Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-project (292 mails)

[Jos Poortvliet <jos@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2011-05-10 jdd wrote:
> Le 10/05/2011 16:18, Jos Poortvliet a écrit :
> > If an offence is perceived and a complaint comes in, we'll talk to
> > the offender and offended.
>
> seems very unpractical;... the offender wont wait for you and in some
> hundred of people, it may be difficult to find him again.
>
> What you describe is only possible if some one get drunk and we don't
> need policy to forgive these acts.
>
> Reading your references, I mostly got the feeling that the problem
> was more collective than individual (Example of making some
> interviews of men as being women, etc).

Well, let's be honest, this is very much about how we're being seen. It 
is about giving a signal that we want our conference to be a safe place 
for everyone.

We haven't had issues in the past and I don't expect those but it 
doesn't hurt to tell potential visitors that we care about these things 
and will, if needed, take steps to ensure their psychological safety.

> The image problem is also more difficult. May I have a pin up on my
> T-Shirt? May I have a "fuck emacs" T-Shirt? Or may be simply "make
> love, not war"?
>
> such things are pretty common, and I really think an accumulation on
> even softer sexual jokes can make women uncomfortable
>
> asking people to wear openSUSE T-Shirt makes this highly improbable
>
> :-), it's the best way to be neutral

Well, it is a bit over the top, but you are right in that it is an 
accumulation thing. That's why we have the policy and ask people to be 
careful with such sayings. make love, not war should be OK but fuck 
emacs shouldn't be on everyone's shirt. And yes, it will be a grey thing 
and not be easy, see the LCA situation which was highly controversial as 
it was very hard to determine if a line was crossed or not. But I prefer 
to err on the cautious side there.

> > The arbiter will be the conference organization (including me, as I
> > have some of the background to help with this).
>
> good. How many women in the organisation team?

We're looking for people to help with this, including some SUSE girls 
from HR.

> I'm not at all against you and your policy. I only say that a good
> policy have to rely on well defined actions. speaking and writing is
> not enough.

True, but don't worry, we'll take actions where needed. As I said, it IS 
about giving a signal but we will find someone who will be a central 
contact person etc etc and take actions where needed.

> jdd