The Signpost
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25 April 2021

From the editor
A change is gonna come
Disinformation report
Paid editing by a former head of state's business enterprise
In the media
Fernando, governance, and rugby
Opinion
The (Universal) Code of Conduct
Op-Ed
A Little Fun Goes A Long Way
Changing the world
The reach of protest images on Wikipedia
Recent research
Quality of aquatic and anatomical articles
Traffic report
The verdict is guilty, guilty, guilty
News from Wiki Education
Encouraging professional physicists to engage in outreach on Wikipedia
 

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-04-25/From the editors


2021-04-25

The verdict is guilty, guilty, guilty

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga (March 28 to April 24), Benmite, FunksBrother (March 28 to April 3), TheConflux (April 4 to 10), Kingsif (April 4 to 17), and SSSB (April 18 to 24).

Death, canal obstructions, crimes being punished, and whatever people are watching (be it movies, series, or outlandish music videos). Lots of subjects got popular to make us forget about how 4 months in, 2021 is still held down by the goddamned pandemic and other 2020 annoyances.

Oh no, there goes Tokyo, go go Godzilla (March 28 to April 3)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 28 to April 3, 2021)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Godzilla vs. Kong 2,857,080 What sad days we're living in when one of those destruction-heavy blockbusters that should be watched on a big screen has to settle for what little theaters are open plus homes of HBO Max subscribers. (and too bad for those living in countries where either option isn't possible!) Anyways, the huge radioactive lizard from Japan and the giant gorilla from the US (who has a thing for blondes, though sadly there are none in this movie) end up duking it out in a movie that reviewers noted that for all its narrative shortcomings delivered on the flashy, fun monster fights.
2 Suez Canal 1,700,993 The canal connecting the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has been an important shipping route since its construction in the 19th century. Somebody got a really big boat stuck in the middle of it, costing the world economy billions of dollars for every day it was there.
3 Matt Gaetz 1,325,750 This congressman from Florida is having an interesting year. He defended the former President from his impeachment while criticizing Congresswoman and colleague Liz Cheney–going so far to holding a rally in her home state of Wyoming demanding that she must go through a primary. Now the representative is under investigation by the Justice Department on whether he misused campaign funds and engaged in sex trafficking according to a news article published by The New York Times on March 30th. His bizarre interview with Fox News television host Tucker Carlson that same night placed the blame on an extortionist, but also made Carlson look he was involved in his scandal too. Yikes...
4 Ever Given 1,044,559 One of the largest ships in the world, a behemoth capable of carrying over 20,000 containers, and that despite not being too big for the Suez (#2), still got trapped in it for 6 days.
5 Lil Nas X 936,561 Speak of the devil! Cowboy by day and glitchy Roblox avatar by night, the smaller Nas (X) took the world by storm this week with the release of his song "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)", the subtitle referencing a movie about two guys who become really good friends after enjoying a fun, family friendly summer together.

If the song's lyrics, which make a compelling case for Adam and Steve, weren’t enough to have internet denizens in a fiery rage, then the video, which starts with a love scene between Lil Nas X and X Himself and ends with him throwing that Beelzebutt all over Beelzebub after some FKA twigs-inspired pole dancing, might have brought their blood to a boiling point. And just to fan the flames a bit more, the handsome devil put out a pair of custom Nike shoes called "Satan Shoes" designed by streetwear company MSCHF, each adorned with a pentagram and filled with a single drop of human blood.

Of course, the outrage machine kicked into overdrive like clockwork, and since idle hands are the devil's playthings, a bunch of people with nothing better to do developed a bad case of Twitter fingers as they called Lil Nas X out of his name and screamed "What about the children?!", a question that they answered themselves with the film Jesus Camp. Meanwhile, Nike filed a lawsuit and won a temporary restraining order against MSCHF to ban the further selling of Satan Shoes.

