ScalaBridge Code of Conduct

We are committed to providing a friendly, safe, and welcoming environment for all, regardless of level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other such characteristics.

Our Standards

Whether you’re a regular contributor or a newcomer, we care about making this community a welcoming and safe place for you and we’ve got your back.

As a member of the community, you agree to the following:

Encouraged

Discouraged

Dealing With Harassment

For ScalaBridge Attendees and Participants

If it is an emergency, if you are injured, or feel threatened, do not hesitate to call the police (911 in the US). Your safety is always our first priority.

Please report all incidents to an organizer, preferrably in writing, in person or in the incident-report channel in the ScalaBridge slack.

Organizers will identify themselves at the beginning of the event. If you aren’t sure who the organizers are or where to find them, ask any volunteer (usually identified with a star on their name tag).

You can use FifthBot to submit anonymous messages in Slack, which are moderated. For instance:

/fifthbot This message will be anonymous. What an awesome idea!

Reports will be kept confidential between organizers and counseling advisors; however, if the organizer feels anyone is in danger, police or security will be notified. The report should include:

If you feel another student, volunteer or organizer has been disrespectful, but aren’t sure if it qualifies as harassment, feel free to respond to that person directly, or email the ScalaBridge moderators. We seek to create a safe learning space and people need to know if their behavior inhibits effective learning for other participants. We welcome your participation in this, and respect your privacy if you choose simply to report the incident. When we know about inappropriate behavior we can work with individuals and improve our training to educate our volunteers.

For ScalaBridge Organizers

As organizers, when encountering harassment reports, you should protect the reporter and do NOT do anything that the reporter does not feel comfortable see happening.

If someone reports harassment:

  1. If it is an emergency, if someone is injured or in danger, do not hesitate to call the police (911 in the US), then notify the organizers. Safety is always our first priority.

  2. Provided that everyone is safe, and ask the individual if they would write down the details if they haven’t already or tell them to you as you write them down. If you are not an organizer and they are ‘line of sight’, discreetly get their attention. If you are a volunteer and you feel like you can’t handle hearing about harassment calmly or are uncomfortable in this role, ask the person to wait and find an organizer immediately.

The report should contain:

Don’t involve anyone else until an Organizer has determined a response plan. We want to be respectful of the confidentiality of the reporter. If you feel like you need to talk to someone, you may call the number below, so you can discuss this with a volunteer who is experienced in handling harassment situations.

Offer the victim a private place to sit

Involve law enforcement or security only at victim’s request, unless you feel there is immediate danger. In many cases, reporting harassment to law enforcement is very unpleasant and may result in further harassment. Forcing victims to go to law enforcement will reduce reports of harassment (but not actual harassment).

A staff member can provide the list of emergency contacts and say something like “if you want any help reporting this incident, please let us know” and leave it at that.

Reports of Harassment that were Widely Witnessed

These include things like harassing content in conference talks, or harassment that took place in a crowded space. Simply say “Thanks, this sounds like a breach of our anti-harassment policy. I am going to convene a meeting of a small group of people and figure out what our response will be.”

Private Reports of Harassment

Follow the instructions above and let them know that you will be collaborating with a volunteer counselor to figure out an appropriate response.

Do not invite them to withdraw the complaint or mention that withdrawal is OK: this suggests that you want them to do so, and is therefore coercive.

Organizers need to make sure the report is comfortable with the next step before taking actions publicly.

If the response was widely witnessed, it is important to address the incident at the next large group meeting, such as the beginning of lunch, closing remarks or while reviewing the Code of Conduct during the opening remarks if the incident happened at the InstallFest.

Follow up action

You should talk directly with a volunteer counselor. At your discretion, involve your co-organizer and/or volunteers who responded to the report. Discuss:

Neither the complainant nor the alleged harasser should attend. (If the event was very widely witnessed, such as a harassing talk, this may be an exception to this guideline.) People with a conflict of interest should exclude themselves or if necessary be excluded by others.

As soon as possible, either before or during the above meeting, let the alleged harasser know that there is a complaint about them, let them tell someone their side of the story and that person takes it into the meeting.

As soon as possible after that meeting, let the harasser know what action is being taken. Let them know that they may appeal to Leadership Contact below, but in the meantime the action stands.

Originally adapted from GeekFeminism wiki: Responding to Reports

Hotline

The hotline number is +1 (252) 591-1411

If you need to report an issue or are a Bridge workshop organizer in need of advice, please call our hotline. It is staffed by volunteers who have experience facilitating workshops. We can take a report and talk through the concern. We will respond immediately during a workshop. During the week, we may take a day or two to get back to you.

Additional Contacts

General questions: scalabridge@gmail.com ScalaBridge Committee Members, listed below

Moderation

These are the policies for upholding our community’s standards of conduct. If you feel that a thread needs moderation, please contact the moderation team.

In the Scala community we strive to go the extra step to look out for each other. Don’t just aim to be technically unimpeachable; try to be your best self. In particular, avoid exacerbating offensive or sensitive issues, particularly if they’re off-topic; this all too often leads to unnecessary fights, hurt feelings, and damaged trust; worse, it can drive people away from the community entirely.

If someone takes issue with something you said or did, resist the urge to be defensive. Rather, stop the offending behavior, apologize, and be sensitive thereafter. Even if you feel you were misinterpreted or unfairly accused, chances are good there was something you could’ve communicated better — remember that it’s your responsibility to make your fellow Scala developers comfortable. We are all here first and foremost because we want to talk about cool technology, and everyone wants to get along in doing so. People are generally eager to assume good intent and forgive.

Domain

The enforcement policies listed above apply to all official Scala channels: mailing lists, GitHub repositories and Gitter channels under the scala, Scala Center and lampepfl organizations, Discourse, and Scala Center venues and hackathons. For other projects adopting the Scala Code of Conduct, please contact the maintainers of those projects for enforcement. If you wish to use this code of conduct for your own project, consider explicitly mentioning your moderation policy or making a copy with your own moderation policy so as to avoid confusion.

Contact

For CoC-related questions or to report possible violations on the channels listed above, contact one of the moderators active on that channel if you can identify them, or send an e-mail to scalabridge@gmail.com, which forwards to general moderators at ScalaBridge.

Send an e-mail to one of the following general moderators if you want to choose who you are talking to:

Note

The enforcement policies listed above apply to all ScalaBridge events and channels: (i.e., Slack, Gitter). Any actions that infringes the above Code of Conduct, determined by the ScalaBridge committee, is a violation of the ScalaBridge Code of Conduct. The ScalaBridge committee reserves the right to add and modify the Code of Conduct for improving the CoC and for protecting all members in the community.

Credits

Adapted from and/or inspired by multiple successful Codes of Conduct, including: