Code of Conduct

= Page: Code of Conduct =

This is a draft for a code of conduct for Wikimedia technical spaces. It applies both within physical spaces, such as Wikimedia technical events and Wikimedia technical presentations in other events, and virtual spaces (MediaWiki.org, wikitech.wikimedia.org, Phabricator, Gerrit, technical mailing lists, technical IRC channels, and Etherpad).

Principles
In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming community, we are committed to making participation in Wikimedia technical projects a respectful and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sex, sexual orientation, disability, neuroatypicality, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, political affiliation, or religion.

Technical skills and community status make no difference to the obligation to treat others decently. Newcomers and other contributors with limited experience in our community often deserve a welcoming attitude and constructive feedback. Prolific contributions and technical expertise are not a justification for lower standards of behavior.

Unacceptable behavior
Harassment and other types of inappropriate behavior are unacceptable in all public and private Wikimedia technical spaces. Examples include but are not limited to:


 * Personal attacks, violence, threats of violence, or deliberate intimidation.
 * Discriminatory comments.
 * Unwanted off-topic use of sexual language or imagery aimed at a specific person.
 * Unwanted IRL attention, touching, or physical contact (sexual or otherwise).
 * Inappropriate and unwanted private communication after being asked to stop, or any form of stalking.
 * Unwanted photography or recording in a non-public space.
 * Disclosure of a person's identity or other private information without their consent. Disclosure of some identifying information is not consent to disclose other identifying information.
 * Discrimination (unless required by law). Targeted outreach to marginalized and otherwise underrepresented groups is allowed and encouraged.
 * Using the code of conduct system for purposes other than reporting genuine violations of the code of conduct (e.g., retaliating against a reporter or victim by filing a report claiming their response was harassment).

Publishing or reporting private communication or personally identifying information for the purposes of reporting harassment (as explained here) and/or in the case of whistleblowing, is acceptable.

Report a problem

 * In case of threats of harm and other urgent situations, notify the relevant authorities first (if possible) and email the Wikimedia Foundation via emergency@undefinedwikimedia.org (more information).

People who experience or observe behavior they dislike are encouraged to follow any of these steps:


 * 1) Tell the person who is behaving in a way you dislike to stop.
 * 2) If you are at an event, report the problem to the police, event organizers, or a designated contact.
 * 3) Report the problem directly to the Code of Conduct Committee via techconduct@undefinedwikimedia.org. You can also send a report to the Committee if you reported an incident elsewhere but were not satisfied with the response.

Reports can be as short as a notification with a link, but more information will help us understand what is happening. You can include:
 * Your contact information (e.g. Wikimedia and Phabricator usernames), if you want to identify yourself
 * Your account of the incident:
 * Where and when it happened
 * A description of the behavior
 * Who was involved and who saw it happen
 * Whether the incident is ongoing
 * Any additional information that will help us fully understand the problem, such as previous incidents or special circumstances
 * Links to public records of the incident, if any
 * Screenshots showing what happened

Reports are processed confidentially. For more information, see Confidentiality.

Go to Code of Conduct/Cases to learn about how reports to the Committee are processed.

Attribution and re-use
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant (revision 49054013), the jQuery Code of Conduct (revision 91777886), the Open Code of Conduct (v1.0), and the Citizen Code of Conduct, along with the WMF Friendly space policy. Text from the Contributor Covenant and the jQuery Code of Conduct is used under the MIT License. The text from the Open Code of Conduct is used under a Creative Commons Attribution license. The text from the Citizen Code of Conduct is used under a Creative Commons Share-alike Attribution license. The overall text is under MediaWiki.org's standard license (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Handling reports
Reports sent to techconduct@undefinedwikimedia.org are handled by the Code of Conduct Committee with urgency and confidentiality. When assessing behavior in Wikimedia technical spaces, the Committee can consider behavior in other spaces (e.g. a conference or website, whether or not related to Wikimedia) for context.

Immediate Response
The first priority is to act quickly in order to avoid a deterioration of the present situation. A Committee member can issue a short-term response in the name of the Committee.

Longer-term Response
The full Committee, after having received the written report following the Immediate Response, will investigate whether there is a history of similar complaints about an individual or in that space. Longer-term Responses may require the Committee to investigate within the margins of confidentiality, eventually contacting any individuals involved and/or related administrators or project maintainers. They may also request support from experts and reviewers external to the Committee and unrelated to the case. The Committee must have internal consensus on the resolution.

Responses and resolutions
The Committee will consider actions already taken (if any) in the local space (e.g. MediaWiki.org, IRC, an in-person event).

An Immediate Response to a breach may include (see below for details):
 * A private or public message
 * A temporary ban or permission revocation

Possible Longer-term Responses by the Committee to a reported breach of the Code of Conduct may include:
 * Taking no further action.
 * A private message from the Committee to the individual(s) involved. In this case, the group chair will deliver that message to the individual(s) over email, copying the group.
 * A public message. In this case, the group chair will deliver that message in the same venue that the violation occurred (e.g. in IRC for a violation on IRC; Phabricator for a violation on Phabricator). The group may choose to publish this message elsewhere for posterity.
 * A temporary or permanent removal of special permissions (e.g. Gerrit's +2 permission) or from positions of responsibility in Wikimedia technical spaces.
 * An imposed break (e.g. asking someone to "take a week off" from a technical mailing list or technical IRC channel). The group chair will communicate this imposed break to the individual(s). They'll be asked to take this break voluntarily, but if they don't agree then a temporary ban may be imposed to enforce this break.
 * A temporary or permanent ban from some or all Wikimedia technical spaces. The group will maintain records of all such bans so that they may be reviewed in the future, extended to new Wikimedia technical forums, or otherwise maintained.

After the initial outcome, the reporter will be notified.

In some cases the Committee may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that is the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will be treated confidentially. This information will not be included in the public statement, unless those individuals instruct the Committee otherwise.

Appealing a resolution
After being notified of the outcome, the reporter or any people sanctioned may raise objections to the resolution. These will be considered by the Committee, which may alter the outcome. If the outcome is altered, the new outcome will be logged. When the Committee begins enforcing a decision, that is also logged.

Only resolutions (such as bans) that last more than one week may be appealed by people who were sanctioned. Reported victims can always appeal. To appeal a decision of the Committee, the reported offender or reported victim may contact the Technical Collaboration team at technical-collaboration@undefinedwikimedia.org and they will review the case. Until an appeal is resolved, the prior resolution remains fully in effect.

= Page: Code of Conduct/Committee =

The Code of Conduct Committee is a team of five trusted individuals with diverse affiliations responsible for general enforcement of the Code of conduct for Wikimedia technical spaces. Committee members are in charge of processing complaints, discussing with the parties affected, agreeing on resolutions, and following up on their enforcement.

Incident reports to the Committee should go through the [mailto:techconduct@wikimedia.org official email] for record-keeping and proper handling. Direct communication with individual Committee members is highly discouraged. Please remember these conversations are also covered under the Code of Conduct.

Diversity
Diversity among Committee members is encouraged, as a way to promote fairness and independence in their decisions. Members need not be formally part of any organization, and the Committee cannot have all members affiliated to the same employer. The selection process should ensure that the Committee has a good knowledge of our communities.

Conflict of interest
Neither members of the Committee nor members of the appeals body are permitted to participate in a decision, if doing so would place them in a conflict of interest.

Potential types of conflict of interest may include, but are not limited to:
 * Professional - Employee/manager relationship, members of the same team or people whose jobs or professions are directly affected by the other person.
 * Financial - Having financial ties to a person involved in a case.
 * Family and personal - Family member or close personal relationship.

The process for recusal is:
 * Recusals before hearing case: Members of the Committee must recuse themselves if a Conflict of Interest arises. If they recuse, they will not participate in the case in any way; they must not discuss it or participate in the process. If a member with an alleged conflict does not recuse, the decision is referred to an external body (see “Cases of refusing to recuse” below.)
 * Replacements: One or more auxiliary members will join as needed, when there are recusals (for any reason, including COI) by the regular members.
 * Cases of refusing to recuse: The auxiliary members also oversee recusals. If a member of the Committee refuses to recuse themselves after a conflict is alleged, the decision is examined by the members of the auxiliary group. They have the same level of trust as the Committee members (they have signed the same agreement and participated in training).

