@tim.one confirmed with @DavidMertz that this is indeed what he meant.
It’s been a busy few weeks for the moderators here:
Due to the high number of flags on David’s 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 don’t personally know David and haven’t worked with him.)
If you have any questions, please reach out directly to @moderators.