Code of Conduct

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Continuing the discussion from Gathering to discuss values, governance, criteria and process.

See original pad: https://pad.libreho.st/soc0c#

Code of Conduct

The Librehosters network is committed to providing an inclusive, safe, and collaborative environment for all participants, regardless of their gender, gender expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sex or sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, or age. We encourage every participant to be themselves, and must respect the rights of others. The code of conduct is a set of guidelines that establishes shared values and ensures that behaviors that may harm participants are avoided.

The values of the Librehosters network are focused on developing both our individual and collective potential, supporting and empowering the most marginalized, mutual respect, and an anti-violence approach that favors support and collaboration among participants and the resolution of conflicts. A code of conduct helps us co-exist in a more positive way and provides individuals who are victims of negative behaviors with confidence that they will be supported by the organization and the Librehosters network community, who respects and stands behind the code of conduct.

The Librehosters network works towards providing a welcoming environment where participants are treated with dignity and respect and are free to be themselves. We encourage all participants to approach the Librehosters network with an open and positive attitude, engaging constructively with others at all times.

Code of Conduct

By participating in the Librehosters network, we all agree on the following code of conduct. This Code of Conduct applies to all the services hosted on the libreho.st domain, chat channels, events and public presentations.

Respect for Diversity & Inclusion:

We avoid comments, actions or propaganda that encourage discrimination related to gender, gender expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, sexual characteristics, physical appearance, disability, or age.

Respect Freedom of Expression:

We support an individual’s freedom of expression, and will not make fun of accents or make unsolicited grammatical corrections. We will strive to better understand each other by not assuming experiences or beliefs, clarifying meanings, and making an effort to speak clearly, avoiding jargon and acronyms.

Commitment to Non-Violence:

We will not engage in any type of violence or aggression, including verbal threats or complaints, intimidation, stalking or harassment, whether physically or psychologically.

Rejection of Sexual Harassment:

We understand sexual harassment as unwanted sexual attention, including but not limited to unwanted physical contact or insinuation of a sexual nature, as well as displaying images, drawings or visual representations of any kind that objectify members of any gender or reinforce oppression. The only exception is if this is part of a session, workshop and/or educational experience where showing these images is educational in nature.

Respect for Privacy:

We safeguard the privacy of the participants. This includes refraining from posting or publishing information about attendees (including names and affiliation) unless given clear permission, and avoid any type of unauthorized video, audio recording, or photography.

Facilitate Participation & Collaboration:

We work to create an environment that facilitates participation for all participants. We will not engage in sustained disruption of discussions or events, interrupt conversations in a way that negatively impacts collaboration, or engage in toxic behaviours to attract negative attention to a participant.

We Care about the Integrity and Health of the Community:

We value the health of the community and will not engage in behaviour that can negatively impact it. This includes contaminating food or drink with drugs, or inciting or insisting on the consumption of alcohol, psychoactive substances, etc.

Support Positive Interactions Among Participants

We are committed to engaging constructively with others at all times. We will not tolerate bullying, including requesting or mobilizing others, either in person or online, to bully others.

Enforcement

Overseeing the COC

The Librehosters Care Team, composed of volunteers, oversees the code of conduct, including addressing all incident reports. Breaking the code of conduct may result in immediate expulsion from the Librehosters network.

How to Report an Incident

If you witness an incident or are the victim of one, there are several ways to report it to the Librehosters Care Team.

  1. You can reach out to them directly via email at care@libreho.st
  2. If you require more privacy, you can message one of the Care Team of your choice privately (eventually using E2E encryption)

This code of conduct was inspired by the IFF CoC.

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Since I did not find the text of the proposal, and I wanted to post the following, I took the opportunity to create the topic for discussing the proposal and eventually hosting the actual version of the Librehosters code of conduct if the network chooses to adopt it.

My primary intent was to draw the attention to Funkwhale’s code of conduct for its particular take on the topic, and engage discussion about it.

Should we bring here the proposal we discussed last Sunday or should we wait for the other topics to be discussed first? @agnez embedded the pad, I copy-pasted the text.

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I think once approved the code of conduct should be hosted directly on the libreho.st website.

