Code of Conduct

This is a code of conduct for Wikimedia technical spaces. It applies both within project spaces and in public spaces when an individual is representing the project or its community. Project spaces can be both physical, such as hackathons and other technical gatherings, and virtual (MediaWiki.org, wikitech.wikimedia.org, Phabricator, Gerrit, technical mailing lists, technical IRC channels, and Etherpad).

Principles
As contributors and maintainers of Wikimedia technical projects, and in the interest of fostering an open and welcoming community, we pledge to respect all people who contribute through reporting and discussing technical issues, requesting features, writing documentation, developing tools and libraries, submitting patches, proposing code changes, and other activities.

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, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, political affiliation, or religion.

Technical skills and community status make no difference to the right to be respected and the obligation to respect others. Newcomers and other contributors with limited experience in our community 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, deliberate intimidation.
 * Offensive, derogatory, or discriminatory comments.
 * Inappropriate use of sexual language or imagery.
 * Inappropriate or unwanted attention, touching, or physical contact (sexual or otherwise).
 * Inappropriate or unwanted communication, following, or any form of stalking.
 * Unwanted photography or recording.
 * Disclosure of a person's identity or other private information without their consent.
 * Trolling, for example by sustained disruption, interruption, or blocking of community collaboration.

Project administrators and maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, revert, or reject all comments, commits, code, wiki edits, tasks, and other contributions that violate this code of conduct.

Reporting
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting one or more of the project maintainers or designated contacts. If you are comfortable doing so, you should contact the individual and ask them to stop: describe the problems with their behavior, make them aware of this policy, and recommend to them what to do instead. If you observe or are otherwise made aware of violations of this policy, we ask that you report it to the Code of Conduct Committee for Wikimedia technical spaces by emailing techconduct@undefinedwikimedia.org. All reports will be kept confidential. In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that is the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

If you believe anyone is in physical danger, please notify appropriate law enforcement first and email emergency@undefinedwikimedia.org. If you are unsure what law enforcement agency is appropriate, please include this in your report and we will attempt to notify them.

In your report please include:
 * Your contact information, so we can get in touch with you if we need to follow up.
 * Names (legal names, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there were other witnesses besides you, please try to include them as well.
 * When and where the incident occurred. Please be as specific as possible.
 * Your account of what occurred. If there is a publicly available record (e.g. a mailing list archive or a public IRC logger) please include a link. Screenshots or diffs can be useful in case something is edited or deleted before action is taken.
 * Any extra context you believe existed for the incident.
 * If you believe this incident is ongoing.
 * Any other information you believe we should have.

Reports will receive urgent and immediate attention from the Code of Conduct Committee.

Enforcement
The response to a report of a violation of this policy is as follows:


 * 1) After receiving an initial report, the committee (and its members) are empowered to contact any individuals involved (including the alleged offender) to get a more complete account of events.  This may be required to investigate certain cases.  However, before revealing any confidential information from the report, they must get consent from the reporter.
 * 2) For a simple case (e.g. a first offense or a minor violation in a single space), a single committee member can (see below under 'Possible responses' for details):
 * 3) * Defer to the space itself.
 * 4) * Issue a reprimand directly.
 * 5) * Decide not to take action.
 * 6) For a more complicated case (e.g. a repeat offense, a case when a ban looks like it will be required, a cross-space incident, or a case where the committee disagrees with the response by a single member), either the initial responder or the committee can decide to have the committee address it.  The committee can also bring in people from the spaces involved (e.g. if it happens on both MediaWiki.org and IRC, bring in involved admins and IRC contacts).
 * 7) In case of even more complicated or urgent matters, or if the group is unable to reach a decision (e.g. the minority in the group objects to the decision), it can be delegated.
 * 8) After the initial outcome, the reporter will be notified. The initial outcome must always be logged, even if action is deferred or declined.  Both the notification and logging must be done regardless of whether the initial response is by a single member or the group.
 * 9) After being notified of the outcome, the reporter or alleged offender may raise objections to the resolution. These will be considered by the committee, which may alter the outcome.
 * 10) Appeals and delegations will be handled by the Engineering Community Team.

Possible responses by the full committee to a reported breach of the Code of Conduct may include:
 * Taking no further action, if the committee determines no violation occurred.
 * Defer to the space involved (e.g. MediaWiki.org admins in the case of an incident on MediaWiki.org, or event organizers for a hackathon), if they seem best-equipped to handle it.
 * A private reprimand from the committee to the individual(s) involved. In this case, the group chair will deliver that reprimand to the individual(s) over email, copying the group.
 * A public reprimand. In this case, the group chair will deliver that reprimand in the same venue that the violation occurred (e.g. in IRC for an IRC violation; email for an email violation). The group may choose to publish this message elsewhere for posterity.
 * 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.
 * A request for a public or private apology. The chair will deliver this request.
 * Project maintainers who do not follow the Code of Conduct may be removed from their positions of responsibility, temporarily or permanently.

Only resolutions (such as bans) that last 3 months or longer may be appealed by the reported offender. To appeal a decision of the committee, the reported offender may contact the Engineering Community Team at ect@undefinedwikimedia.org and they will review the case. In addition, any member of the community may raise concerns about the committee or a case.

Committee
A committee is responsible for general enforcement of this code of conduct. Committee members are in charge of processing complaints, discussing with the parties affected, agreeing on resolutions, and following up on their enforcement. At the committee's discretion, it can also delegate complex issues to the Wikimedia Foundation's Engineering Community team, transferring the responsibility of their resolution.

The committee is formed by five trusted individuals with diverse affiliations. It is required that at all times, at least one member of the committee is neither a WMF staff member nor a WMF contractor.

During nomination periods, any member of the community can nominate themselves; only self-nominations are permitted. The nomination period is one month. During the first two weeks, people can self-nominate and discuss the nominees. During the remainder of the month, only discussion is permitted. Nominees must identify to the Wikimedia Foundation at nomination time. The nomination must also note that the nominee agrees to comply with the full Code of Conduct. Nominees can make an initial statement. During all nomination periods, feedback can be provided publicly, or privately (to the group choosing the next committee), whichever the person giving feedback prefers.

The initial committee will be selected by the Engineering Community Team, after the first nomination period.

11 months after the initial committee is chosen, the second nomination period is opened. The third and later nomination periods open six months after the prior nomination period opened. One month after the beginning of every nomination period (except the first), the committee chooses five new members to replace it. Up to four committee members can be re-elected. There is a majority vote in which at least three committee members must approve of the full replacement committee.

After a new committee is chosen, the committee elects a chair.

Four committee members can remove the remaining member at any time, if that member is unable or unwilling to meet their obligations. Members can resign at any time. In cases of a vacancy, the committee should choose a new member as soon as possible.

Members of the committee must not participate in a decision if doing so would place them in a conflict of interest. Members may not disclose information from their committee work to anyone, except in strict compliance with the procedures given in the Code of Conduct, or when required to comply with a valid government legal process.

Attribution and re-use
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant (revision 49054013) and the jQuery Code of Conduct (revision 91777886), 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 overall text is under MediaWiki.org's standard license (CC BY-SA 3.0).

We value each other's contributions and each contributor's commitment to making our technical spaces friendly spaces for everyone. We encourage other projects to adopt and adapt this code of conduct regardless of whether they use Wikimedia technical infrastructure.