Code of Conduct

We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, mental and physical ability and criminal convictions.

Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we’re a worldwide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else’s primary language.

Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behaviour and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.

We are a community of professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behaviour aren’t acceptable.

Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. The strength of our community comes from its diversity, people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Don’t forget that it is human to err and blaming each other doesn’t get us anywhere. Instead, focus on helping to resolve issues and learning from mistakes. 

1. Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, age, regional discrimination, political, religious affiliation or criminal convictions;

2. Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment;

3. Deliberate misgendering. This includes deadnaming or persistently using a pronoun that does not correctly reflect a person’s gender identity. You must address people by the name they prefer. When online, it’s fine to address them by their username;

4. Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop;

5. Threats of violence, both physical and psychological Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm;

6. Deliberate intimidation;

7. Stalking or following;

8. Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes;

9. Sustained disruption of discussion;

10. Unwelcome sexual attention, including gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour;

11. Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others;

12. Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease;

13. Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect others from intentional abuse;

14. Publication of non-harassing private communication.

1. Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you”

2. Refusal to explain or debate social justice concepts

3. Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial

4. Criticising racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions.

We encourage everyone to participate and are committed to building a community for all.

Although we will fail at times, we seek to treat everyone both as fairly and equally as possible. Whenever a participant has made a mistake, we expect them to take responsibility for it. If someone has been harmed or offended, it is our responsibility to listen carefully and respectfully, and do our best to right the wrong.

Although this list cannot be exhaustive, we explicitly honour diversity in age, gender, gender identity or expression, culture, ethnicity, language, national origin, political beliefs, profession, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and technical ability. We will not tolerate discrimination based on any of the protected characteristics above, including participants with disabilities and people with criminal convictions.

If you experience or witness unacceptable behaviour—or have any other concerns—please report it by contacting us via contact@makers.tech

All reports will be handled with discretion. In your report please include:

1. Your contact information.

2. Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there are additional witnesses, please include them as well. Your account of what occurred, and if you believe the incident is ongoing. If there is a publicly available record (e.g. a slack post/email/social media post), please include a link.

3. Any additional information that may be helpful.

After filing a report, a representative will contact you personally, review the incident, follow up with any additional questions, and make a decision as to how to respond. If the person who is harassing you is part of the response team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. If the complaint originates from a member of the response team, it will be handled by a different member of the response team. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse.

At Makers we strongly believe that everyone should be able to learn in a safe, supportive and inclusive environment. We work hard to make sure that’s the case but we need your help to keep it that way. While at Makers (around Week 3 and again in Week 9) we’ll also send you two surveys asking you to speak up if you’ve experienced or noticed any behaviour that violates our code of conduct.

We’ll talk with you to work out what, if anything, you’d like to do. You might decide you’d like us to mediate a discussion, or you might prefer us to speak to the involved people on your behalf. Or we might come up with something different.

We take all reports very seriously and we treat each one with complete confidentiality.