Technical ability/skill should be specifically enumerated

[apxltd]

Conferences should be a place where attendees of all skill/ability levels can feel comfortable learning and participating. They are not.

The common practice of lambasting newbies for their solutions, or labeling those who are less skilled/experienced as idiots, morons, stupid, etc., not only discourages these folks from trying to learn or participate, but creates a hostile environment for the “non-elite” members of the community.

To address this gap in the CoC, "technical ability/skill" should be added as a specifically-enumerated type of harassment to avoid. This should be either before or after “technology choices”, because the term “technology choices” is not nearly covering enough, and should be kept separate anyway.

I can submit the pull request, but I see several have not been accepted (and have no discussion).

[remy]

I'm only commenting on the PRs that haven't been merged: a good number are translations waiting for a +1 from another native speaker. There's also a decent amount that change a single word here or there and whilst that's great, I think it might be useful to fork this CoC and use the language that suits the conference.

I think this really points out that the one big thing that's missing from this repo that this CoC is a merely a starting point and even a template for your own CoCs.

I hope that explains (at least a bit).

[apxltd]

Since very few conferences will tweak this, and the others look towards this project as guidance for how to create a good environment for their own communities, this project has become the "golden standard" for CoC. Whether or not that was the goal, that's what it is now.

I can't even count the number of times that I’ve seen "certain, unskilled developers, ::wink-wink::" used as a euphemism for females and Asians. By not including ability/skill-based harassment in the standard, you may as well just give a free pass for that using this type of language.

Moreover, this creates a hostile environment for those trying to learn (who, by the way, are often female and Asian). This is one of the many challenges we need to overcome to be more inclusive and less monoculture. Each conference could somehow learn this on their own through surveys, etc... or we could simply update the golden standard, and let the conferences decide which types of conduct/harassment are ok, and which aren't.

Shouldn't this be part of the "starting point and template" for a CoC?

[katsel]

I am a member of a minority group.
In my personal experience, discrimination because of actual technical skill/ability is is rather unlikely to happen. Assessing the skill/ability level of a person requires talking to them, having an in-depth conversation, and looking at their work.
The thing is: People with prejudices don't do that. They don't want to get to know one's actual skill level. They simply discriminate based on outward appearance.

Being a member of a minority in tech, and being visible is such, one is ascribed a lower skill/ability level by members of majority groups. This is a part of the discrimination that's happening.
For example, people automatically assume that a woman's or nonbinary person's tech skill level must be lower than their own. No questions asked.

So, what we are perceiving as discrimination based on skills/abilities, is actually a secondary effect of sexist/racist/... prejudices people already have.

I still think it's a good idea to add "don't discriminate people based on ability/skill" to a code of conduct. It may give members of minority groups more confidence and help tackle feelings of inferiority and self-doubt.

I would still suggest to add "Don't make assumptions on people's skills/abilities based on their outward appearance" as it would be a very good way to adress the underlying issue in my opinion.

[md9931852945]

I would still suggest to add "Don't make assumptions on people's skills/abilities based on their outward appearance" as it would be a very good way to adress the underlying issue in my opinion.