Code of Conduct

Quick Overview

Our Code of Conduct applies in all spaces surrounding Icinga, both physical events, virtual ones and communities around Icinga. If you feel like you are witnessing a violation of our Code of Conduct, please don’t hesitate to contact us either via mail to codeofconduct(at)icinga.comor reach out to anyone from the Icinga team. If you are unsure whether the Code of Conduct applies in your situation, please don’t hesitate to contact us anyway, as we’d rather be safe than sorry!

Icinga wants to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, ability, body size, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
Treat everyone with respect and be excellent to each other. Please read our guidelines carefully and ask for help if you are unsure about anything.

If you are new to discussions about diversity, we encourage you to do some research on marginalized groups. Acknowledge that the lived experiences of marginalized groups are valid. Process intense feelings about diversity outside of this community. Listen to marginalized groups, but try not to put the burden of education on them.

Be open to learning how to be more inclusive.

We do not tolerate inappropriate behavior. This includes but is not limited to:

Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following
Harassing photography or recording at events
Sustained disruption of online discussion, talks, or other events
Harassment of people who don’t drink alcohol
Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise exclusionary language
Unwelcome sexual attention or behavior that contributes to a sexualized environment
Unwelcome physical contact
Violence or threats of violence
Bringing a weapon to any event.
Influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior.

In order to maintain our community, enact the consequences that we deem fit.

Scope

The Icinga Code of Conduct applies to any Icinga online medium. This includes wikis, web sites, code repositories and our community forum. The Icinga Code of Conduct may also apply to private correspondence between community members.

The Code of Conduct applies to all Icinga events. This includes all official Icinga events like the IcingaConf, Icinga Meetups, Icinga Camps, trainings, workshops, and unofficial Icinga events. The Code of Conduct applies at all our event venues and event-related social events. All event attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers, including the event organizing team, are required to follow the Code of Conduct. Organizers are expected to enforce the Icinga Code of Conduct throughout the event.

Our Guidelines

We formulated some guidelines we ask you to adhere to. By being explicit about what we expect we are hoping to give you an idea about what we imagine good communication to be like. If the guidelines are unclear in any way, we expect the spirit of the guidelines to be followed. In case of questions contact us under codeofconduct(at)icinga.com

Be friendly and relaxed.

This mostly applies to forums, mailing lists, and code contributions (i.e. asynchronous forms of communication). It’s okay to be frustrated sometimes, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. A message which has a negative tone feels different to a clear-cut problem description. Think about the other side and their feelings about your tone.

Please don’t stress it if answers take their time. We are human beings with our own life, and try to help each other out voluntarily. Don’t be impolite and force people to react.

Be civil.

Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech. Remember that words and phrases can be interpreted differently depending on people’s backgrounds.

Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.

Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid name calling, ad hominem attacks, responding to a posts tone instead of its actual content and knee-jerk contradiction. Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Be considerate.

In the open source world it is likely that our 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.

Be honest.

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images). Licences need to be adhered to.

Ask for help when unsure.

Nobody is expected to be perfect in this community. Asking questions early avoids many problems later, so questions are encouraged, though they may be directed to the appropriate forum. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful.

Process intense feelings about diversity.

If you have never experienced discrimination, learning about it may make you feel uncomfortable, upset, or even angry. You may feel sad because you didn’t realize the world was unjust. You may feel guilty because you hold unconscious bias. You may feel excluded because your experiences with hardship are not viewed as discrimination. We encourage you to process those feelings with a person with a similar background who understands the discrimination marginalized groups in our community face.

Listen to marginalized groups, but try not to put the burden of education on them.

We encourage community members to be curious about different lived experiences. However, note that people from marginalized groups in our community are often asked to explain their experiences. Providing education and examples of discrimination can be emotionally draining. We ask that community members to do their own research before asking for education from marginalized groups in our community. If a community member does not want to discuss a diversity topic with you, please respect their wishes. Reasonable communication of topic boundaries is not against the Code of Conduct.

Inappropriate behavior

We want all participants in our community to have the best possible experience they can. In order to be clear what that means, we’ve provided a list of examples of behaviors that we deem inappropriate:

Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following other members of the community, both online and offline. Do not force yourself upon others or deliberately make them uncomfortable. If someone lets you know that they need space, keep your distance.
Harassing photography or recording at events. If someone says they do not want a picture or video taken of them, respect that choice. If they ask you to delete or remove a picture taken without permission, do so.
Sustained disruption of events, online discussions, or meetings, including talks and presentations. By definition this means the action of preventing and interrupting something from continuing as usual or as expected.
Harassment of people who don’t drink alcohol. Even though we have a hearty get-together culture ourselves, we do not tolerate derogatory comments about those who abstain from alcohol or other substances. We do not tolerate pushing people to drink, talking about their abstinence or preferences to others, or pressuring them to drink – physically or through jeering.
Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist language or otherwise exclusionary language. This includes deliberately referring to someone by a gender that they do not identify with, and/or questioning the legitimacy of an individual’s gender identity. If you’re unsure if a word is derogatory, don’t use it. This also includes repeated subtle and/or indirect discrimination.
Unwelcome sexual attention or behavior that contributes to a sexualized environment. This includes sexualized comments, jokes or imagery in interactions, communications or presentation materials, as well as inappropriate touching, groping, or sexual advances. This is again included in the scope of event-related social events.
Unwelcome physical contact. This includes touching a person without permission, anywhere on their body, in sensitive areas such as their hair, pregnant stomach, mobility device (wheelchair, scooter, etc) or tattoos. This also includes physically blocking or intimidating another person. Any kind of contact without affirmative consent is not acceptable. This includes sharing or distribution of sexualized images or texts.
Violence and threats of violence are not acceptable – online or offline. This includes incitement of violence toward any individual, including encouraging a person to commit self-harm. This also includes posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information online.
Bringing a weapon to any event. No weapons are allowed at event venues, including but not limited to explosives (including fireworks), guns, and large knives such as those used for hunting or display, as well as any other item used for the purpose of causing injury or harm to others. Anyone seen in possession of one of these items will be asked to leave immediately, and might then be allowed to return without the weapon.
Influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior as mentioned in this list. If you influence or encourage another person to violate the Code of Conduct, you may face the same consequences as if you had violated the Code of Conduct.

Our Code of Conduct was inspired by and borrows content from Codes of Conduct of other open source projects, including: