Exodus at Pearl Foundation: Employees go to code of conduct after affair

At the Pearl Foundation (TPF), the blessing of the house is currently tumultuous: Since spring, at least four key Foundation members, some of whom have been with us for several years, and other employees have thrown in the towel, most recently. in several in a row within a week. Amidst a partly public internal power struggle between the board of trustees, the community and the community affairs team, no single cause of the problems can be identified, but rather a structural minefield: according to a blog entry on the foundation’s website and Twitter. Comments on, the background of the recent disagreement is perhaps the differences in the community regarding the definition of misconduct and punishment.

Last week, the Board of Trustees temporarily closed the CAT (Community Affairs or Task Force) department responsible for settling community disputes after reviewing and withdrawing an investigation published by CAT on misconduct in the community, but imposed restrictions. abandoned. NS According to a blog entry, the reason for the interference is the reviewer.That the CAT team had only a tentative draft of the guidelines.

In fact, the Foundation withdrew from the CAT team on the basis of the work, which was described as provisional, and withheld the department – “until a regular statute is in force”, although no date in the article. has been given. Samantha McVey, former chair of the community affairs team, turned her back on the foundation by tweeting the same day Elizabeth Matijsen of the TPF Grants Committee also ripped off.

Structural problems and allegations of nepotism

The disagreement is likely to be more far-reaching than the current controversy over the actions of the CAT team, with structural shortcomings long causing outrage. Sawyer X, previously a member of the three-person governing council and a key figure in the development of the core programming language, was considered the maintainer of the entire language, Withdrew before working for the Foundation in April 2021. After criticizing certain elements of the language (“It has cruft [Perl]”- cruft stands for redundancy) He was apparently flooded with hate messages from the Perl community and had to close his Twitter account) Proves what This was later changed to a one-year exclusion. became.

again in june Perl developer and SUSE employee Sebastian Riedel is leaving the Perl Foundation – apparently disappointed, according to a Twitter post, as he considered the wider Perl community to have “absolutely no influence on the Perl Foundation”. It’s “nepotism is dominated, and as an ordinary Perl developer you can’t fight it”. Riedel had reported racist statements by a Perl developer, which he ignored. Employees of technology portal Ars Technica were able to verify its representation, as the compromised files are apparently still available on the network.

Pearl Heavyweight Curtis Poe Retires

TPF still lacks binding statutes, with members complaining about the lack of a code of conduct in the social network that facilitates collaboration within the community, but within the foundation and among each other, in an orderly manner. Previous CAT manager McVey justified her withdrawal with the lack of an official statute and announced that her activities would be suspended at least until the TPF had given itself a clear structure. The tweet leaves open whether she can theoretically envision a comeback. Meanwhile, Pearl heavyweight Curtis Poe (author of, among others, “Pearl Hacks” and “Beginning Pearl”) has withdrawn from his previous roles on the board of directors. on github He Justifies His Comeback With “Burnout”“.

Unclear future for the Pearl Foundation

It is currently unclear what will happen to the Pearl Foundation following the exodus of its members. Those who wish to delve deeper into the subject will find an extensive, though disappointing, collection of original vocals and Primary source in a report by technical journalist Jim Salter In Tech Portal Ars Technica. Parts of the argument (“The Cat Saga Rumbles On”) could be read it on reddit and give the impression of established discussion.

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