LibrePlanet: About/Code of Conduct/Draft
So that the name 'LibrePlanet' is strongly associated with a clear goal, and so individual groups can cooperate and collaborate effectively, all LibrePlanet participants agree with this set of founding principles:
Add this box to your profile page to indicate you support these documents and agree to work in accordance with LibrePlanet's Mission Statement and Code of Conduct.
Simply add the following line to your user page:
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This Code of Conduct applies to all participants in any campaigns, projects, and communities affiliated with LibrePlanet and covers behavior in any related forum, mailing list, IRC channel, wiki, web site, public meeting, or private correspondence.
Contents
Purpose
The LibrePlanet Code of Conduct exists to document an explicit set of community norms in order to create a comfortable and welcoming space for as many people as possible. Participants must recognize that their behavior and words have a powerful impact on others and the public perception of our community.
LibrePlanet strives to be a safer space for marginalized people, including, but not limited to: people of color, people with disabilities, women, and LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, trans*, transgender, transexual, genderqueer, queer, intersex, and asexual) people.
Principles
Be respectful.
Respect each another, as well as people outside or new to the community. This requires persistently maintaining one's best behavior. This is especially relevant when providing technical assistance or discussing the importance of free software and free culture. Also remember that people come from various locations, linguistic backgrounds, physical and mental abilities, levels of formal education, and socio-economic positions of privilege (or lack thereof), so you may be communicating with someone who has much more difficulty doing so. Unfriendly and unwelcoming behavior alienates the allies we need in our movement. Disagreements should be resolved constructively, always with an eye toward finding common ground, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, and being cautious of misinterpretation. Avoid over-defensive or aggressive reactions and try to pacify any disruptive situations as early as possible to prevent conflicts from escalating.
Be helpful.
Helping people learn to participate and contribute on any level is invaluable. It is not acceptable to dismiss relevant questions by anyone seeking help understanding free software or free culture. While it should also be a priority to help the user learn how to solve their own problems in the future, it is always secondary to their immediate concerns. The accessibility of resources is our responsibility as a community, and it is only appropriate to direct people to external resources (web search, documentation, guides, etc) when also providing the guidance and specificity to answer their exact problems.
Be cooperative.
Our contributions are all valuable and will be built upon by others, and in turn our work will depend on that of others. We are all working together for free software and free culture, and the success of our efforts depends on our ability to work together. This includes many basic things like asking for help if unsure about something, avoiding duplicating efforts or splintering the community, and making it as easy as possible for others to get involved with your efforts. Always seek out people and projects to work or collaborate with, and try to be receptive to criticism. All work should be done as transparently as possible and published in a way that enables people to contribute their own input and provides clear instructions on how they can help out.
Be accountable.
Being responsible for your actions includes remaining open to being called out on mistakes, as well as owning up to and apologizing for them without downplaying your actions or intentions. If you are in a leadership position, you should announce if and when you have to leave a project, and try to find others who can pick up where you leave off. This also means that when making commitments, you should have reasonable expectations for yourself, and don't overcommit.
Be an ally.
Being an ally is not an identity to be self-applied and worn about, but rather a process of continually learning new ways to hold yourself and others accountable. This process depends on listening to the people of whom you strive to be an ally, not speaking on their behalf. It involves the constant challenging of one's own beliefs, biases, internationalization of previous experiences, and resistance to change. Oppressive behaviors such as hate speech and harassment will not be tolerated. Oppression is any language or action that expresses, reinforces, upholds, or sympathizes with any system of social domination, including, but not limited to ableism, racism, cissexism, heterosexism, misogyny, classism, etc. These can take the form of personal attacks, trolling, baiting, spamming, intimidation, stalking, following, non-consensual photography or recording, repeated interruptions or major disruptions, inappropriate physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention, and verbal comments related to disability, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, body size, physical appearance, nationality, or religion.
If a participant engages in any of these behaviors, whatever measures are needed to make the harassed person(s) feel safe should be taken, including warning the offender or expulsion from the space. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please notify Libby and/or Kẏra.
Advocate Freedom.
The free software and free culture movement is first and foremost about freeing software users from software owners, so please be sure to have read our critical documents and understand our core philosophy. While we oppose proprietary software and non-free cultural works, it is important that we are understanding when we encourage people to use free software and free cultural works. Keep in mind that these choices are not always freely made, and individuals are not to blame for the circumstances and constraints that influence or even coerce their technology and media choices. Being respectful doesn't mean sacrificing our core ideals; we should always frame the issues we work on in terms of those ideals. That means using language that foregrounds freedom, like referring to the operating system we promote as "GNU/Linux", talking about free software rather than open source, and encouraging people to try distributions that are fully committed to freedom.
Enforcement
Anyone can stand up for this code of conduct and direct people who are unaware of it to this document. If that doesn't lead to a resolution, or if more help is needed, we have several channels you can use:
- You can contact Libby and/or Kẏra of the Free Software Foundation.
- At in-person events, you may reach out to staff (preferably not volunteers).
Violations of the code of conduct may range from a warning to a permanent ban from online and in-person spaces, depending on the severity of the violation.
