Community Forum Code of Conduct

• Overview and Purpose

• Pledge

• Standards

• Enforcement

• Contacting Moderators

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Overview and Purpose

Together, we all have an exciting opportunity, and responsibility, to make this an online community we can be proud of.

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This Community Forum is intended to be a place for further collaboration, support, and brainstorming. This is a civilized place for connecting with other users, learning new skills, sharing feedback and ideas, and finding the support you need for your contribution to the PAC. By participating in this Community, you are agreeing to follow this Community-specific Code of Conduct.

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With this Code of Conduct, we hope to help you understand how best to collaborate in the Community Forum, what you can expect from moderators, and what type of actions or content may result in temporary or permanent suspension from Community participation. We will investigate any abuse reports and may moderate public content within the Community that we determine to be in violation of this Code of Conduct.

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SAGCD – ILA members bring wildly different perspectives, ideas, and experiences. We are committed to making the Community Forum a welcoming environment for all the different voices and perspectives here, while maintaining a space where people are free to express themselves in a positive way.

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Pledge

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers pledge to making participation in the Community Forum a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, ability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

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Standards

Treat the Community Forum with respect. We are a shared resource — a place to share skills, knowledge, and interests through ongoing conversation.

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The following are not hard and fast rules, merely aids to the human judgment of our Community. Use these guidelines to keep this a clean, well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

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Best Practices for Building a Strong Community

• Be respectful and considerate.

  • Be welcoming and open-minded. Other Community members may not have the same experience level or background as you, but that doesn't mean they don't have good ideas to contribute. We encourage you to be welcoming to new members and those just getting started.

  • Respect each other. Nothing sabotages healthy conversation like rudeness. Be civil and professional, and don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech. Don’t harass or grief anyone. Treat each other with dignity and consideration in all interactions.

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

• Communicate with empathy. Disagreements or differences of opinion are a fact of life. Being part of a community means interacting with people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, many of which may not be your own. If you disagree with someone, try to understand and share their feelings before you address them. This will promote a respectful and friendly atmosphere where people feel comfortable asking questions, participating in discussions, and making contributions.

• Contribute in a positive and constructive way.

  • Improve the discussion. Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

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• Be clear and stay on topic. Communicating with strangers on the Internet can be awkward. It's hard to convey or read tone, and sarcasm is frequently misunderstood. Try to use clear language and think about how it will be received by the other person.

• This applies to sharing links, as well. Any links shared in the Community Forum should be shared with the intent of providing relevant and appropriate information. Links should not be posted to simply drive traffic or attention to a site. Links should always be accompanied by a full explanation of the content and purpose of the link. Posting links, especially unsolicited ones, without relevant and valuable context can come across as advertising or serving even more malicious purposes.

  • Additionally, the Community Forum is for collaboration, sharing ideas, and helping each other get stuff done. Off-topic comments are a distraction (sometimes welcome, but usually not) from getting work done and being productive. Staying on topic helps produce positive and productive discussions.

• Share mindfully. When asking others to give you feedback or collaborate on a project, only share valuable and relevant resources to provide context. Don't post links that don't add value to the Topic, and don't post unsolicited links to your own projects or sites on other user's threads.

  • Additionally, don't share sensitive information. This includes your own email address. We don't allow the sharing of such information in this Community Forum, as it can create security and privacy risks for the poster, as well as other users.

• Keep it tidy. Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less time cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.

  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.

  • Don’t post no-content replies.

  • Don't "bump" posts, unless you have new and relevant information to share.

  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.

• Be trustworthy.

  • Always be honest. Don’t knowingly share incorrect information or intentionally mislead other Community Forum members. If you don’t know the answer to someone’s question but still want to help, you can try helping them research or find resources instead. Moderators will also be active in the Community, so if you’re unsure of an answer, it’s likely a moderator will be able to help.

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What is not Allowed

• Threats of violence. You may not threaten violence towards others or use the site to organize, promote, or incite acts of real-world violence or terrorism. Think carefully about the words you use, the images you post, and how they may be interpreted by others. Even if you mean something as a joke, it might not be received that way. If you think that someone else might interpret the content you post as a threat, or as promoting violence or terrorism, stop. Don't post it. In extraordinary cases, we may report threats of violence to law enforcement if we think there may be a genuine risk of physical harm or a threat to public safety.

• Hate speech and discrimination.  We do not tolerate speech that attacks a person or group of people based on who they are or how they express themselves. Just realize that talking about sensitive topics can make others feel unwelcome, or perhaps even unsafe, if approached in an aggressive or insulting manner. We expect our Community members to be respectful when discussing sensitive topics.

• Bullying and harassment. We do not tolerate bullying or harassment. This means any habitual badgering or intimidation targeted at a specific person or group of people. In general, if your actions are unwanted and you continue to engage in them, there's a good chance you are headed into bullying or harassment territory.

• Impersonation. You may not impersonate another person by copying their avatar, posting content under their email address, intentionally using a deceptively similar username or otherwise posing as someone else. Impersonation is a form of harassment.

• Invasion of privacy. Don't post other people's personal information, such as phone numbers, private email addresses, physical addresses, credit card numbers, Social Security/National Identity numbers, or passwords. Depending on the context, such as in the case of intimidation or harassment, we may consider other information, such as photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject's consent, to be an invasion of privacy, especially when such material presents a safety risk to the subject.

• Prurient/Sexually explicit content. Basically, don't post pornography. All nudity or sexual content is prohibited.

• Spam. Respect the Community Forum. Don’t post advertisements, link to spammy websites, or otherwise vandalize the Community. This Community is meant for users to discuss issues, learn, and share ideas with one another - not for advertising or other spam-like content. Content that we deem spammy will be removed.

• Copyrighted or illegal content. Only post your own stuff. You are responsible for what you post. If you post something you didn’t create yourself, you must have the right to post it. You may not post illegal content, including content illegal under copyright and trademark laws, links to illegal content, or methods for circumventing the law.

• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting. The Community Forum is a professional space and should be treated as such.

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Enforcement

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What Community Forum Members Can Do

• If you see a problem, report it. Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this Community. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be Community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just report it. If enough reports accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

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Our Responsibilities

There are a variety of actions that we may take in response to inappropriate behavior or content. It usually depends on the exact circumstances of a particular case. We recognize that sometimes people may say or do inappropriate things for any number of reasons. Perhaps they did not realize how their words would be perceived. Or maybe they just let their emotions get the best of them. Of course, sometimes, there are folks who just want to spam or cause trouble.

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Each case requires a different approach, and we try to tailor our response to meet the needs of the situation. We'll review each situation on a case-by-case basis. In each case, we will have a diverse team investigate the content and surrounding facts and respond as appropriate.

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Actions we may take in response to a flag or abuse report include, but are not limited to:

• Content Removal

• Content Blocking

• Community Forum Account Suspension

• Community Forum Account Termination

Contacting Moderators

If, for any reason, you want to contact the Moderators of this forum privately, you can complete and send an email to the moderators here.

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Let's work together to keep the forum a place where people feel safe to participate by being respectful of them and their time.

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