What is a programming language community and what does it value? — a point of view from across the ocean.

Paul,

I agree with you on many points, so it feels a bit weird to me than this reply — which I’m planning right now in my head — comes out as mostly criticism. But I guess this is how it works, both in personal communication and in social media in general: we tend to be more outspoken about things we disagree on and fall a bit more silent when we are on the same side. In fact, I think this is exactly what is happening in the community: there’s much more agreement than disagreement, but it’s not as visible.

I think I can safely say that the Scala community supports Black Lives Matter. There’s no doubt about it. And although I also saw in the past the things you mentioned: hostility towards newcomers, gate-keeping, “the real programmer” syndrome, etc., I believe we made huge progress since those early years. Scala Center is in place and working hard. We have a new wave of conference speakers from all around the world. Many people are reaching out to help newcomers, and if you look at where Scala conferences take place you will see that our community is now all around the globe. (If we have any flat-earthers in the community, even they have to admit that).

And that brings me to the point where I don’t agree with you. Or maybe not exactly don’t agree, but I think you miss something very important: We are not only Americans. Not only Westerners. We are from everywhere. We are people not only of different colours of skin and genders, but also of very different cultural backgrounds, and ideas about the world. For every event, every situation we find ourselves in, be it political or specific to IT, we will inevitably hear voices from across the political and cultural spectrum, as well as from people who different events will judge more important than others, simply because they feel more connected to this or that issue. The community as big as ours doesn’t anymore have the comfort of being a group of friends or a tight organisation that can solve its problems in a discussion, publish the accepted solution, and be done with it. It’s unavoidable that in a group this big there will be subgroups, and there will be conflict. I strongly agree that we must work to stop any form of toxic and hateful behaviour, up to the point of excluding the perpetrators from the community, but I also believe that we have to tolerate a certain level of conflict as there is no way to escape it. We have to be able to differentiate between people who objectively hurt the community and those who we may not agree with on many things or even don’t want to work with, but they still bring value and other people agree with them and want to work with them. To accept that as inevitable is the only way forward in a community of our size.

As for the community’s response to BLM.
This is an issue very close to my heart and I’m sure that it is the same for many people in the Scala community. I’m happy that so many of us speak up about it, both individuals and companies. Especially Lightbend.
But it is also a very US-centric issue. Already, because of my other interests, I hear voices of activists who are sad and angry that their issues, just as important as BLM protests, have never gotten even a small part of that attention around social media. I don’t believe that “Well, what about…?” is a valid argument against any important issue, but I understand why they feel angry and ignored. I also see why people from Eastern Europe may react negatively to calls for what they may understand as a denouncement of those who don’t express their support strongly enough. Because of the recent history of this part of the world, they have good reasons to oppose such calls. And so on, and so on. I believe our community is supportive of BLM, but it’s also very big and diverse, and different people may approach this subject in many different ways and respond differently to the actions of other people in the community.

And then you, or another American, or a Westerner in general, sees that and may think “What? I only want good things! If they object, it means they’re the bad guys!”. Please don’t think that.

In conclusion, I believe that as the community we have to tread carefully here. I think this is a good moment to start a discussion on how to approach such issues in the future. But even though I love to see support for the BLM movements from my fellow Scala programmers, I think that the community’s leaders don’t have the right to announce one single statement along the lines of “you’re either with us or against that”. That would be irresponsible.

Cheers,