I’m self-nominating for election to the 2025 Python Steering Council.
I have been a core-developer since Python 3.4, and successfully contributed three PEPs (409, 435, and 461).
I have been a moderator for roughly a decade for various PSF spaces, including Python List, Core-Mentorship, and Python Development (when it was a mailing list).
I believe my experience in user support and CoC enforcement will be a valuable addition to the next Steering Council.
My thanks to @gpshead for his encouragement to run.
Hi Ethan, some of us have not been participating in the mailing lists as long as you have.
From recent years, I’m aware of some of the CoC enforcement actions taken by the current SC and previous SC members. Would you mind sharing your experiences and examples of how you handle CoC enforcement in those spaces?
Well, the experiences are typically stressful. The usual pattern:
somebody points out a problem
research posts
make decision
If I disagree with the original complaint, I’ll reach out and explain why (rarely happens). Otherwise:
issue public warning
monitor posts for a few days
And hopefully that’s the end of it. If the behavior doesn’t change, or if it was egregious to begin with, then, after consulting with other moderators, I’ll issue a suspension (typically three months for first offense).
The two experiences that stand out most in my mind are Steven D’Aprano and Marco Sulla.
About the time that Guido resigned as BDFL, I had had to suspend a user on Python List, and Steven attacked me for it. As I commented at the time, I felt like I was running for political office to have been slandered so badly. I consulted with @brettcannon and others at the time to make sure I was not misreading Steven’s post, and everyone agreed it was outrageous. A three-month suspension followed.
A couple years later, Marco Sulla became a problem. Here’s my suspension notice:
On Tue, 24 Aug 2021 at 02:58 on Python-Dev, Ethan Furman wrote:
After reviewing the “Problems with dict subclassing performance” thread, I am suspending Marco Sulla from Python-Dev for a period of three months. His behavior became blatantly inappropriate, and rather than apologize he continued taunting those that were trying to help him.
Marco took exception to Steven D’Aprano’s post, but I see nothing in Steven’s post in either style or substance that warrants any moderator attention.
I will note that I am not perfect, as evidenced by being quite rude to Guido at one point – I did apologize for that, and will apologize in the future when I am wrong.
As I detailed on my blog, it was over a month after Ethan posted his dissent to my ban announcement before I remember why I recognized his name.
I was the sole active admin for the python-dev mailing list for many years, and viewed my job as overwhelmingly to keep spam from reaching the list. And I was good at that .
But when it became clear that the community wanted more in the way of moderating speech, I offered to give up the job if someone else would step up.
Ethan did, and became python-dev’s new admin (appointed by the SC, not by me).
And IMO he did a very good job of it, handing out bans when warranted, in a fair-minded and respectful way. He made python-dev a better place.
So I’ll approve of Ethan in this vote, for reasonableness, fairness, civility, and courage.
He’s also no slouch at technical issues I’d like to see him on the SC even if the SC were out of the OoC enforcement business.
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