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Meedan is committed to providing an inclusive, safe, and collaborative environment for all participants in events, regardless of their gender, gender expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, sexual characteristics, physical appearance, disability, or age. We encourage every participant to be themselves, and must respect the rights of others. The code of conduct is a set of guidelines that establishes shared values and ensures that behaviors that may harm participants are avoided.
The values of the Meedan community are focused on developing both our individual and collective potential, supporting and empowering the most marginalized, mutual respect, and an anti-violence approach that favors support and collaboration among participants and the resolution of conflicts.
A code of conduct helps us co-exist in a more positive way, and provides individuals who are victims of negative behaviors with confidence that they will be supported by the organization and Meedan community, who respects and stands behind the code of conduct.
Meedan works towards providing a welcoming environment where participants are treated with dignity and respect and are free to be themselves. We encourage all participants to approach the event with an open and positive attitude, engaging constructively with others at all times.
By attending a Meedan event or participating in Meedan forums, we all agree to the following code of conduct
We avoid comments, actions or propaganda that encourages discrimination related to gender, gender expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, sexual characteristics, physical appearance, disability, or age.
We support an individual’s freedom of expression, and will not make fun of accents or make unsolicited grammatical corrections. We will strive to better understand each other by not assuming experiences or beliefs, clarifying meanings, and making an effort to speak clearly, avoiding jargon and acronyms.
We will not engage in any type of violence or aggression, including verbal threats or complaints, intimidation, stalking or harassment, whether physically or psychologically.
Be mindful of people who have experienced trauma. Let someone leave a conversation that makes them uncomfortable, and do not follow people who asked to be left alone. If you discuss difficult topics that may be traumatic for participants, provide warnings so people may leave a conversation or plan coping strategies. For content warnings:
Use CW (content warning) at the beginning of your post or message, with a short description of the traumatic content. For example:
On Slack, write the content warning, then reply to your own message with the potentially traumatic content to create a thread.
For text-only messaging, provide the content warning and add several new lines before the potentially traumatizing content.
There are topics you may not realize need a content warning. If you are asked to provide a content warning and have questions, contact us for explanations instead of asking the traumatized person to teach you. Your moderation team is happy to provide guidance!
We understand sexual harassment as unwanted physical contact or insinuation of a sexual nature, as well as displaying images, drawings or visual representations of any kind that objectify members of any gender or reinforce oppression. The only exception is if this is part of a session, workshop and/or educational experience where showing these images is educational in nature.
We safeguard the privacy of the participants, and agree to follow Meedan’s privacy policy. This includes refraining from tweeting, posting, or publishing information about attendees (including names and affiliation) unless given clear permission, and avoid any type of unauthorized video, audio recording, or photography.
We work to create an environment that facilitates participation for all participants, and that session presenters are given respect. We will not engage in sustained disruption of sessions or events, interrupt conversations in a way that negatively impacts collaboration, or engage in toxic behaviors to attract negative attention to an attendee.
We value the health of the community and will not engage in behavior that can negatively impact it. This includes contaminating food or drink with drugs, or inciting or insisting on the consumption of alcohol, psychoactive substances, etc.
We are committed to engaging constructively with others at all times. We will not tolerate bullying, including requesting or mobilizing others, either in person or online, to bully others.
We recognize that disagreements, especially about technology, are a necessary part of the software development process. However, argument cultures can be counterproductive. When disagreeing with someone:
The Meedan team will be overseeing the Code of Conduct, including addressing all incident reports. Breaking the code of conduct may result in immediate expulsion from the event or forum.
If you witness an incident or are the victim of one, there are several ways to report it to the Meedan team.
We use encrypted email and messengers, so if you’re more comfortable with another messenger app, let your moderators know. All reports are kept confidential. We will not reveal your name or other information without your consent.