We: Look these concerns about harassment!

You: That's not so important, no one gets harassed here

We: look here, and here. This stuff.

You: Nah that doesn't happen to us, can't reproduce.

We: We really don't like that this happens, and we've put a lot of emotional labour into this project, we want to make it work!

You: Did you add code? No? Fork it! Bye Felicia!

We: OK! We're Forking it!

You: OMG FORKING IS SO FUCKING HOSTILE HOW DARE YOU!?

If Forking is Hostile, The Act of Telling someone to #ForkOff is equally hostile.

So. You know.

Gargamel asked us to #ForkOff, and here we are.

And if anyone needs receipts:

https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/100137040814277612

I struggled a lot with if I should in any way lead a charge for a fork, for governance.

I had just not had my contract renewed. It would seem petty and disruptive if I encouraged a fork.

So I bit my tongue, for the past 3 weeks.

I didn't want to rock the boat, I didn't want to be antagonistic. I didn't want to be "that person".

Eugen could manage this himself, he said so, I was willing to give him a chance.

@maloki The word "governance" is key. Forking the software would be pointless without establishing the social infrastructure first. And that means all the boring-but-essential stuff: bylaws, a code of conduct, how to handle RFCs, something like a Board of Directors, etc. Otherwise, it's just Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

@maloki ... I've been part of projects that failed for lacking such things, and I've seen organizations stumble because the one guy in the very middle has to wear too many different hats and becomes the bottleneck to progress. I don't have much experience with the *fixing* of such problems, sad to say.