Three month suspension for a Core Developer

I don’t think the discussion is being productive, so let me try to make the most objective summary I can make regarding the issue.

If I understand everything correctly:

  • The person in question had interactions that were flagged by the CoC WG
  • The situation was reported by the CoC WG to the SC
  • The SC engaged with the person in question in an attempt to correct the behavior
  • The person in question did not receive the SC’s feedback positively (*1 see quote below)
  • The person in question had further interactions that were flagged by the CoC WG
  • This was again reported by the CoC WG to the SC
  • The SC issued a 3-month suspension

This all seems perfectly reasonable to me, and I think most people will agree.

The problem here seems to come from many believing the CoC WG’s impression wasn’t warranted, and then, similarly, the actions taken by the SC, as the enforcer in this situation, were also not warranted.

I understand the sentiment, I don’t recall seeing any particularly egregious message from Tim, nor do I recall seeing any similarly bad interaction involving Tim. That said, this does not in any way prove the absence of such.
Pointing out your lack of recollection of any problematic interactions does nothing to negate their existence, so I really do not think there’s anything productive to be done there.

Ultimately, there are two entities here we must place some trust to make sure that processes such as this one are handled correctly (which is highly subjective, and based on personal opinions and morals) — the CoC WG, and the SC.
Both of these entities are community-selected, the SC as a direct election between the Core Developers, and the CoC WG as an entity managed by the PSF board, which is elected by the community. If you lack trust in either of these entities, I think the most productive thing you can do is get involved more in the community — this can be something like starting or participating in community discussions around improving of the CoC documentation (with clarifications, examples, etc.), or even by putting yourself on the ballot for the SC or PSF board.

Personally, based on the people I know that are a part of the CoC WG, and my previous interactions with the CoC WG, I trust them to make the correct judgement on this situation, and the same goes for the SC.

So, I think it would be better if we tried to move from scrutinizing our collective recollections of events, and instead point that energy into something actually productive like discussing and contributing to improvements of the CoC documentation.


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