Re: Guix (and Guile's) promise, and how to (hopefully) get there

[indieterminacy <indieterminacy@libre.brussels>]

Hello Ekaitz,

On 2024-10-27 02:01, Ekaitz Zarraga wrote:
> Hi Juliana,
> 
> I like some of the points you do here: we should encourage committers 
> to review patches, and give commit access to those that are focused on 
> that.
> 
> On the other hand, I disagree with your message about GNU and the FSF.
> 
> First, I don't think the sentiment you describe about GNU and the FSF 
> is universal. It's probably biased by the people you interact with and 
> the country you live in. That's not something for me to criticize,  you 
> have your views and they are valid, the problem with your argument is 
> the same I find with the "let's use a Git forge, that'll give use many 
> new contributors!".
> 
> It's just really hard to measure.
> ...

I think a useful measurement of any community is the diversity within 
it.

One of the lessons I had in my local hackerspace was that the lack of 
diversity in it meant that there were less social safeguards. Over time 
the range of voices deteriorated, which meant it was harder for me to 
protect against bad behaviour - let alone to have protections myself 
once a minority there ran out of other people to bully and belittle.

While my own exiting was not quiet, the silence of others staying away 
or avoiding can be real loud. From (eventually!) noticing that genders 
and behaviours were better represented in other hackerspaces, its 
evident that people are capable of operating away from clusters which 
appear unwelcoming or behave unwelcoming.

During one hackerspace conference at another location, the delight at 
seeing better gender representation to an old friend was met with a 
comment about the toxicity at the place I frequented. Repeating that 
delight to a fellow board member at min, I was meant with a dead eyed 
look -- ultimately indicitive of the true antagonistic behaviour of this 
individual.

Its really pleased me to see increasing diversity among the attendees of 
Fosdem and Offdem in Brussels across the years (which I ascribe not only 
regarding the mainstreaming of IT but the enabling behaviours of 
technologies such as the Fediverse). Its not a question of assaging 
guilt but (given the spread of talent and potential that exists across 
people) that libre technologies deserve greater access to people capable 
of making small and significant improvements to the world.

Its not for me to wade into the particulars about concerns about GNU as 
a project of humans doing things together.
However, it is a point of concern where there is such a volume of people 
with strong reservations about themseves or others operating in a safe 
or respectful way. It would of course be nice that such things are 
unfounded, though from afar Im not confident any of that has been well 
handled. It all feels very limiting.

Ultimately, its 2024. If its the case that a community group is still 
resembling the configuration of a Steven Levy history of MIT hackers 
then its time for either more significant internal reforms or 
alternative institutions.

Kind regards,


Jonathan