oofdere/creators-code

A minimal alternative for other codes of conduct I have seen.

title	author	date
Creator's Code	Christine Dodrill	2018-09-17

Creator's Code

I feel there is a large problem in the industry I have found myself in. There is, unfortunately, a need for codes of behavioral conduct to help arrange and align collaboration across so many cultural and ideological barriers, as well as technological and understanding-based barriers. There are so many barriers that it becomes difficult for people from different backgrounds to get integrated into the flow of the project or to maintain people due to the behavior of others.

I seek to change this by offering what I think to be a minimalist alternative grounded in a core of humility, appreciation, valor, forgiveness, understanding, and compassion. Humility for knowing that your own way is not always the correct one, and that others may have had a helpful background. Appreciation for those that show up, their contributions, and the lives that we all enrich with our work. Valor, or the courage to speak up against things that are out of alignment with the whole. Forgiveness, because people change and it is not fair to let their past experiences sour things too much. Understanding is the key to our groups, the knowledge of how complicated systems interact and how to explain it to people less familiar with them. Compassion for others' hardships, even the ones we cannot as easily comprehend.

I am basing this not on any world religion, but on a core I feel is conducive to human interrelation as adults who just want to create software. This mainly started as a reaction to seeing so many other projects adopt codes of conduct that enables busybodies to override decision-making processes in open source communities. I am not comfortable with more access to patterns of numbers being used as a means of leverage by people who otherwise have no stake in the project. If this adds any factor to my argument, I personally am transgender. I normally don't mention it because for the 99% of real-world cases it is not relevant. It is mostly relevant when dealing with my doctor.

In meditation, it is often useful to lead a session with a statement of intention. This statement helps set the tone for the session and can sometimes help as a guide to go back to when you feel you have gone astray. I want the Creator's Code to be such a statement of intention. I want it to focus the creations and using them to enrich their creators as well as others who just happen to read its code, not to mention the end users and their users who don't even know or care about our role in their life. Our creations serve them too.

We create things that let people create things for other people to enjoy.

I hope this code of conduct helps to serve as a minimalist alternative to others. I do not want anyone to push this onto anyone. Making a decision to use a code such as the Creator's Code must be a conscious and intentional decision. Forcing this kind of thing on anyone is the worst possible way to introduce it. That will make people resist more violently than they would have if you introduced it peacefully.

Be well, creators. Be well and just create.