adopted from Hack Club

• Treat everyone with respect and kindness.
• Be thoughtful in how you communicate.
• Don't be destructive or inflammatory.
• If you encounter an issue, please mail [email protected].

If you join in or contribute to Hack OC in any way, you are encouraged to follow the Code of Conduct while doing so.

Explicit enforcement of the Code of Conduct applies to all online Hack OC groups, in-person meetings, and events including but not limited to:

• The Discord
• The Event

These are the values to which people in the Hack OC community should aspire.

• Be friendly and welcoming
• Be patient
  • Remember that people have varying communication styles and that not everyone is using their native language (meaning and tone can be lost in translation).
• Be thoughtful
  • Productive communication requires effort. Think about how your words will be interpreted.
  • Remember that sometimes it is best to refrain entirely from commenting.
• Be respectful
  • In particular, respect differences of opinion.
• Be charitable
  • Interpret the arguments of others in good faith, do not seek to disagree.
  • When we do disagree, try to understand why.
• Avoid destructive behavior:
  • Derailing: stay on topic; if you want to talk about something else, start a new conversation.
  • Unconstructive criticism: don't merely condemn the current state of affairs; offer—or at least solicit—suggestions as to how things may be improved.
  • Snarking (pithy, unproductive, sniping comments)
  • Discussing potentially offensive or sensitive issues; this all too often leads to unnecessary conflict.
  • Microaggressions: brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative slights and insults to a person or group.

People are complicated. You should expect to be misunderstood and to misunderstand others; when this inevitably occurs, resist the urge to be defensive or assign blame. Try not to take offense where no offense was intended. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Even if the intent was to provoke, do not rise to it. It is the responsibility of all parties to de-escalate conflict when it arises.

These actions are explicitly forbidden in Hack OC:

• Expressing or provoking:
  • insulting, demeaning, hateful, or threatening remarks;
  • discrimination based on age, nationality, race, (dis)ability, gender (identity or expression), sexuality, religion, or similar personal characteristic;
  • bullying or systematic harassment;
  • unwelcome sexual advances, including sexually explicit content.
• Advertisement or recruitment for events, companies, organizations, etc - unless specifically given permission by Hack OC.
• Posting spam-like content that disrupts the environment of the community.

Please understand that speech and actions have consequences, and unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated. When you participate in areas where the code of conduct applies, you should act in the spirit of the "Hacker values". If you conduct yourself in a way that is explicitly forbidden by the Code of Conduct, you will be warned and asked to stop, and your messages may be removed by community moderators. Repeated offenses may result in a temporary or permanent ban from the community.

If you encounter a conduct-related issue, you should report it to our team using the process described below. Do not post about the issue publicly or try to rally sentiment against a particular individual or group.

• Mail [email protected]
  • Your message will reach our team.
  • Reports are confidential within our team.
  • Should you choose to remain anonymous then the team cannot notify you of the outcome of your report.
  • You may contact a member of the group directly if you do not feel comfortable contacting the group as a whole. That member will then raise the issue with the Working Group as a whole, preserving the privacy of the reporter (if desired).
  • If your report concerns a member of the team they will be recused from discussions of the report.
• You should receive a response within 48 hours (likely sooner). (Should you choose to contact a single team member, it may take longer to receive a response.)
• The team will meet to review the incident and determine what happened.
  • With the permission of person reporting the incident, the tean may reach out to other community members for more context.
  • The team will reach a decision as to how to act. These may include:
    • Nothing.
    • A request for a private or public apology.
    • A private or public warning.
    • An imposed vacation (for instance, asking someone to abstain for a week from the Slack or a GitHub project).
    • A permanent or temporary ban from some or all Hack OC spaces.
• The team will reach out to the original reporter to let them know the decision.
• Appeals to the decision may be made to the team, or to any of its members directly.

Note that the goal of the Code of Conduct and the team is to resolve conflicts in the most harmonious way possible. We hope that in most cases issues may be resolved through polite discussion and mutual agreement. Bannings and other forceful measures are to be employed only as a last resort.

This was adapted from Hack Club's Code of Conduct, which was adopted from Go's Code of Conduct. It is to be noted that many parts of Go's Code of Conduct are adopted from the Code of Conduct documents of the Django, FreeBSD, and Rust projects.