6 Deaths in 2021 862,838 So, what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light
Or end in the dark
7 Zack Snyder's Justice League 791,426 Fans are now griping #RestoreTheSnyderverse given the extended cut of Justice League was released, but Warner Bros. won't continue it. Well, they should focus on how the studio makes worse decisions regarding the DC Extended Universe than that - just because Darkseid appears in a half a dozen scenes of this 4 hour movie, Warner cancelled a promising New Gods movie that would feature the famed DC villain.
8 Tina Turner 756,766 HBO premiered Tina, a documentary about the career of the musical legend once known as Anna Mae Bullock.
9 The Falcon and the Winter Soldier 714,705 Marvel's spy thriller continues, bringing back many characters that barely appeared from the movies: the guy who triggered the Avengers Civil War, the niece of Captain America's one true love, one of those Wakandan bald warriors...
10 April Fools' Day 655,869 Unlike last year, the day where people like to lie earned an entry, as people try to slowly remember old joys. One of the jokes this year was The Guardian announcing a "Suez II" (#2) would be built.

X Gon' Give It to Ya (April 4 to 10)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 4 to 10, 2021)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 DMX (rapper) 6,191,810 How sad that the rapper responsible for high-energy tracks such as "Party Up (Up in Here)" had a life that was far from uplifting. Dark Man X, born Earl Simmons, was repeatedly arrested, had to pay for 15 (!) child supports, filed three times for bankruptcy, and struggled with drug addiction, ultimately leading to an overdose that led to hospitalization, and one week in a vegetative state before dying of multiple organ failure at the age of 50.

Due to the amount of news coverage his death received compared to #2, it's perhaps slightly surprising that he topped the list, though the margin between the top two finishers this week is under 10%, substantially smaller than usual.

2 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 5,683,996 The British Royal Family appearing on this list and it's nothing to do with The Crown or Meghan? The Grand Old Duke of Edinburgh passed away on April 9, two months before his hundredth birthday. Born in Greece, in line to a few non-British royal families, Philip was the definition of duty for over 70 years; he put aside his naval career to become what one could unkindly term the world's most professional house-husband. He worked to make his wife's job as fruitful as possible while standing, literally, in her shadow for longer than most people are alive. Besides standing loyal to the crown, he was a keen pilot, equestrian, and patron of around 800 charities. He founded an award to encourage young people's personal development, completed by millions world-round, and perhaps represented one of the last truly British institutions. After stepping back in his old age, Philip spent his retirement at the family's Sandringham country estate but, to cut down on travel during pandemic lockdowns, returned to Windsor last year to keep the Queen company: consummate in his role to the end, this is where he died on Friday morning. We extend sympathy to all the people of the Commonwealth, all two-and-a-half billion of them touched (whether they like it or not) by Philip's endeavours to prevent the monarchy from becoming a practice in obsolescence by, among other things, embarking on countless (no, wait, over 22 thousand) official visits over the years.
3 Elizabeth II 2,933,732
4 Godzilla vs. Kong 1,510,445 In North America, movie theaters reopened on April 2. But this most recent installation of titans fighting was released digitally several days earlier and still attracted in-person, socially-distanced, crowds, showing the film industry to be alive and healthy after its little pandemic coma.
5 Charles Sobhraj 1,475,005 Sobhraj is a French serial killer recently profiled in a Netflix series (#20), in which he is portrayed by Tahar Rahim (pictured).
6 Charles, Prince of Wales 1,152,916 So this is him? Eldest son Charlie decided to forgo "stay local" pandemic orders to drive from ... somewhere in England ... to his parents' castle on the day his father (#2) died. He's now inherited the title Duke of Edinburgh, while brother Edward (#18) takes over the recently-deceased Duke's appointments.
7 Deaths in 2021 1,025,689 Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
8 Ernest Hemingway 1,018,728 Ken Burns made a PBS mini-series about the writer's life that aired across three nights this week, Hemingway.
9 Paul Ritter (actor) 941,048 The British have beloved character actors, too, and this one recently died. Possibly best-known for TV roles in Friday Night Dinner, Cold Feet and Chernobyl (which thankfully hasn't come back for a 1000th week or something on this list), he was also a Tony- and Olivier- nominated stage actor.
10 WrestleMania 37 810,868 I always wonder why wrestling articles get so many views...

