We: Look these concerns about harassment!

You: That's not so important, no one gets harassed here

We: look here, and here. This stuff.

You: Nah that doesn't happen to us, can't reproduce.

We: We really don't like that this happens, and we've put a lot of emotional labour into this project, we want to make it work!

You: Did you add code? No? Fork it! Bye Felicia!

We: OK! We're Forking it!

You: OMG FORKING IS SO FUCKING HOSTILE HOW DARE YOU!?

If Forking is Hostile, The Act of Telling someone to #ForkOff is equally hostile.

So. You know.

Gargamel asked us to #ForkOff, and here we are.

And if anyone needs receipts:

https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/100137040814277612

I struggled a lot with if I should in any way lead a charge for a fork, for governance.

I had just not had my contract renewed. It would seem petty and disruptive if I encouraged a fork.

So I bit my tongue, for the past 3 weeks.

I didn't want to rock the boat, I didn't want to be antagonistic. I didn't want to be "that person".

Eugen could manage this himself, he said so, I was willing to give him a chance.

@maloki The word "governance" is key. Forking the software would be pointless without establishing the social infrastructure first. And that means all the boring-but-essential stuff: bylaws, a code of conduct, how to handle RFCs, something like a Board of Directors, etc. Otherwise, it's just Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

@bstacey @maloki Exactly this. It's hard to take "go and fork it" responses to any disagreement as good faith. People who say that aren't saying it because they sincerely think that it will lead to success. They're saying it to make you go away.

@abbenm @bstacey @maloki I haven't seen any, but I accept there may people who say "fork it" and mean "shut up". But I wonder if these is a cultural misunderstanding here? Since the popularization of #Git, forking has become normalized in #PeerProduction. It's seen as a way to take energy that is at risk of being wasted on butting heads, and redirect it into increasing diversity in our software. When we fork, we create proofs-of-concept, rather than argue in circles.

@abbenm @bstacey @maloki
if respectful persuasion fails, the available options are a) try to force a founder/ "benevolent dictator" to make changes they don't want to make, and b) get together everyone that wants those changes, and create a new project with those changes. Given those choices, b) actually seems like the much less hostile option, and the one most likely to succeed, and least likely to fester and stress out everyone involved

@strypey I actually ended up reflecting a little bit on this.

I think we've had a lot of instances when the vulnerable group who reside here on mastodon have gotten very vocal about their needs to hopefully change the mind of the Benevolent Dictator, because making it a big thing was the only way to make it happen.

And yes, that naturally seems like it's "just a very vocal minority" (minorities are vulnerable, so that makes sense).