From ff4f98619f602a09f973f77e0d4caa080c674d8d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: aeoth Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:48:36 +1100 Subject: [PATCH 1/3] tweaking from brendans email --- _posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 54 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md diff --git a/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md b/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3c1ae7 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: An etiquette guide for developers +description: Because people who write code are strange creatures... +date: 2012-01-30 +comments: true +--- + +After a few weeks of doing Code52 work and dealing with a JabbR channel that is constantly overflowing we thought we would share some rules to keep in mind when working with other developers. It's a *shame* that we have to state some of these rules, but there have been recurring incidents. + +## Be considerate of others + +People come from a wide variety of backgrounds - culturally, socioeconmically and even places where they speak a language other than English and online communications all too often drop the context of a message - you typically only have text to work with (or animated gifs if you're [someone](http://twitter.com/johnbristowe) special). Choose your words carefully, as ambiguity can easily be misconstrued. Sometimes the medium is deliberately constrained to be concise (and yes, I do enjoy that side of Twitter) but **when a serious conversation [goes south](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/go+south), resolve it using another channel instead of prolonging it**. The phrase "take it offline" may make you sound like a bit of a clown, but in this case it is seriously valuable for all involved. + +And putting a smiley face at the end of a message can in fact [make things worse.](http://mrtiedt.blogspot.com/2011/12/true-reflection.html) + +## Somebody think of the children + +Yes, we have high school students helping us out and keen to learn. Others are able to make time for Code52 at work or when they're at home with their own children about. Keep the language civil, and any images or videos you link to in commit notes, Jabbr or other ways you interact with Code52. + +## Be constructive + +People take great pride in their code. They may have spent hours on a specific problem before coming to a solution. Or they may be completely stumped and not sure where to start. Does that make them a bad person? Of course not. + +It is easy to tear people down and make them feel inferior (even though it is rarely the intent). In Australia we even have a saying for a specific type of this behaviour - [tall poppy syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome). Perhaps this is a side-effect of the ease with which anonymity on the internet makes conversations impersonal - that's a topic for another day. + +Why does it have to be like that? Why not provide a fellow developer with *useful* feedback and help them on the path to being more awesome? + +## Go easy on the kool aid + +> Define. "*Drinking the Kool-Aid*". Drinking the Kool-Aid" is a metaphor that refers to a person or group's unquestioning belief in an ideology, argument, or philosophy without critical examination. + +> [src](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid) + +Developers are usually really, really enthusiastic. Who can blame them when a new day brings sunshine and rainbows and shiny new things to play with? And new discoveries must be shared with the world, as soon as possible. However, when there is work to be done and having conversations sidetracked by unrelated remarks like *"You should have used X technology, it'd be so epic"* or *"Why did you choose Y technology? Whose idea was that?"* gets in the way. + +We will *not* be tolerating any more comments such as (and this is an actual example) "*I saw [XYZ tech], and I threw up in my mouth*". If you don't like XYZ Tech, that's fine, provide an objective reasoning why we should be using *something else that actually exists*. + + +## Code speaks louder than words + + * talking the talk is easy + * +1 is easy + * Building something is not hard + * Submitting pull requests is not hard + + +## Closing + +Got something to add? Leave a comment. + +And lastly, an XKCD comic to wrap this up: + +![](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png) \ No newline at end of file From 7bd865d9915560f47cfb9ae5202584b181979c1b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brendan Forster Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:54:21 +1100 Subject: [PATCH 2/3] Edits to "Be Considerate" section --- _posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md | 4 +++- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md b/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md index b3c1ae7..78e7584 100644 --- a/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md +++ b/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md @@ -10,7 +10,9 @@ After a few weeks of doing Code52 work and dealing with a JabbR channel that is ## Be considerate of others -People come from a wide variety of backgrounds - culturally, socioeconmically and even places where they speak a language other than English and online communications all too often drop the context of a message - you typically only have text to work with (or animated gifs if you're [someone](http://twitter.com/johnbristowe) special). Choose your words carefully, as ambiguity can easily be misconstrued. Sometimes the medium is deliberately constrained to be concise (and yes, I do enjoy that side of Twitter) but **when a serious conversation [goes south](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/go+south), resolve it using another channel instead of prolonging it**. The phrase "take it offline" may make you sound like a bit of a clown, but in this case it is seriously valuable for all involved. +People come from a wide variety of backgrounds - culturally, socioeconmically and even places where they speak a language other than English. Online communications all too often lose the context associated with a message - as you typically only have text to work with (or animated gifs if you're [someone](http://twitter.com/johnbristowe) special). Choose your words carefully, as ambiguity can easily be misconstrued. Sometimes the medium is deliberately constrained to be concise (and yes, I do enjoy that side of Twitter). + +**When a serious conversation [goes south](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/go+south), resolve it using a more appropriate channel instead of prolonging it**. The phrase "take it offline" may make you sound like a bit of a clown, but in this case it is seriously valuable for all involved. And putting a smiley face at the end of a message can in fact [make things worse.](http://mrtiedt.blogspot.com/2011/12/true-reflection.html) From 33a9aa9ff5fce9ade69510af6a82ad26dacd6951 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Jenkins Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:02:42 +1100 Subject: [PATCH 3/3] Removed unneeded section --- _posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md | 9 --------- 1 file changed, 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md b/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md index 78e7584..0770595 100644 --- a/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md +++ b/_posts/2012-01-30-etiquette.md @@ -38,15 +38,6 @@ Developers are usually really, really enthusiastic. Who can blame them when a ne We will *not* be tolerating any more comments such as (and this is an actual example) "*I saw [XYZ tech], and I threw up in my mouth*". If you don't like XYZ Tech, that's fine, provide an objective reasoning why we should be using *something else that actually exists*. - -## Code speaks louder than words - - * talking the talk is easy - * +1 is easy - * Building something is not hard - * Submitting pull requests is not hard - - ## Closing Got something to add? Leave a comment.