Code of Conduct

Melis Technology Community Code of Conduct

Table of Contents:

The Melis Technology Community is dedicated to providing a safe, inclusive, welcoming, and harassment-free space and experience for all community participants, regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, socioeconomic status, body size, ethnicity, nationality, level of experience, age, or religion (or lack thereof). Our Code of Conduct exists because of that dedication, and we do not tolerate harassment in any form.

This Code of Conduct applies to all Melis Technology Community spaces, including the Melis Technology Google Group, the Melis Technology Community Slack, Melis Technology open source repositories, and Melis Technology Community events and meetups, online and offline, as well as in one-on-one communications pertaining to Melis Technology Community business. Participants violating our Code of Conduct may be penalized or expelled at the discretion of community moderators.

Some Melis Technology Community spaces may have additional rules in place, which are posted publicly for participants. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules. We invite all those who participate in the Melis Technology Community to help us create safe and positive community experiences.

Consequences for noncompliance with the Code of Conduct may include a discussion with moderators, mediation with the participant you may have harassed, or as an absolute last resort, a ban from the community.

Behavior

Appropriate behavior contributes to the health, safety, and longevity of the Melis Technology Community and includes:

  • Participating in an authentic and empathetic way.
  • Representing the Melis Technology Community in a positive, professional way.
  • Using welcoming and inclusive language.
  • Exercising consideration and respect in your speech and actions.
  • Refraining from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech.
  • Being mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants.
  • Considering what is best for the community.
  • Alerting community moderators if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or unresolved violations of this Code of Conduct.
  • Refraining from doing something you wouldn’t do in another professional situation.
  • Remembering that community event venues may be shared with members of the public; being respectful to all patrons of these locations.
  • Keeping an open and curious mind without making assumptions about others.
  • Attempting collaboration before conflict.
  • Gracefully accepting well-communicated constructive criticism.

Harassment includes:

  • Discriminatory language and actions that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, religion (or lack thereof), or other identity markers.
  • Excessive trolling or sustained, uninvited disruption.
  • Insults or personal attacks.
  • Violent or personally objectifying material.
  • Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior in spaces where they’re not appropriate.
  • Unwelcome sexual attention.
  • Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop.
  • Violent language or threats of violence.
  • Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
  • Deliberate misgendering or use of “dead” or rejected names.
  • Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming unprofessional levels of intimacy with others.
  • Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
  • Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent.
  • Threatening to post or posting other people’s personally identifiable information without consent.
  • Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent.
  • Blogging, tweeting, or otherwise communicating with intent to harm someone’s reputation, i.e., “making an example” of a community participant.
  • Intimidation, stalking, or following.
  • Harassing or unwanted photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
  • Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.
  • Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.

Procedures

Procedures for Incident Reporting

If you experience or witness (or have experienced or have witnessed) violations of the Code of Conduct or have any other concerns, please notify the Melis Technology Community moderators identified in this document [link to updated moderators document on github repo], and/or submit an online report here contact us. Anonymous reports can also be made. Reports can be made at any time, but as soon as possible is preferred.

Code of Conduct violations can be reported by:

  • Submitting an online report form here contact us.
  • Emailing the moderators alias, contact us.
  • Contacting one of the moderators contact us privately on Slack, via email, by text or phone call, or in person.
  • Pinging moderators via Slackbot on Slack by typing, “moderator please.”
  • Communicating with an event organizer, who may themselves be a moderator or will be in contact with a moderator “on call.”

Reports of Code of Conduct violations should include as many details as possible, for example:

  • Contact info for the reporter (unless anonymous)
  • Names or descriptions of people involved
  • When and where it happened
  • What happened
  • Additional context
  • If it is ongoing

The Melis Technology Community prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. Our moderators will not act on reports regarding:

  • “Reverse”-isms, including “reverse racism,” “reverse sexism,” and “cisphobia.”
  • Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
  • Verbal communication in a tone you don’t find pleasant (try focusing on responding to the content or disengaging instead).
  • Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions.

The Melis Technology Community moderators may reject any report believed to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response.

When taking a private report, our community moderators will ensure you are safe and cannot be overheard. They may involve other moderators to ensure your report is managed properly. Once safe, we'll ask you to tell us about what happened. This can be upsetting, but we'll handle it as respectfully as possible, and you can bring someone to support you. You won't be asked to confront anyone and we won't tell anyone who you are. Our team will be happy to help you contact venue security, local law enforcement, local support services, provide escorts, or otherwise assist you to feel safe. We value your participation. Once again, we invite all those who participate in the Melis Technology Community to help us create safe and positive community experiences.

Enforcement

  • Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately, even if participants do not agree with or fully acknowledge the behavior being reported.
  • If a participant violates the Code of Conduct, community moderators may take any action they deem appropriate to maintaining a welcoming environment for all participants, up to and including expulsion from an event and/or the community and identification of the participant as a violator. If a community moderator is not available at an event, the event organizer should ask violators to leave and then report the situation to community moderators for further deliberation.
  • There will always be at least one moderator “on-call” if no moderators are able to attend an event Community moderators and/or event organizers may take action to redress anything designed to, or with the clear impact of, disrupting or making an environment hostile for any participants.
  • We expect participants to respect the Code of Conduct in all Melis Technology communities and at all Melis Technology or Melis Technology related events.

Moderators

Code of Conduct moderators will:

  • Always be at least two people working together to respond to violations.
  • Respond as promptly as possible to reports of violations.
  • Make an effort to understand both sides of the situation, including talking to affected participants and reading up on the underlying issues, particularly if they don’t have similar personal experience(s).
  • Keep each other accountable.
  • Trade off duties when needed.
  • Recuse themselves or be excused from handling an incident if they are listed as a possible Code of Conduct violator.
  • Be kept up-to-date in the Melis Technology Community Moderators.

Additional Items

Please also note:

  • Moderators can choose to close threads or ask for a subject change.
  • Moderators can choose to re-evaluate consequences.
  • Do not delete posts or comments you’ve made unless:
    • You sincerely made the post in error (like accidentally posting in the wrong group, for example) and
    • Deleting will not interfere with group discussion. The specific problem we want to address with this rule: Deleting because the conversation has become tense or uncomfortable or to avoid taking responsibility is. Many of us are socialized or naturally prone to avoid conflict, but working through that conflict and acknowledging differing viewpoints is worth the discomfort.
  • This Code of Conduct applies to Melis Technology Community spaces and events, but if you are being or have been harassed by a Melis Technology Community participant externally, you may still report to the Melis Technology Community moderators. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by community participants seriously. The Melis Technology Community moderators reserve the right to exclude people from the Melis Technology Community and/or Melis Technology events based on past and/or external behavior towards Melis Technology Community participants or non-participants.
  • We will not name harassment victims without their consent. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of the Melis Technology Community or the general public.