The love that makes undaunted, the final sacrifice (April 11 to 17)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 11 to 17, 2021)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 2,703,385 While sometimes an insensitive figure (John Oliver joked Philip's death was "a tragedy if you don’t know a single thing about him", and had more words across the week), the Royal consort continues to get views following his death, specially as his military funeral was only held Saturday. And without a person who was already losing his life hanging around and getting more views (#5), this time Philip has the top spot.
2 Helen McCrory 2,566,138 One more British death, a Shakespearean actress who probably earned most mainstream recognition as Draco Malfoy's mother in Harry Potter (but also appeared in films such as Skyfall and Hugo, plus television work like Peaky Blinders), McCrory pulled a Chadwick, keeping her cancer diagnosis a secret to all but few and leaving her husband (#7) to reveal it after her death this week at the age of 52.
3 Elizabeth II 2,257,107 Her Majesty, widow of #1 and who always seems to find a way to return to this Report. In life, Philip was always two steps behind her, while now she fits in two places behind him.
4 WrestleMania 37 1,705,807 Professional wrestling's biggest event happened on 10-11 April in Tampa, this time even with an audience again as 25,675 attended each night at the Raymond James Stadium.
5 DMX (rapper) 1,465,080 The other famous person who died the same day of #1, a rapper who even inspired tributes from the film industry given DMX acted in a few action movies opposite Jet Li and Steven Seagal.
6 Vivek (actor) 1,189,676 Kollywood lost a very prolific actor/comedian, who upon his death at the age of 59 had worked in over 220 movies.
7 Damian Lewis 1,189,217 The husband of #2 and father of her two children, a fellow actor better known for starring in TV shows such as Band of Brothers, Homeland, and Billions.
8 Brenda Song 1,132,820 One of the many actresses who rose to fame through the Disney Channel announced the birth of her son, whose father is a former child star himself - Macaulay Culkin, whose late sister Dakota was homaged in the child's name. Her placement on the list suggests her fame isn't waning, despite the fact nobody knew she was pregnant.
9 Charles Sobhraj 1,124,116 Two people with the same first name, but very different backgrounds and reputations: one is an Asian serial killer who Netflix viewers are knowing through The Serpent (pictured is his portrayer there), and the other is a European aristocrat who is #1's oldest son (and thus the first in the line to succeed #3).
10 Charles, Prince of Wales 1,105,231
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 18 to 24, 2021)

Guilty verdict (April 18 to 24)

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Derek Chauvin 2,226,944 This disgraced policeman denied the charges of murder and manslaughter that resulted from him kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he asphyxiated. Everyone involved in his trial thought otherwise, and Chauvin was found guilty, with perhaps 40 years in prison up ahead for him.
2 Mortal Kombat (2021 film) 1,971,882 The ultraviolent fighting game series again is adapted for the big screen (though in the US, HBO Max subscribers can also watch it), and while getting mixed reviews is deemed Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger than the previous attempt.
3 Elizabeth II Featured Article 1.517.803
"Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
But she changes from day to day..."
4 European Super League 1,382,232 12 of the biggest football teams from England, Spain and Italy tried to form a league of their own. Backlash quickly ensued from fans and organizing bodies who deemed it a "power grab" for more money and control over the sport, and the idea was cancelled after just three days. JP Morgan even had to apologise for funding it.
5 The Falcon and the Winter Soldier 1,144,490 Sam Wilson has finally evolved from Falcon to Captain America (also known as "Flaptain", given "Captain Falcon" brings up fiery punches to mind), while one returning character seems to show her actress can't let go of some other role she played.
6 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1,064,047 Presumably, Buckingham Palace spent the last days of the Royal consort in a reenactment of Good Bye, Lenin!, afraid that Phillip would die from shock if he heard about the Meghan Markle interview.
7 Deaths in 2021 991,488 It's a Dead Man's Party
Who could ask for more?
Everybody's coming
Leave your body at the door!
8 Helen McCrory 789,343 Narcissa Malfoy won ten awards in her career, and was nominated a further 23 times across stage and screen and a 29-year career. People continue to visit her article a week after her death from cancer, aged just 52.
9 George Floyd 788,420 #1's victim. The protests have re-ignited with the trial, of course.
10 Charles Sobhraj 773,715 Sobhraj continues to rank highly after a BBC One TV series dramatising his crimes and capture, The Serpent, started streaming on Netflix. The show's name is based on one of his nicknames, a wise decision by the BBC not to name it after another nickname. "The Bikini Killer"? Not quite the same effect.

