Community Values in Chinese Julia Communities

Community
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Recently, I encountered an issue in a Julia community where a member shared an e-book without proper authorization from the author. When I and other members expressed concern about this apparent violation of copyright, the response from an administrator was disappointing. The administrator argued that the “spirit of the internet” justifies sharing copyrighted content, and as a result of my objection, I was removed from the community. Fortunately, another administrator later re-added me, but this incident has left me deeply concerned.

The Julia community is built on principles of openness, inclusivity, and respect. These values are not just aspirational; they are commitments that have fostered trust and collaboration across our global community. However, incidents like this make me question whether these principles are consistently upheld across all Julia communities, especially in smaller or region-specific groups.

It seems that advocating for copyright protection and respect for intellectual property is a minority stance in parts of the Julia community. This is troubling, as a truly inclusive and welcoming community must respect and uphold the rights of individuals from all backgrounds, including creators, educators, and authors. I believe it is critical that our shared values extend to every Julia-related platform, regardless of language or location. Communities like Julia Discourse, Discord, and others must remain environments where all members feel respected, supported, and heard.

When actions or decisions conflict with these principles, they can create barriers that alienate members and undermine the trust that holds our community together. Inclusivity means ensuring that every voice, regardless of perspective or background, is valued and respected. This includes fostering a culture of constructive dialogue and mutual understanding, even when disagreements arise. Administrators and moderators play a key role in upholding these standards by setting the tone for discussions and addressing issues with fairness and transparency.

As members of the Julia community, we share a collective responsibility to create and maintain spaces that reflect the best of what our community stands for. By staying true to our values, we ensure that the Julia ecosystem remains a welcoming, open, and respectful place for everyone.

I would like to call on all Julia community members, especially administrators and moderators, to reaffirm our commitment to the values that make this community so special. Let us work together to ensure that every Julia community, regardless of its size or language, remains a safe, open, ethical, and inclusive space for all.

[moderator’s note: screenshots redacted]

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This is a fundamental requirement for all official Julia communities:

All participants in the Julia community are expected to respect copyright laws and ethical attribution standards. This applies to both code and written materials, such as documentation or blog posts. Materials that violate the law, are plagiaristic, or ethically dubious in some way will be removed from officially-maintained lists of resources.

If you believe one of these standards has been violated, you can either file an issue on an appropriate repository or confidentially contact the Julia Stewards at stewards@julialang.org. Keep in mind that most mistakes are due to ignorance rather than malice.

In fact, let’s move those receipts to a direct conversation with the Stewards as they include many names.

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Hello, from the now deleted screenshot it seems the issue originated from my book…
I respect all the opinions, just to say that in this specific case it’s the editor to enforce the copyright policy, i wouldn’t really care more… when I asked for the possibility to make it open source they asked me 15k€, that I don’t have…
It’s a really debated question… many here are in the academic sector and there is indeed something that is not really working with the current system…
As an author I get 10% of what Springen gets (and for articles we have nothing), and honestly the work of the reviewer (also unpaid)/language editor was almost zero… so… it’s debatable, but the important I agree is to respect everyone’s opinion…

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@sylvaticus Yes, it was your book “Julia Quick Syntax Reference: A Pocket Guide for Data Science Programming”.

It is true that in academic is not a good system…and many people hold diverse perspectives on the matter.

Regarding this specific issue, I believe it’s essential to address two key aspects: the copyright concerns and the enforcement of community bans. At the core I am posting this, it’s also about fostering inclusion and ensuring that all voices are respected within our community.

For reference, the community stewards page make this very clear:

Bans
The public Julia forums (e.g. Discourse) and GitHub pages (e.g. issues and pull requests) are normally open forums for all good-faith contributors. In extreme cases, repeated violations of the Community Standards may lead to the banning of a contributor from one or more of these public forums. Such total bans are expected to be rare and are not to be undertaken lightly.

Note that:

  • Long-term bans shall only be undertaken in response to the recommendations of a formal investigation by the Julia stewards as described above. (A temporary ban may be imposed by Julia admins in response to an urgent situation, but shall be followed by a formal investigation if the ban is to continue.)
  • After a predetermined period, not to exceed six months, the banned individual may request that the ban be lifted, by acknowledging his/her past violations and providing a written plan to avoid such violations in the future. This request will typically be considered by the same committee that recommended the initial ban.

I believe it’s critical to reflect on these standards to ensure that our community remains inclusive, respectful, and aligned with the values we stand for.

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Thank you @Andy_Zhang for raising this and I agree our community values are fundamentally important.

I’d like to be clear that these values are definitely not the minority stance. It’s indeed a requirement that you can only be an official Julia community if you can agree to uphold the community standards. Only communities that do so can be listed as such on julialang.org.

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Why does a person who uses pirated books have the right to prohibit and prevent others from sharing knowledge?

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Welcome to the English forums @lukinde_lucase.

This is precisely why I removed the screenshots from the OP — the whos and the whats here aren’t particularly important. The key part is that the Julia community is founded upon respect for one another. We follow the community standards, and there’s not much more to discuss.

I’m going to close this topic for now as it seems to be headed in a direction that is contrary to the above goals.

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