Purpose
Ironclad encourages contributions from anyone who wishes to
advance the its development, regardless of gender, race,
ethnic group, physical appearance, religion, cultural background, and
any other demographic characteristics, as well as personal political
views.
People are sometimes discouraged from participating in projects because
of certain patterns of communication that strike them as unfriendly,
unwelcoming, rejecting, or harsh. This discouragement particularly
affects members of disprivileged demographics, but it is not limited to
them. Therefore, we ask all contributors to make a conscious effort, in
Ironclad discussions, to communicate in ways that avoid that outcome—to
avoid practices that will predictably and unnecessarily risk putting
some contributors off.
These guidelines suggest specific ways to accomplish that goal.
Guidelines
-
Please assume other participants are posting in good faith, even if
you disagree with what they say. When people present code or text as
their own work, please accept it as their work. Please do not
criticize people for wrongs that you only speculate they may have
done; stick to what they actually say and actually do.
-
Please think about how to treat other participants with respect,
especially when you disagree with them. For instance, call them by
the names they use, and refer to them using words whose meanings
(as you understand them) cover those participants' stated gender
identities. Please also show tolerance and respect for people who do
that using different words from the words you use.
-
Please do not take a harsh tone towards other participants, and
especially don't make personal attacks against them. Go out of your
way to show that you are criticizing a statement, not a person. Using
the same logic, please recognize that criticism of your statements is
not a personal attack on you.
-
Please be especially kind to other contributors when saying they made
a mistake. Programming means making lots of mistakes, and we all do
so—this is why regression tests are useful. Conscientious programmers
make mistakes, and then fix them. It is helpful to show contributors
that being imperfect is normal, so we don't hold it against them, and
that we appreciate their imperfect contributions though we hope they
follow through by fixing any problems in them.
-
If other participants complain about the way you express your ideas,
please make an effort to cater to them. You can find ways to express
the same points while making others more comfortable. You are more
likely to persuade others if you don't arouse ire about secondary
things.
-
Please don't raise unrelated political issues in Ironclad discussions,
because they are off-topic. The only political positions that the
Ironclad project endorses are the ones related to software freedom,
given these ideas are central to the project, and may affect
development and feature consideration.
Enforcement
Complicance to these guidelines should be enforced at the discretion
of the community's moderation, with enforcement implemented as seen
fit. Endorsement of communities by Ironclad will be done following
these guidelines.
Origin
Ironclad's communication guidelines are largely based on the
GNU Kind Communications Guidelines, with
some minor changes in order to accomodate the non-GNU nature of Ironclad.