Exclusions

  • These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.


2021-04-25

Fernando, governance, and rugby

OK Google, what is a Fernando Machado burger?

Fernando Machado, Chief Marketing Officer of Burger King and Restaurant Brands International is leaving his job according to PRWeek (free registration), which reports his 3 biggest "hits" and 3 biggest "misses" in advertising campaigns. Marketing miss #1 was a 15 second advert from 2017 ending in the phrase "OK Google, what is a Whopper burger?" The ad was supposed to activate a Google Home smart speaker to recite a marketing spiel with the list of Whopper ingredients that User:Fermachado123 had inserted as the introduction of the Wikipedia article Whopper. By the time the TV advert ran, its text had been changed – some claimed it had been vandalized – and it's unclear whether any potential customers ever heard the advert at all. Fernando, you still owe Wikipedians an apology.

Cracking Wikipedia's governance problems

4 Wikipedia Editing Scandals That Slipped Under Readers' Radars in Cracked.com, an apparently humorous website. Three of the four editing scandals focus on admin behavior and might be viewed as anything but humorous. They are:

Women play rugby

Nevertheless, only 3% of Wikipedia's biographies of rugby players are about women, according to brewer Guinness as reported in Sport Industry Group last week. Only 30% of the players in the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship, which ended yesterday, had an article on Wikipedia. Only 14% of those articles had more than a basic bio and a photo. Articles on the squads representing England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales, had only 10% of the words (900 to 9,000) of the same nations men's squads.

Wikimedia UK and Guinness teamed up with the goal of having an article for each player in the tournament from the four "home nations". The players from France and Italy were left out of this goal. The sponsors invited Wikipedia editors, fans, writers, and journalists to help out by creating or adding to articles about all notable women rugby players, which seems to have changed some of the numbers reported above. England beat France to win the championship.

In brief

External videos
video icon Billy Joel - New York State of Mind
  • The Most Wikipedia Searched Name from Your Hudson Valley Town from "The Home of Rock'n'Roll", radio station WPDH which dug up the US map which replaced the name of a town with the name of the resident whose biography received the most page views. Hint: use your mouse to drag the map to the Hudson River Valley, well north of the big city of Donald Trump, and then zoom in to just south of Benedict Arnold. The only problem is that the map is two years out-of-date. No matter, it gives us an excuse to link to a Billy Joel song. No, not Summer, Highland Falls about the village where Joel spent one summer, but an equally relevant song from the same album.

Videos and podcasts

  • Ziko van Dijk: wrote the ultimate 341-page wiki book in German (free pdf, CC BY-SA) but introduces it on the video "My new book about wikis: a short presentation in English".
  • Jimmy Wales: on a one-hour nine minute podcast (skip the first four minutes) at The Political Party with Matt Forde. Forde, a comedian, does a good imitation of a blustering bandersnatch, so much of the podcast goes through the basics. Jimmy explains why he'd never edit an article involving Donald Trump - he'd get too emotional. He then compares himself to the Queen, twice. Brags about his cooking. All the usual stuff.




Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next month's edition in the Newsroom or leave a tip on the suggestions page.

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-04-25/Technology report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-04-25/Essay


2021-04-25

The (Universal) Code of Conduct

This essay is adapted from "The Code of Conduct" by Jesse Noller under the Creative Commons By-SA 4.0 license. Originally written in 2012 regarding the Python Software Foundation, it has been edited to reflect the Universal Code of Conduct debate within the Wikimedia movement.

Preface

By now, editors are likely aware of the Wikimedia Foundation's efforts to draft and implement a Universal Code of Conduct (UCC) for Wikimedia spaces. The first phase of the process was recently completed, with the board of trustees ratifying an initial policy on 2 February 2021. The second phase involves consultations across projects on how the UCC would apply to individual communities with the goal of developing appropriate mechanisms for enforcing the code globally. As part of this second phase, the English Wikipedia is holding a local consultation to provide feedback on how the code of conduct would fit into this project's community.

While a universal code of conduct is new territory for the Wikimedia Foundation, the debate is not. Arguments around codes of conduct have been active in the free and open source community for years. In 2014 Coraline Ada Ehmke released the Contributor Covenant which has served as the model code of conduct for many free software projects such as the Linux Kernel, Mozilla Webmaker, and Node.js as well as open source branches of major corporations like Facebook and Google. While projects were adopting codes of conduct, organizations were likewise incentivizing more projects to adopt them. For example, in 2012 the Python Software Foundation required that any conference it sponsors will be required to publish a code of conduct for the event. This was, partly, in response to questions the foundation had received from potential sponsors who were starting to require that their sponsored partners publish codes of conduct.

The following essay makes the case for a Universal Code of Conduct in the Wikimedia movement based on similar arguments from the Python community in 2012. Like the Python community then, the Wikimedia community is vibrant, diverse, and growing. Originally written by Jesse Noller to explain the Python Software Foundation's resolution requiring a code of conduct, the piece has been edited to reflect the parallels between the concerns then and those of the Wikimedia community now.

Community

Community is a broad term. In the case in which I refer to it—I refer to is as the constantly growing and evolving and diversification of the global Wikimedia community. The community is growing at an astounding pace. The number of Wikimedia related conferences and events is also growing at a pace which frankly floors me. We have edit-a-thons popping up all over the world almost monthly. Wikimedians who are speakers of the Dagbani language this year had their m:Wikimedia user group recognized by the affiliations committee for the first time.

Most, if not all of these events are put together by small teams of dedicated, passionate and kind teams of largely unpaid volunteers. This is both amazing, and heartwarming. The level of love and passion shown by so many in this community amazes me on a daily basis.

This passion I have, this love for the community, its ever-growing diversity and what it has done for me is exactly why the Wikimedia Foundation should establish a Universal Code of Conduct. It's not because the global community is broken. It's not because we've had a "trigger event", although administrative abuses stick in my mind like a road flare when thinking about this.

So no: I don't think our community is "broken" or has performed ill—but nor has it been perfect, nor shall it ever be. I am proud of it, I spend countless hours working on behalf of it, and I would not trade it for the world. It has made me feel welcome, it has supported me in my times of need. It has allowed and empowered me to do amazing things.

Oh yeah, and I'm totally in love with the encyclopedia, even if I cheat on it sometimes.

But, like with code—there's a smell in the community—but it's the larger Programming community and its conferences and events as a whole.

D stands for Diversity

We've seen enormous growth in the diversification and inclusion of the vast non-majority within our communities thanks to the hard work of many—this includes the Art+Feminism movement, Women in Red WikiProject, m:Wiki Loves Africa and Wiki Loves Monuments contests, m:Wikipedia Asian Month, and many, many others.

