(This is a GitHub-hosted copy of the official Code at Open edX Community Code of Conduct.)
edX and the Open edX community seek to foster an open and welcoming environment to as wide a range of participants as possible. This mission takes priority over the letter of the rules.
In addition to the Rules for Online Conduct for the Open edX website, the guidelines (“Guidelines”) below apply to anyone who is using official Open edX discussion venues and communication channels such as mailing lists, pull requests, blogs, meet-ups, conferences, and discussion boards (collectively, “Official Open edX Venues”).
- Accounts and Names: Pseudonyms and real names are both allowed; sockpuppets are not.
- Be Kind: Being welcoming to new community members is everyone’s responsibility. Show empathy; use welcoming and inclusive language. Critique is encouraged; being mean is not.
- Be On-Topic: Posts and comments should contribute to the discussion. Start new discussions rather than derailing existing ones.
- Be Respectful: Do not distribute sexually explicit material. Keep swearing to a minimum. Be sensitive to the expectations of a global audience.
- Be Legal: Comply with and do not violate United States law (or other applicable law or legal obligations) and encourage others to do the same.
- Respect Privacy: Respect the privacy of others. Do not distribute private, confidential, or proprietary correspondence or information without permission.
- Minimize Promotion: Attributing code, thanking other contributors, and mentioning one’s company are allowed. Direct promotion or advertisement are not, except in specific venues.
- Report Upward: Please inform the appropriate community manager for your discussion venue if you see a violation of the rules. Handling it yourself is more likely to start an argument, and makes it harder for the community manager to track repeat offenders.
- Respect the Moderators: Do not argue publicly or privately with moderators about their actions. It’s not good for the community in any way. If you have trouble with what one moderator has said to you, bring it up with another moderator, or with a member of the Open edX governance board.
Examples of behavior that contribute to creating a positive environment include:
- Using welcoming and inclusive language
- Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
- Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
- Focusing on what is best for the community
- Showing empathy towards other community members
Standards of acceptable behavior for participation in the Open edX community are established by edX and a team of active, longstanding contributors from the Open edX community (collectively, the “Governance Team”). The Governance Team will manage Official Open edX Venues and be responsible for identifying and responding to behavior that it believes to be inconsistent with the Guidelines, the Rules for Online Conduct, or otherwise unacceptable, as determined in its sole discretion.
Responses by the Governance Team may include without limitation the removal, edit, or rejection of comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions and/or the decision to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor.
For most offences the Governance Team will provide a warning in an email to the offender. However, certain behaviors will be considered grounds for immediate removal, including, but not limited to, harassment, belligerent behavior, and bigotry. In such cases, we reserve the right to remove a contributor without advance notice. We will provide a process for appeal, but all such cases will be at the sole discretion of the Governance Team.
Community members may report instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior by contacting the community manager at oscm@axim.org. Further details of specific enforcement policies may be posted separately. In the case that a report is being made about a specific member of the Governance Team and raising the issue with a name individual is preferable, the following people may be emailed directly:
- Edward Zarecor (ed@axim.org)
- Sarina Canelake (sarina@axim.org)
Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good faith may face temporary or permanent repercussions as escalated to and determined by the Governance Team.
Appeals to bans should also be directed to oscm@axim.org.
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 1.4, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/1/4/code-of-conduct.html, with other pieces taken from the RPG.net rules and guidelines and the Ravelry community guidelines.
The Contributor Covenant was created by Coraline Ada Ehmke in 2014 and is released under the CC BY 4.0 License.