu Community of today, we offer this
proposed revision.  We have tried to keep changes as small as possible
and to ensure that all proposed changes are fully in the spirit, if not
the language, of the original CoC.

== Goals with revision 1.1 ==

Our primary goal in this version of the Code of Conduct was to remove
what we saw as an overly technical focus. When the first Code of Conduct
was written, Ubuntu was an entirely technical project. There were no
users, no support systems, and very little in the way of non-technical
contributions from anyone. That has changed. In fact, the vast majority
of the Ubuntu community contributes to the Ubuntu project in ways other
than through writing code and making packages. We want our CoC to
reflect this and to speak to the reality of the Ubuntu community today.

Additionally, several of our proposed changes are designed to reflect
the growth of the Ubuntu governance system.  We changed several
references to the CC and its power to make it clear that the CC's
important role has now been delegated to a series of new governance
boards (e.g., the Forums Council and the IRC Council).

The original version of the Code of Conduct used the term "you" to refer
to a description of how people should act. Since the code of conduct is
(as we like to say) not a stick to be wielded, but rather a description
of how we feel our community should act, we changed the language so
that, where it is not too awkward, we use "we" instead of "you."

== List of specific Changes ==

Throughout the text, we:

 - changed references from "you" to "we" and changed the text in other
   minor ways to make this set of changes read more cleanly

In the opening paragraph, we:

 - changed the reference to the Community Council to refer to other
   governance bodies as well the CC

In the section on ''Be considerate'', we:

 - changed the example used to be less focused on code changes around
   release and tried to generalize the example to a variety of other
   areas in Ubuntu

In the section on ''Be collaborative'', we:

 - rewrote the section to remove a strong technical focus and an
   emphasis on inter-project and Ubuntu-upstream relationships, and
   removed the examples around patch workflow
   
 - tried to most clearly emphasize the way that collaboration plays
   important roles within teams, between teams, and between Ubuntu and
   the larger free software community
  
 - generalised the types of work that Ubuntu community members do

 - changed the reference from members to community members (membership
   didn't exist when the CoC was written)

In the section on ''When we disagree'', we:

 - mentioned governance bodies other than the CC

 - we emphasized that working separately should only happen when
   differences are dramatic

In the section on ''When you are unsure'', we :

 - have changed the reference to technical mailing lists to one that
   incorporates of community venues within Ubuntu.

 - removed the joking reference to SABDFL (there's nothing funny about
   the SABDFL)

In the section on ''Step down considerately.'', we:

 - changed the reference from "Developers" to "Members"

Loggerhead 1.10 is a web-based interface for Bazaar branches

Line	Revision	Contents
1	10	The Code of Conduct (CoC) was written in a day by a single person and
2		revised by only a handful of others before it was posted on the Ubuntu
3		website. At the time, there was no Ubuntu community.
4	5
5	10	With time, the CoC has taken up a more important role than any of its
6	5	authors imagined. It is now explicitly agreed to by thousands of
7	7.1.1	Launchpad account holders and by hundreds of Ubuntu Members as a condition
8		of their franchise. It has become the central written pillar of the Ubuntu
9	10	community and has provided the basis for dozens of similar CoCs in other
10	7.1.1	communities. As a result, it is not lightly that we approach the task of
11	10	creating the first revision of the CoC since its creation.
12	5
13		But over the last 5 years, the Ubuntu community has grown in ways and to
14		degrees that were unanticipated. The Code of conduct plays a very
15		different -- and more important -- role that it did at first. In order
16		to reflect these changes and to create a stronger and more appropriate
17		Code of Conduct for the Ubuntu Community of today, we offer this
18		proposed revision. We have tried to keep changes as small as possible
19		and to ensure that all proposed changes are fully in the spirit, if not
20	10	the language, of the original CoC.
21	5
22	7.1.2	== Goals with revision 1.1 ==
23	5
24		Our primary goal in this version of the Code of Conduct was to remove
25		what we saw as an overly technical focus. When the first Code of Conduct
26		was written, Ubuntu was an entirely technical project. There were no
27		users, no support systems, and very little in the way of non-technical
28		contributions from anyone. That has changed. In fact, the vast majority
29	9	of the Ubuntu community contributes to the Ubuntu project in ways other
30	10	than through writing code and making packages. We want our CoC to
31	5	reflect this and to speak to the reality of the Ubuntu community today.
32
33		Additionally, several of our proposed changes are designed to reflect
34		the growth of the Ubuntu governance system. We changed several
35		references to the CC and its power to make it clear that the CC's
36		important role has now been delegated to a series of new governance
37		boards (e.g., the Forums Council and the IRC Council).
38
39		The original version of the Code of Conduct used the term "you" to refer
40		to a description of how people should act. Since the code of conduct is
41		(as we like to say) not a stick to be wielded, but rather a description
42		of how we feel our community should act, we changed the language so
43		that, where it is not too awkward, we use "we" instead of "you."
44
45		== List of specific Changes ==
46
47		Throughout the text, we:
48
49		- changed references from "you" to "we" and changed the text in other
50		minor ways to make this set of changes read more cleanly
51
52		In the opening paragraph, we:
53
54		- changed the reference to the Community Council to refer to other
55		governance bodies as well the CC
56
57		In the section on ''Be considerate'', we:
58
59		- changed the example used to be less focused on code changes around
60		release and tried to generalize the example to a variety of other
61		areas in Ubuntu
62
63		In the section on ''Be collaborative'', we:
64
65		- rewrote the section to remove a strong technical focus and an
66		emphasis on inter-project and Ubuntu-upstream relationships, and
67		removed the examples around patch workflow
68
69		- tried to most clearly emphasize the way that collaboration plays
70		important roles within teams, between teams, and between Ubuntu and
71		the larger free software community
72
73		- generalised the types of work that Ubuntu community members do
74
75		- changed the reference from members to community members (membership
76	12	didn't exist when the CoC was written)
77	5
78		In the section on ''When we disagree'', we:
79
80		- mentioned governance bodies other than the CC
81
82		- we emphasized that working separately should only happen when
83		differences are dramatic
84
85		In the section on ''When you are unsure'', we :
86
87		- have changed the reference to technical mailing lists to one that
88		incorporates of community venues within Ubuntu.
89
90		- removed the joking reference to SABDFL (there's nothing funny about
91		the SABDFL)
92
93		In the section on ''Step down considerately.'', we:
94
95		- changed the reference from "Developers" to "Members"