Code of Conduct

 

How to participate

Opensource.com

We're glad you're here--and can't wait to see what you think about today's latest open source topic.

But when you're composing that insightful genius, remember--we want to keep our PG rating. Avoid words too saucy for your grandmother. Unless you have a more saucy sort of grandmother. In that case, when you type a reply, imagine you're saying it to the person's face. If you can't play nicely, we'll take your ball and send you home. Or at the very least, delete the offending post. Repeat offenders may be banned. Should we be more specific?

Code of Conduct

Opensource.com is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of race/ethnicity or national origin, sex or gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, mental illness or neurotypicality, body size, caste, age, or religion. We acknowledge that cross-cultural communication can often be complicated and encourage everyone to consider the impact of their words and actions on those with different backgrounds and experiences. We do not tolerate harassment of members of our community in any form.

The Opensource.com community is open, kind, and inquisitive

Our community is made up of readers and authors from around the globe with diverse skills, backgrounds, and experiences. When you're reading articles, commenting on articles, interacting with members of mailing lists we host, and attending events where members of our community are present, this Code of Conduct will help inform your interactions and reinforce values that contribute to a positive environment.

Expected behavior

  • Be welcoming. Use inclusive language.
  • Be respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences. 
  • Be receptive to constructive comments and criticism.
  • Show empathy towards other community members.
  • Be respectful of others' positions, skills, commitments, and efforts.

Inappropriate behavior

  • Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks.
  • The use of sexualized language or imagery. Unwelcome sexual attention or advances.
  • Language or imagery that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence, emotional, or physical harm against an individual or a group of people.
  • Public or private harassment.
  • Personal insults, especially those using racist, ableist, ageist, homophobic, or sexist terms.
  • Defaming an individual or group, or violating any trademarks or copyrighted material.
  • Publishing private or identifying information or non-harassing communication without explicit permission.
  • Dismissing or attacking inclusion-oriented requests.
  • Continual disruption of talks, workshops, or other events.
  • Offensive comments related to race/ethnicity or national origin, sex or gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, mental illness or neurotypicality, body size, caste, age, or religion.
  • Threats or acts of violence.
  • Deliberate intimidation.
  • Encouraging any of the above behavior.

Reporting harassment

If you believe that someone is violating the code of conduct, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the Opensource.com Editorial Team immediately by sending an email to open@opensource.com. This alias goes to the members of the editorial team listed on our Meet the team page.

If you prefer to reach out to an individual member of the editorial team for any issues, please contact the editorial team member directly. Note: Anyone listed as an advisor, correspondent, or alumni is not notified of any violations.

All reports will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances.

If you feel threatened or violated as a result of intimidating, harassing, abusive, discriminatory, derogatory, or demeaning conduct, please immediately notify a member of the editorial team or contact us at open@opensource.com. This applies to online and in-person interactions.

Consequences of Unacceptable Behavior

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

The Opensource.com editorial team has the right and responsibility to remove comments or other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, or to ban temporarily or permanently any members for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

If a participant engages in unacceptable behavior, Opensource.com staff and any designated representatives may take any of the following actions, up to and including a temporary ban or permanent expulsion from the program or event without warning and without refund.

These actions may include, but are not limited to:

  • A warning to cease their behavior and that any further reports will result in further actions.
  • Removal from an event, with no refund.
  • Not being allowed to attend future events, including All Things Open, for a period of time or indefinitely.
  • Suspension or deletion of accounts related to Opensource.com events, programs, committees, and platforms like Discourse and Opensource.com - temporarily or indefinitely.
  • Reporting behavior to the applicable authorities.
     

These don't cover every possible naughty (or nice) act. We reserve the right to reject or redact any comments or posts that violate the spirit, as well as the letter, of our policies. And for good comments? Sometimes we have cookies.

Please remember to respect whatever rules your employer might have about communities like this. We want you to participate as  much as possible, but not because you got fired and suddenly have a lot of free time on your hands. In fact, we'd prefer it if your employer got really excited about the site and encouraged you to learn and share here. But if they want to get involved by buying ad space, we're not selling. This site is a community. Communities are about relationships. And we'd prefer not to have to change our relationship status with anyone to "It's complicated."

That's all. Go forth and be open. If you find relevant, helpful ideas here--share them with the world. That's what this site is about.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Some language in this Code of Conduct was incorporated from the following Codes of Conduct:
https://www.python.org/psf/conduct/
https://geekfeminismdotorg.wordpress.com/about/code-of-conduct/
https://dev.to/code-of-conduct
https://events.drupal.org/code-conduct
https://www.writespeakcode.com/code-of-conduct/