"I disagree with making "diversity" a goal. If the developers in a specific free software project do not include demographic D, I don't think that the lack of them as a problem that requires action; there is no need to scramble desperately to recruit some Ds. Rather, the problem is that if we make demographic D feel unwelcome, we lose out on possible contributors. And very likely also others that are not in demographic D."
- #RichardStallman
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2018-10/msg00001.html
"In the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines announcement, RMS explicitly states that diversity is not a goal of his."
- @emacsen
https://blog.emacsen.net/blog/2018/10/19/gkcg-is-bad/
If you look at the whole quote, this totally misrepresents what Stallman is saying, which is about diversity within "a specific free software project". In other words, if a project has one developer, who happens to be a straight, white man, nothing is gained by trying to shoehorn gay, POC, or female developers into that project.
@emacsen The #CodeOfConduct approach is better than ignoring the problem of exclusion altogether. But it doesn't solve the underlying problem of exclusion, it just changes the location and mechanics of the exclusion barrier. I've never seen CoCs as more than a stopgap, and I've long argued for a '#WelcomingSpaces' approach, as a replacement for Safer Spaces Policing. I think the Kind Communication Guidelines are a great contribution by Stallman, perhaps his most important one since the #GNU GPL.
@humanetech thanks for explicitly linking. They are also linked in the blog piece by @emacsen that I as responding to.
@strypey @emacsen I read the blog post with interest but it's true that I might not have read the Guidelines referred to were it not for this constructive discussion of them. I was actually very impressed. The text is easy to read, explicit where it ought to be explicit, and takes on a lot of the problems that do indeed put people off. My background is in alternative education. This text and advice is better than any of those I came across in x years of working in progressive hippie circles.
@strypey
Thanks. Reference for others: here are Stallman's #gnu "Kind Communication Guidelines"
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/kind-communication.html
@emacsen