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It’s easier to have it here for discussion. We should have the website reflect the version here so we can keep them in sync. There’s a functionality to lock a post. The original Markdown or a JSON version containing the HTML can be used to generate the static HTML file for the site.

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I agree, i misunderstood thinking that you wanted it to be linked to here from the site.

Heres another coc for comparison too: https://www.drupal.org/dcoc

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should probably be participants or members

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We had a brief dicsussion about this at the Webarchitects management committe today and there were some questions that arose.

Has “sex” been left off this list intentionally?

What exactly is understood by “sexual characteristics”?

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Good call… Reading the sentence as “… avoid [stuff] that encourage discrimination related to… sexual orientation, sexual characteristics…” I would say that “sex” in this context would not be sufficiently explicit; “sexual orientation” covers a preference (or lack thereof), while “sexual characteristics” cover physical attributes. Does that make sense?

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In the UK there are laws making sex discrimination illegal in some circumstances, intentionally leaving “sex” off the list could be interpreted as a intent to challenge this legal situation?

Would a voyeur engaging in lecherous behavior count as an expression of their “sexual characteristics”?

I think it would be simpler and clearer if “sexual characteristics” was deleted and replaced by “sex”?

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I don’t think this example is relevant to behavior that encourage discrimination but rather falls short of respecting Rejection of Sexual Harassment. Although I would rephrase: “We understand sexual harassment as unwanted sexual attention, including unwanted physical contact…” to ensure it’s very clear.

Unsure what to say about UK law. There’s clearly no “intent to challenge this legal situation” and anyone reading these lines and concluding to this interpretation would be very pervert IMO.

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Sorry my example was a poor one.

If the intention is not to discriminate on the basis of “sex” why would there be a problem with adding “sex” to the list of things not to discriminate against?

I’m no legal expert but I believe that this the current UK list of “protected characteristics”:

It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:

  • age
  • gender reassignment
  • being married or in a civil partnership
  • being pregnant or on maternity leave
  • disability
  • race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
  • religion or belief
  • sex
  • sexual orientation

https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights

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I guess you have to ask the people at IFF who chose to write it this way. I have no clue otherwise than the interpretation I shared above.

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Webarchitects has no relationship with the IFF, we are members of the Librehoster network and we are being asked to sign up to this code of conduct so I think it is appropriate to raise questions about it here?

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Sure, but I think it would be more effective to ask the source since they seem to have chosen their words carefully otherwise. Maybe they will tell you that indeed it does not make sense in this case, or maybe they’ll tell you they used the Spanish legal terms… But I exhausted my own capacity to answer this question, that’s why I’m suggesting to contact them. Now, of course, we discuss it here, so someone else might come up with a better suggestion.

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A better phrasing might be, to address @chrisc criticism:

We avoid comments, actions or propaganda that encourage discrimination related to gender, gender expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sex or sexual orientation, sexual characteristics, physical appearance, disability, or age.

Similarly, a better phrasing might be:

We understand sexual harassment as unwanted sexual attention, including but not limited to unwanted physical contact or insinuation of a sexual nature, as well as displaying images, drawings or visual representations of any kind that objectify members of any gender or reinforce oppression. The only exception is if this is part of a session, workshop and/or educational experience where showing these images is educational in nature.

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I have no issues with adding “sex” (even without removing “sexual characteristics”), although I would not consider “pregnancy” as any of those, and therefore we would have to add to the list ad infinitum until we bump into a contradiction that forbids us to do something we would rather not do. Do you think adding “sex” would be enough, or should we also add “pregnancy” and others from the list you pasted above?

Would this list then cover all legal case in all countries? During the meeting I voiced against such lists, exactly for this reason :slight_smile:

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Yes, that would answer my main concern.

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I have no problem with adding sex either, but I do not really understand what sex means related to sexual characteristic, maybe this is because I am not English, and from my cultural view sex refers either to the organs or to the intercourse… I think the problem here is that we all speak in a very dominating language, and all have different cultural approaches to what sex is.

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Have we resolved all concerns raised? Can someone summarise what the actions are if not?

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Should I mark the changes in this post: Code of Conduct?