Remember all the pre-#34c3 shitstorm about the Wau Holland assembly declaring their space a "CoC-free zone"?
Today they had a really constructive talk with queer activists, moderated by the Awareness Team.
The result? A common declaration (see http://www.wauland.de/de/index.php) and working together in the future.
This is congress culture at its best: *communication* between groups of different ideologies that leads to a common understanding of problems, and cooperation.
@natanji
What are argument for a CoC ?
@marsxyz
Mainly transparency. It makes it clear which behavior is okay and which isn't - but without the fuzziness and subjectivity of formulations such as "be excellent to each other" that can be interpreted either way.
Also, it defines clear processes for handling some situations. So the people who e.g. want to report something already know what they can expect.
Lastly, it allows to hold organisators/deciders accountable to their own rules.
@marsxyz Without a CoC, some people will believe behavior X is okay and others will believe it isn't - creating conflict.
Without a CoC, people need to have trust in complete strangers to handle their case well, which isn't realistic and can lead to bad situations. For instance, some CoCs define that if you report harassment or violence, the alleged abuser will NOT be notified about this (or who made the complaint) unless the complaining party gives explicit permission.
@marsxyz This obviously makes it dangerous to report abuse, since an abuser can use this information to get back at the person who reported them. A clearly defined process gives reporters a guarantee of safety from this kind of information leak.
Lastly, without a CoC one often gets an event that is in essence a benevolent dictatorship of some few orga people. You often don't even get told which person(s) called the shots on a decision. So no accountability.
@marsxyz I understand that there are many upsides to having a benevolent dictatorship. I don't say this as a way of personal mistrust in a specific orga, especially not the #34c3 orga.
But we do need to make transparent if it IS a dictatorship, and if we as a community want this kind of governing model or something different. A CoC doesn't mean we need to have a different model, but just that we openly and transparently state which model we use.