It doesn't always work like that though. Saying to people to be kind can mean different things to different people.
What I meant but what I read was that, in my opinion we need guidelines how to communicate, what is acceptable and what is not. To make people feel safe and respected.
That should be our goal. Not for everyone to feel happy as your other email seem to allude to when you said "far more positive, and happier to read than the later.".
We are at a time where a lot of things are changing and a lot of people are speaking up about what bothers them which may not be clear to some. And that's okay. That is why we have some guidelines. To guide the communication in GNU.
Your first paragraph I agree with you. FSF should do the outreach. GNU should just be open.
Why though? GNU accepts the contributions and is the software
community isn't it? Plus the relationship of FSF and GNU to my
understanding is kind of up in there now.
The GNU project accepts contributions from anyone who wishes to
contribute, no matter who they are. Making a statement that we are
targeting this or that demographic would possibly exclude other
groups, which is why no stance is taken on why people contirbute, or
who can contribute. The goal is the GNU system, and making non-free
software irrelevant -- and anyone is welcome to help achive that goal.
As far as the relationship with the FSF, I understand it has not
changed.
I think why the GNU Kindness Guidelines concentrate on how to be kind,
instead of specifying what is unkind is that the former is far more
positive, and happier to read than the later.
We don't need something happy. We need clear guidelines. People
care if they are going to be respected not if they feel warm inside
when they read something.
If we want to include everyone, the best way to do so is to just be
kind. We can make the guidelines respected if we all try to follow
them. With the end result being that everyone is kind.
What do you consider unclear about them?