If the community is openly acerbic, toxic, autocratic, etc it sometimes becomes less of an issue because you know exactly what to expect, and expectation management is important for people.
If I in the past would have felt I needed to send a patch to the lkml, I wouldn't have felt intimidated because if my code would've gotten shredded to pieces, I was in very good company. The lkml also didn't really brigade, or bully, even if people sometimes was quite emotional. However, for some people I'm sure it would be hell.
There are however several projects with extensive guidelines that I would feel intimidated to interact with, as the power struggles and infighting is likely to be well and alive although I can't see it, there's also a brigade of attackers available to anyone who manage to convince them I was in the wrong.
Community guidelines unless expertly written and religiously enforced are unproportionally useful for those with either a manipulative streak, or those with good social and language skills, as they often grant them more power. In this respect mirroring society. However, apart from keeping the most blatant misconduct out of the open, it also becomes a weapon to be used against anyone less adept at navigating the social hierarchy. Thus, the extent to wherever a particular community ends up, in reality becomes almost inscrutable to the casual observer.
For me it's the same in real life, in contexts where the societal norms are somewhat displaced I have few issues. The selfish, aggressive, and other bad actors stand out like they would wear neon colors. In society in general, in the workplace, I have all kinds of issues because amid all the unspoken rules there will always be one that can be sufficiently well misapplied to defuse valid criticism.
We don't get pathological liars voted into various offices because people are good at arguing rationally, but they also tend get to stay there because they are protected by the rules, unless the rules are expertly and independently applied.
If I in the past would have felt I needed to send a patch to the lkml, I wouldn't have felt intimidated because if my code would've gotten shredded to pieces, I was in very good company. The lkml also didn't really brigade, or bully, even if people sometimes was quite emotional. However, for some people I'm sure it would be hell.
There are however several projects with extensive guidelines that I would feel intimidated to interact with, as the power struggles and infighting is likely to be well and alive although I can't see it, there's also a brigade of attackers available to anyone who manage to convince them I was in the wrong.
Community guidelines unless expertly written and religiously enforced are unproportionally useful for those with either a manipulative streak, or those with good social and language skills, as they often grant them more power. In this respect mirroring society. However, apart from keeping the most blatant misconduct out of the open, it also becomes a weapon to be used against anyone less adept at navigating the social hierarchy. Thus, the extent to wherever a particular community ends up, in reality becomes almost inscrutable to the casual observer.
For me it's the same in real life, in contexts where the societal norms are somewhat displaced I have few issues. The selfish, aggressive, and other bad actors stand out like they would wear neon colors. In society in general, in the workplace, I have all kinds of issues because amid all the unspoken rules there will always be one that can be sufficiently well misapplied to defuse valid criticism.
We don't get pathological liars voted into various offices because people are good at arguing rationally, but they also tend get to stay there because they are protected by the rules, unless the rules are expertly and independently applied.