What we are seeing is a fundamental shift in the awareness that we need to be more welcoming, more open to those who do not make the majority of our community. We need to have workshops, we need to be more inviting. We need to lower the barrier of entry of contribution. We need to make safe havens for those who want to contribute but who are scared and intimidated by the status quo. This includes men, women—everyone.

Part of this effort is the social realization of one of the Zen of Python rules:


What I mean is this: no more unwritten rules or expectations. No more assumptions that we're living in a utopian meritocracy. We don't. Sure, the free and open source software movement has been defined as "they with the best code and who does the work, wins"—but that ignores the frequent corollary of "those with the thickest hide, and ability to fight win". Look at any mailing list—look at the discussions on the relative merit of a given feature, bug fix, etc. You will see things that would make your hair turn grey. You will see people shouted down for naivety, you will see that even the most meritorious idea may not win against the establishment.

This happens everywhere. This is why I say "explicit is better than implicit" when it comes to social norms and expectations.

The idea that there's some unwritten guide on how to behave in society, at a conference, at a meetup, or anywhere is fundamentally absurd. Look around you for examples.

But what does this mean in the Wikimedia Community? It means we can do better! We already are on so many fronts—but just because we're seeing positive changes doesn't mean we should stop the movement.

Back to Code of Conduct

That simple, right? Well, yes, actually. When it comes to a code of conduct for a mailing list or group or for a community such as Ubuntu and Fedora or for a conference it all boils down to the same thing. A set of rules that don't dictate what you can do, or who you must be, but what is not acceptable.

It's sort of like laws. Laws don't generally dictate your personal freedoms—what they do normally do is dictate where, given unlimited freedom, your "right to do whatever you want" ends. Laws are there not to stop crime. They are there to set rational expectations for rational people—they tell the rational actors in our story what they can count on. They set in place the rules of societal engagement and put in place punishments for when those rules are broken.

A code of conduct is no different—it is an explicit set of rules on what isn't acceptable! It's not there to take away your rights—unless you feel your rights include sexual harassment, putting pornography in talk slides, or making sexist or racist jokes in a large group of people. It's there to show everyone what is not acceptable behavior, and to show what repercussions there are if anyone violates this behavior.

Quoting Jacob Kaplan-Moss on this (re: Code of Conducts/anti-harassment policies):



Just like laws; a code of conduct or anti-harassment policy is not going to stop bad actors. It won't. It can't. It might convince a person who acts in bad faith, or intends to do so to not attend the event—it is, after all, a signal they are not welcome, and there are consequences. Really though—again just like laws—it won't stop a determined bad actor. If I, a Wikipedia administrator choose to slip a bit of porn onto the Main Page, I can. No one is going to know until they see it ala Fight Club.

However, should I choose to do so, instead of unspoken, unwritten rules about what's acceptable, or what consequences there would be (social shame, etc), we have a lovely document that outlines precisely what will happen to me.


I will, simply put, be kicked out. As an administrator, I will be asked to leave the encyclopedia, I will not be given a refund. I will, in addition to this, probably be publicly shamed by all of those people who I knowingly and willingly abused, I will lose my administrator bit, etc. I would, in fact, support being asked not to return to the project, or other projects for a period of no less than 1-2 years.

If you read our policies, you'll note something interesting: there are protections in there for victims, and protections for alleged harassers/Code of Conduct violators. This is meant to protect everyone involved in the situation from false allegations, or knee jerk reactions.

This Code, this Guide, provides the explicit declaration of what is expected so that when violations occur we will know when and how to react.

But Everyone is nice, we've always been cool

I know. Honestly, I do. Except for minor incidents that I recall, the English Wikipedia has largely been free of issues. Every meetup, conference, etc I have been to has been filled with nice, kind people and largely jerk-free. This is a testament to the community as a whole.

So, you ask: if we're all chill cool people, and nothing bad has happened, why have one?

Because it won't always be that way.