Confidentiality
Committee members and anyone else joining the Committee's deliberations on a case may not disclose private information, except when required by procedures of the Code of Conduct or the law.

If a WMF employee or contractor is accused of wrongdoing, or a WMF employee or contractor is reported as being subjected to wrongdoing, the Committee will forward the report to the employee's or contractor’s manager, and to WMF HR in writing. If the Committee becomes aware of threatened or actual violence/self-harm, child protection issues, or major cross-wiki abuse, they must notify the WMF Support and Safety team. These types of reports will be forwarded as soon as they are received.

Confidential information (including their identity) about a reporter, target of unacceptable behavior, or witness will not be revealed during an investigation, unless:
 * One of the above exceptions applies, or
 * The person agrees to it as part of the investigation

The Committee will maintain a private log of reports received, their related discussions, and their resolutions. A Committee member must not access the log for a case if they are not participating in that decision.

Selection of new members
If you are interested in serving, you can tell the group choosing the Committee, by emailing techconductcandidates@undefinedwikimedia.org at any time. You can also suggest qualified candidates to be on the Committee, using the same email address.

The first Committee will be chosen by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Technical Collaboration team. Subsequent members and auxiliary members of the Committee will be chosen by the current regular members through a majority vote.

The group doing the selection will research and discuss candidates. Six weeks before the beginning of the next Committee term, they will publish their candidate slate (a list of candidates) on-wiki. The community can provide feedback on these candidates, via private email to the group choosing the next Committee. The feedback period will be two weeks. The group choosing the Committee will then either finalize the slate, or update the candidate slate in response to concerns raised. If the candidate slate changes, there will be another two week feedback period covering the newly proposed members. After the selections are finalized, there will be a training period, after which the new Committee is appointed. The current Committee continues to serve until the feedback, selection, and training process is complete.

Before beginning their term, Committee members and auxiliary members must identify themselves to the Wikimedia Foundation, sign the Confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information to ensure confidentiality of reports handled, commit to comply with and enforce the full Code of Conduct, and be trained.

When the regular Committee members are selected, the responsible group must also select five auxiliary members of the Committee. The auxiliary members step in temporarily in case of recusals, or can become regular Committee members in case of a resignation or removal. In either case, the auxiliary members of the Committee determine by their own procedures which auxiliary member will change roles. Auxiliary members are selected through the same process as regular Committee members. The auxiliary members will have the same training as the Committee. However, they will not have continuous access to the ongoing cases while in their auxiliary role.

After new Committee members are chosen, the Committee selects a chair.

Term of Committee
Members of the various wikicommunities select the COC Committee members every six months.

As an exception, the initial Committee term lasts one year.

Up to four regular Committee members, and four auxiliary members, can be re-selected for their existing role during a cycle.

Resignation and removal
Committee members can resign at any time. In severe cases, a member not meeting their obligations can be removed through a majority vote by regular members of the Committee or community consensus. In case of a vacancy, one of the auxiliary members will become a regular member. The Committee continues to fully function when there are vacancies in any part.

= Page: Code of Conduct/Amendments =

The Code of Conduct can be amended under the condition that changes made are not expected to reduce its effectiveness. In order to achieve this, the Committee facilitates a review process in these terms:
 * The process for proposing changes to the Code of Conduct applies equally to Committee members and anyone else.
 * Anybody wishing to modify the Code of Conduct can do so, until consensus is reached. When we have reached a stable consensus version then en:WP:BRD applies. People wanting to remain anonymous may send their proposals to techconduct@undefinedwikimedia.org, and the Committee will post them.
 * A proposal may be modified or abandoned by their promoters as a result of the initial discussion.
 * Every three months, the Committee collects the ideas proposed (if any) and organizes a call for feedback announced in the main technical spaces.
 * A proposal is accepted and integrated to the Code of Conduct by the Committee when the community reaches consensus, unless a majority of the regular Committee members oppose it.
 * Proposals declined can be resubmitted.