Re: [PATCH v2] Documentation/CoC: spell out enforcement for unacceptable behaviors

[Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@intel.com>]

On 11/12/24 11:21, Daniel Vetter wrote:
> Also, if a maintainer refuses to implement an enforcement decision,
> will they be sanctioned too? Since this is all an entirely new section
> and does not touch any of the existing sections I'm also not clear on
> when one or the other rules apply, and how they interact.

I don't think this is or _should_ take away any ability for a maintainer
to manage their subsystem.  It's not special at all, actually.

Let's say the CoC committee recommends "denying patch contributions and
pull requests". I as a maintainer either actively ignore the
recommendation or didn't notice the recommendation in my normal email
flood. I integrate a patch and send it along to the upstream maintainer.
The upstream maintainer looks over the pull request and like normal
either pulls it or says no.

If I intentionally disregarded the CoC committee recommendation for good
reason, I'd be a smart maintainer to note that in the pull request, just
like any other anomaly.

But either way, just like _any_ patch or pull request: there are few
absolute rules. Breaking userspace is highly discouraged, but allowed in
some cases.  Going against a CoC recommendation is also discouraged but
I don't think there should be absolute prohibition against it.

In the end, the upstream maintainer gets to decide what to do.