If we continue to expand and grow (and we will), and if we continue to grow even more diverse - in sex, race, creed and geography - the chances of "an incident" will grow. In fact, I know incidents have happened and been dealt with.

So no, the unspoken rule of "don't be a jerk" doesn't scale very well. And that's what we're talking about—a scalability problem. The social norms and rules of a group of five people, or one hundred people may float. What about 200? 500? 800? How about 40 thousand people (the average number of active editors on the English Wikipedia each month)? No. "Don't be a Jerk" may be our unspoken, unwritten community motto; but its not enough for those on the outside looking in.

Those outside of these circles want clear lines on behavioral expectations. They want to know that not only are there unwritten rules about not being a jerk—they want to know what will happen if a Jerk Occurs. A Universal Code of Conduct sets their expectations, and it gives them comfort. It makes them feel more welcome, more safe. Especially when they're part of a group who has been put under constant objectification and harassment for decades in our industry.

The Social Signal Flare

A Code of Conduct is, in fact a social signal flare to "others"—it's a message to them on what to expect, that they can feel welcome and safe and most of all that someone cares. I have the emails and phone calls thanking me and the PyCon team for the Code of Conduct to show it. They all carry the common theme: "Thank you. Thank you for showing me you care, and that you are thinking of me."

What has the Python software Foundation's adoption of a Code of Conduct triggered? Combined with this guide, and outreach, we have drastically increased the number of (for example) female speakers at our event. We have more female and varied attendees. We have people bringing their families with them. Not just because of a single document. But because they know that because of that document and the history and people within the Python community they can feel safe, and welcome.

This social signal flare; this written set of guidelines matters to them. And the Python community is not the only one realizing this. OSCON, Ruby Conferences, JS Conferences and other events—all of them are realizing that having rules and expectations set out for all to see makes it better for everyone.

So why the Foundation?

Now we get to the beginning: why an "edict" from the Foundation board that states this is a must for any project they are hosting. Well, if you read this far, hopefully you're convinced of the basic case of having a document such as this in place.

Let's look at it from a brand perspective.

For PyCon 2013 I was asked by no less than four different sponsors if I had a Code of Conduct / Anti-harassment guide in place. If I did not, they would not become sponsors. Conference attendees are demanding conferences have one, or they will not attend, or speak.

For example, I applaud Caktus Consulting Group for taking a hardline, zero tolerance stand:


Let us assume that the Wikimedia foundation is no different than a sponsor (it is, sorta): we provide you money, we give you our name and logo, and provide servers and a tech team to handle the back end. We are, by our participation and funding, implicitly and explicitly endorsing your project.

This means that should something happen, the "Wikimedia brand"—which to many, is synonymous with "Wikipedia" (duh)—would be tarnished. We would be seen as endorsing a community project which did not deal with a situation or incident. We would be lobbied to pull our funding/sponsorship (and I would vote for it). We would probably, via social pressure, be required to distance ourselves from the project and the organizers and probably even issue an apology of our own.

So. Starting for the idea that these documents, these guidelines benefit us as a community, and help us grow more diverse and inclusive, that they help in some way to make events more safe and welcoming—we end up in a place where from a pure business perspective it is in our best interest to put these guidelines in place.

These guidelines provide social good; they are also smart business. Yes—it is a sign that we are growing up, but that's a good thing.

Finally

In closing, all I can say is this—no one is trying to be a fascist, or a nanny state. No one is trying to say you can't cuss like a sailor (I do, but mostly behind closed doors). No one is trying to censor you, or tell you you are not welcome.

Quite the opposite. We, the global Wikimedia Community, are trying to tell people who are scared, or who feel alienated that they are in fact welcome. That they belong. That the community, the foundation and everyone cares about them. That we want to provide a safe place for collaboration and the free exchange of ideas.

We want to show everyone what they hopefully already know by now—that the Wikipedia community, despite its quirks, is welcoming, supportive and open to all.

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