Code of Conduct

The TOSSI Foundation is committed to a welcoming, harassment-free community for everyone. We adopt the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, as the basis for this Code of Conduct. It applies to every contributor, maintainer, committee member, and participant across all TOSSI spaces.

Reporting - the short version

To report unacceptable behavior, email the Code of Conduct Committee at conduct@tossi.org. Reports are handled confidentially. You do not need to be certain a violation occurred to report a concern.

Our pledge

We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Our standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:

Empathy & kindness

Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people.

Respect

Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.

Constructive feedback

Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback.

Accountability

Accepting responsibility, apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience.

Community focus

Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community.

Good faith

Assuming good intent, and engaging with technical disagreement as a problem to solve together.

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind.
• Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks.
• Public or private harassment.
• Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission (“doxxing”).
• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.

Enforcement responsibilities

Community leaders - maintainers, the Technical Steering Committee, and the Code of Conduct Committee - are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Community leaders have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces - repositories, issue trackers, pull requests, mailing lists, chat (Slack/Discourse), community calls, and SIG/working-group meetings - and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. Examples of representing our community include using an official email address, posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event.

Reporting

1. Report it. Email conduct@tossi.org. If your concern involves a member of the Code of Conduct Committee, note that in your report and it will be routed to handle the conflict of interest.

2. What to include (optional). A description of what happened, when and where, who was involved, any links or screenshots, and whether the behavior is ongoing. Partial reports are welcome - share what you can.

3. Acknowledgement. The committee aims to acknowledge receipt within 3 business days.

4. Confidential review. The committee reviews and investigates all complaints promptly and fairly. Your identity and the details of your report are kept confidential to the extent possible.

5. Outcome. The committee determines and communicates the consequences, and respects the privacy and security of the reporter throughout.

Confidentiality

All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident. Reports are shared only with those who need to know to investigate and act.

Enforcement guidelines

Community leaders will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct:

1 · Correction

Impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or unwelcome.

Consequence: A private, written warning, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested.

2 · Warning

Impact: A violation through a single incident or series of actions.

Consequence: A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved - including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct - for a specified period. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.

3 · Temporary ban

Impact: A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior.

Consequence: A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.

4 · Permanent ban

Impact: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals.

Consequence: A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the community.

Appeals

Anyone subject to an enforcement action may appeal by emailing conduct@tossi.org with a concise statement of grounds. Appeals are reviewed by committee members who were not involved in the original decision; where that is not possible, the TSC appoints an impartial reviewer.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, available at contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct. Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by Mozilla’s code of conduct enforcement ladder. The Contributor Covenant is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

For answers to common questions about this code of conduct, see the FAQ at contributor-covenant.org/faq. Translations are available at contributor-covenant.org/translations.

Status: forming

The Code of Conduct Committee is being established as part of the foundation’s bootstrap. Until it is fully seated, reports to conduct@tossi.org are received and handled confidentially by the founding maintainers. The committee’s standing membership will be published once appointed.