The board of the Perl Foundation examined the actions and processes related to the work of the Community Affairs Team (CAT) and decided to suspend this group's activities until all processes related to its operations are formalized and its authority is officially approved. The board also rescinded two previously published incident reports that led to actions taken due to inappropriate behavior from some community members during discussions on the Slack platform.
The Community Affairs Team was created to oversee compliance with community communication standards and to handle complaints regarding violations of the Code of Conduct. Ultimately, it was found that the Community Affairs Team became overzealous, making false claims and taking inappropriate actions against some individuals for careless and harsh remarks, including actions taken before the push for inclusivity and noble manners began.
The board deemed it inappropriate to use subjective criteria of 'undesirable behavior' when restoring order in an established community and determined that the Community Affairs Team should operate only according to clearly defined rules and within expressly established measures. These rules were proposed in a draft charter but were never properly formalized.
For example, Christian Walde and Matt Trout, active community members and well-known Perl developers, were permanently banned from the discussion platform (later, the permanent ban was changed to a one-year ban). Interestingly, Matt Trout, a victim of the Community Affairs Team's actions, welcomed the fact that, despite the team’s freeze, the punishment remained in place, acknowledging that he had acted inappropriately towards Sawyer X and later apologized to him. Matt also pointed out that members of the Community Affairs Team found themselves in a complicated situation and had to improvise due to the management board’s inability to approve and publish the Code of Conduct before the incidents were addressed.
In response to the actions of the Board, Samantha McVey, founder of the Community Affairs Team, expressed her disagreement with the actions and announced her resignation from the position of team leader. Samantha deems it inappropriate to unilaterally rescind the group's reports and is dissatisfied with the delays in adopting the charter and code of conduct for the community, which should have been adopted months ago. Samantha also finds the official reason for rescinding the incident reports unconvincing — the actions were taken before the charter was adopted and before the Community Affairs Team was officially delegated powers, as the reports had previously been approved by the Board itself. In her view, ensuring community safety and adhering to the code of conduct is more important than formalities.
Source: opennet.ru
