NixOS conduct proposal would ban shaming people for their jobs

A NixOS contributor has proposed amending the project's code of conduct so that shaming someone because of their employer counts as unacceptable behavior. Lisanna Dettwyler wrote that the change is a response to regular attacks for working at a US defense contractor, and that those attacks make participation feel hostile. Expressing an anti-defense view would not, on the wording, be shaming by itself. Telling someone they should be ashamed of the job would be.

The proposal lands in a fight that is already public. Contributors have accused people who work at, hire for, or defend firms such as Anduril of war crimes and of being unwelcome in NixOS, including anyone who supports them for community roles. Critics of the status quo say those posts have mostly been hidden rather than treated as conduct violations, and argue moderators should not decide harassment by which side they find morally right. Jeff, chief executive of Determinate Systems, was also told his company's standing should limit what he can say about harassment. Others noted that Determinate Systems lists defense among the industries its products can serve, and read the proposal as an attempt to sanitize that association.

Opponents say the rule would turn a political judgment into a forbidden opinion. One contributor, who said relatives were killed by the kind of weapons this industry makes, wrote that "Shame is pretty much the only thing that makes people think twice about taking these jobs," and argued that an industry is the people who work in it. Others called that bullying, not advocacy: criticize the work, they said, without telling a person to feel ashamed. A further split is over what harassment even is. Some treat strong opinions stated in a relevant conversation as ordinary discourse, and reserve the word for following someone from place to place. Supporters of a broader ban say Nix cannot function if contributors must agree on how the software is used, and describe demands that only certain people and uses be welcome as a purity culture that has already damaged the project.