> But for large projects, it is unrealistic that "kindness" will scale to thousands or millions of users. Too many people are too narcissistic, thoughtless, cruel, or all of the above.
While it is sadly not to be expected, I don't think it should prevent projects from at least trying to cultivate it. One thing I have learned when dealing with large communities over the years is that it certainly is possible to cultivate a more general atmosphere that greatly reduces the amount of unkind/aggressive interactions.
Part of the strategy to make that work is to keep talking about it and keep reminding people. People tend to get wrapped up in their own mind on the internet, for a majority of people being reminded of the fact that they are interacting with other people is often enough. So you need to make sure that as a project you have these things explicitly stated in places like contribution guidelines, on top of issue templates, etc.
In addition to that, contributors and project owners need to be seen talking about these things. It might seem a bit childish, but things like a "hey, I'd be happy to continue talking about this issue you created but in a more constructive manner" from contributors help a lot as well. People tend to see that and notice that there is a clear expectation from the project.
And of course, articles like this one actually are really important.
And to be clear, it is never going to perfect, but in the long term it will be a lot better for contributors and owners than without any "community training" on these sorts of things.
While it is sadly not to be expected, I don't think it should prevent projects from at least trying to cultivate it. One thing I have learned when dealing with large communities over the years is that it certainly is possible to cultivate a more general atmosphere that greatly reduces the amount of unkind/aggressive interactions.
Part of the strategy to make that work is to keep talking about it and keep reminding people. People tend to get wrapped up in their own mind on the internet, for a majority of people being reminded of the fact that they are interacting with other people is often enough. So you need to make sure that as a project you have these things explicitly stated in places like contribution guidelines, on top of issue templates, etc. In addition to that, contributors and project owners need to be seen talking about these things. It might seem a bit childish, but things like a "hey, I'd be happy to continue talking about this issue you created but in a more constructive manner" from contributors help a lot as well. People tend to see that and notice that there is a clear expectation from the project. And of course, articles like this one actually are really important.
And to be clear, it is never going to perfect, but in the long term it will be a lot better for contributors and owners than without any "community training" on these sorts of things.