Governance and abuse
Published: 2023-07-27 16:10:36



Whenever you have people working together, there's potential for great things. There's also potential for harm - and sadly that's something we need to think about too.

I'm not writing this in response to a problem, but because I believe two things:

1. The Nuxt community should be _safe for you_.
1. If there's a problem, _something should be done about it_.

## Nuxt governance

 Before starting as framework lead, I worked on both [governance documents](https://github.com/nuxt/governance) and put a [code of conduct](https://github.com/nuxt/.github/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) in place.

 I think the most important line in our governance document - one I care about being there - is this:

> The project lead is selected by the authors and can at any point be changed if there are issues with their leadership.

That means I lead Nuxt, but only by agreement.

So if you ever have an issue with someone within Nuxt, even me, there is always a way to report and handle it that does not involve that person.

Here are some thoughts about why I think that is particularly important in open source - and a request. 🙏

## A community of choice

First, an open-source community is made up of people who **choose** to be part of it. I _love_ that. I think this freedom of choice unlocks some wonderful things that we should rightly aspire to:

* **No barrier to entry**. No interview to start. No necessary privileged background. No special career path. You are welcome here.
* **No power games**. Do what inspires you, not what you _have_ to do. Contribution to open source should not be a millstone around your neck.
* **Shared vision**. Because we're all here by choice, to some degree we share a vision. That makes it possible to have real team spirit to forge genuine relationships around a common goal.

But it also brings some potential dangers when things go wrong:

1. If toxic behaviour becomes part of the ecosystem, **people may choose to leave quietly**. That makes it very possible for a maintainer not to know that there is an issue until far, far too late. It's even worse if a team member is the one causing issues.

1. There are **fewer ways to enforce good behaviour**. It's not a job. There's no HR department or contract with consequences if things go wrong.

1. Because it isn't just 'work', when things go wrong **people can be affected even more deeply**. Any toxic behaviour is bad, but somehow it feels more destructive when it appears inside a hobby - something that was life-giving.

So we need to be active in establishing what acceptable behaviour is - and listening out for anything that indicates we have a problem.

## An appeal

As I said, I'm not writing this because of a problem with the Nuxt community. But neither is it a purely theoretical question. Because we're a community of people, we can get it wrong - and what matters is how we deal with that.

👉 So here's my appeal. If you encounter **any toxic, abusive, or unkind behaviour** within the Nuxt ecosystem, please let us know, even anonymously. Especially if that person is me or on the team.

You can contact [any person listed in our code of conduct](https://github.com/nuxt/.github/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) via their personal email address. They will investigate appropriately and keep your identity confidential (if permitted by law).

I would be very grateful.

❤️