Attack Things not People
Alex Faaborg
Constant and intense critique is one of the reasons we build great
products. It’s harder to fall into group think if there is always a healthy
amount of dissent. It’s harder to make mistakes when every facet of every
decision is being ruthlessly analyzed by a large and diverse group of
people. We want to encourage vibrant debate inside of the Mozilla
community. We want you to disagree with us, and we want you to effectively
argue your case. However, while engaging in these debates, it’s critical
that people follow one simple rule: Attack Things not People.
Examples of things include: interfaces, algorithms, processes, schedules,
etc. Examples of people include: developers, designers, users, etc.
For instance, acceptable forms of communication would include:
"I think this is a bad idea for the following reasons..."
"This change needs to be removed for the following reasons..."
"This change fails to account for some important use cases..."
"I don't understand the logic behind favoring A over B..."
"The data used to make decision N is flawed because..."
"The principal used to make decision N is flawed because..."
Unacceptable forms of communication include:
"I think developer/designer/director N should be fired"
"People who think A is better than B are idiots"
"The only thing [group of people N] are good at is [disparaging thing]"
"If _YOU_ don't [thing], then _I_ am going to [action to be taken by angry
commenter]"
"Why are we just catering to the users who are stupid?"
"The only way to solve that problem is to reduce the number of stupid users"
Overall it's a pretty simply rule, it isn't about the veracity of the
critique but rather the sentience of the target.
Don't be a jerk.
-Alex
Petter Andersson
Don't disregard opinions presented here so easy. Right now it's pretty
much "we're not a democracy" and LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
revolution inevitable." -- John F. Kennedy, 1962
Robert Kaiser
> Don't disregard opinions presented here so easy. Right now it's pretty
> much "we're not a democracy" and LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU
Right, that's what I hear from most people criticizing changes in
Mozilla around here.
Robert Kaiser
--
Note that any statements of mine - no matter how passionate - are never
meant to be offensive but very often as food for thought or possible
arguments that we as a community should think about. And most of the
time, I even appreciate irony and fun! :)