Code of Conduct, Trolls, and Thankless Jobs [was Re: Python Unicode handling wins again -- mostly]

[Ned Batchelder]

On 12/2/13 4:25 PM, Ethan Furman wrote:
> On 12/02/2013 12:45 PM, Mark Lawrence wrote:
>> On 02/12/2013 20:26, Terry Reedy wrote:
>>> On 12/2/2013 10:45 AM, Mark Lawrence wrote:
>>>
>>>> the worst loser in the world
>>>
>>> Mark, I consider your continual direct personal attacks on other posters
>>> to be a violation of the PSF Code of Conduct, which *does* apply to
>>> python-list. Please stop.
>>
>> The attacks that "Joseph McCarthy" has been launching on the core
>> developers for the last 15 months are in my view now
>> perfectly acceptable.  This is excellent news.  Everybody can now say
>> what they like about the core developers and
>> there's no comeback.
>>
>> You can also stuff the code of conduct, it's quite clearly only
>> brought into play when it suits.  Never, ever aim it at
>> somebody who goes out of their way to stir things up, always target it
>> at the people who fight back *IS THE RULE HERE*.
>
> Mark,  I sympathize with your feelings.  jmf is certainly a troll, and
> it doesn't feel like anything has been, or is being, done about that
> situation (or for that matter, the help vampire situation... although I
> haven't seen any threads from that one lately -- did he give up, or has
> he been moderated away?).  However, I would suggest that when you are
> venting, you write the email and then just delete it.  I personally
> don't mind the light and humorous posts, but when the name-calling
> starts it makes the list an unfriendly place to be.  And, to be clear,
> the coddling of trolls and help-vampires also makes the list an
> unfriendly place to be.
>
> Terry, would it be appropriate to share some of what the moderators do
> do for us on this list and the others?  And what does the Code of
> Conduct have to say about trolls and help-vampires?
>
> --
> ~Ethan~

We have pointed help-vampires at the Code of Conduct: 
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2013-November/660343.html

He's also banned from the mailing list, which reduces the number of 
people who see his questions, and helps keep threads from exploding. For 
example, this message to the newsgroup 
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.python/fdhF_Fr4fX0/9B0iK8jGigkJ (sorry 
for the groups link, didn't know how else to link to a post) doesn't 
appear at all in the mailing list, and therefore, in gmane.

But the mailing list ban isn't why you aren't seeing posts from him: he 
hasn't posted again since that linked message, on Nov 21.

I think he's not posting in part because we adopted a uniform stance of 
politely refusing to answer his questions, or even completely ignoring 
his questions.

Of course, he could be back at any time.  I hope we'll continue to 
present a calm unified front.

--Ned.