Whereas a ballot measure currently being voted will most likely pass, and will make removal of Fellows trivially easy; and whereas several white, male, cishet, high-income, developed world, members of the Code of Conduct Working Group have expressed open and direct hostility to me, my opposition to ballot measure 3, to any open discussion of best governance procedures of the PSF; and whereas many of these same people have directly shut down meaningful discussion of governance issue on discuss.python.org, and on various Python mailing lists, I wish to convert my PSF Fellowship to Emeritus status, effective immediately (before I am actually kicked out for polite expression of dissenting opinions).
This request in no way reflects any intention to become less involved in the Python community. I fully intend to continue to write books and articles about Python. To give keynote and technical talks to Python conferences around the worldâmany specifically promoting diversity and inclusion. To promote the Python programming language among progressive and labor organizations. To perform training in scientific and numeric Python, and in data science/machine learning Python tools. To contribute to open source projects in the Python ecosystem. And especially to promote equality, fairness, and social justice in Python and other communities.
I simply believe that that honor that was formerly attached to becoming a Fellow of the Foundation has been stripped of good will or honor by those intent on exercise of arbitrary self-aggrandizement and grandstanding.
Such is not an appropriate role for me to participate in or endorse.
Thank you!
David Quintyn Mertz, Ph.D.,
Former Vice-Chair of the Python Software Foundation
Former Chair of Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
Co-author of Python Code of Conduct
Iâm Georgi here, and this is the first time I am writing on Discourse. I appreciate your contributions to the Python community and respect your liberty to voice your opinions. I respect your choice and totally understand if you disagree with to one of the by-laws. However, I noticed that youâve signed off as the former Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.
As a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Workgroup and one of the current board members, Iâve been on the workgroup since it was chartered in November 2020. To my knowledge, Marlene Mhangami has always chaired the workgroup and continues to do so. I also donât recall meeting you in any of our meetings. The list of the D&I WG members can be found here: DiversityandInclusionWG - PSF Wiki.
Perhaps you are referring to a different foundation? If so, I would appreciate it if you could clarify the title youâve signed off with.
Due to the high number of flags on Davidâs posts, the moderators wanted to ensure this high profile case will be decided by a wider consensus. Therefore, we reached out to the Code of Conduct Working Group for a recommendation.
The COC WG currently consists of 12 members with 50% identifying as women. The members represent various ethnic, cultural, economical, and religious backgrounds. This provides the working group with excellent representation of differing viewpoints.
The COC WG responded with the following recommendation that we implemented:
The COC WG recommends the indefinite suspension of David Mertz on Discourse due to a pattern of disruptive behavior. In particular, the user showed repeated violations of the following behaviors expected by the Code of Conduct:
Acknowledging time and effort, violating this in particular throughin attacks on the forum staff, the COC WG, the PSF in general, and community members;
Gracefully accepting constructive criticism, violating this in particular byin explicit voicing of a lack of trust against moderator actions like his posts getting hidden and aas well as lack of trust in the current state of the Code of Conduct and the COC WG;
Showing empathy towards other community members, violating this in particular by defending the use of a derogatory term used against women, and dismissing protests against usage of the termit could be offensive despite multiple flags from community members identifying as women;
Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences, violating this in particular when refusing to accept different opinions on the matter of PSF bylaws change.
(For full disclosure, Brett Cannon (who is both a moderator here and a member of the COC WG) abstained from voting on the matter to avoid bias from his personal interactions with David. I am also both a moderator and a member of the COC WG but I donât personally know David and havenât worked with him.)
If you have any questions, please reach out directly to @moderators.
