Code of Conduct

1.1 Respect

NashDev is an internet-based community space for professionals in the middle Tennessee area who are actively learning, practicing, and working in technology. We recognize and celebrate the creativity and collaboration of our independent members and the diversity of skills, talents, experiences, cultures, and opinions that they bring to your community.

NashDev Slack desires to be an inclusive environment and believes in treating all individuals respectfully, regardless of gender or gender identity (including transgender status), sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), political affiliation, or career path.

We value respectful behavior above individual opinions.

Respectful behavior includes but is not limited to:

• Be considerate, kind, constructive, and helpful.
• Avoid demeaning, discriminatory, harassing, hateful, or physically threatening behavior, speech, and imagery.
• If you’re not sure, ask someone instead of assuming. No, really. Just ask the admins. We’d rather hear from you than hear about something you said or did after the fact, and we are here to help.
• Don’t be a bystander. Role model respectful behaviour, but also help to address disrespect when you see it.
• Threatening behavior outside this community may be considered a violation of this code of conduct at the discretion of the admins.

1.2 Privacy

This community is not a public space. However, no one has signed an non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) to participate, and you should not presume anything you say here will remain private, so act accordingly. Protect IP and legally-protected information.

For attribution of specific content found on this Slack, we ask that you ask the originator of the content for permission.

1.3 Not For Profit

While this slack is designed to help our local programming community, and that frequently benefits whatever company or individual a member is currently working for, this is not a place for obvious commercial activities such as recruiting, marketing, or other solicitation, except in channels dedicated to that purpose.

Channels for commercial purposes include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• #jobs (job postings)
• #freelance (freelance / contract postings)
• #classifieds (person to person sales)
• #keyboards (keyboard specific sales)
• #boardgames (person to person board game specific sales)
• #cars (person to person car and autoparts specific sales)

All job postings must be in Nashville, the greater middle Tennessee area, or 100% remote. The goal of this channel is to grow our local community, not to take talent from the area.

Non-obvious commercial activity includes things such as well-intentioned user surveys of a specific channel or responding to a request for tools or services with information about what your company provides. In these situations, we ask that you:

• Ask permission of the channel before posting the solicitation or information
• State clear intent for the purpose
• Listen to the response of your peers

We believe the above protocol is generally useful and should be used when there are any doubts.

If you join this community simply to take value rather than contribute, the community will quickly notice and react. If you are wondering whether a specific action is commercial or not, please ask and calibrate in #meta.

1.4 Resolve Peacefully

We believe peer-to-peer discussions, feedback, and corrections can help build a stronger, safer, and more welcoming community.

If you see someone violating any part of this Code of Conduct, we urge you to respectfully dissuade them from such behavior. Expect that others in the community wish to help keep the community respectful, and welcome your input in doing so.

If you experience disrespectful behavior toward yourself or anyone else and feel in any way unable or unwilling to respond or resolve it respectfully (for any reason), please immediately bring it to the attention of an admin. We want to hear from you about anything that you feel is disrespectful, threatening, or just something that could make someone feel distressed in any way. We will listen and work to resolve the matter.

1.5 Apologize for Mistakes

Should you catch yourself behaving disrespectfully, or be confronted as such, listen intently, own up to your words and actions, and apologize accordingly. No one is perfect, and even well-intentioned people make mistakes. What matters is how you handle them and that you avoid repeating them in the future.

1.6 Consequences

If you feel a message should be deleted, please refer to the Deleting Content section below.

If you are unable to resolve a situation peacefully, please refer to our “Incidence Process” section below and choose a course of action that suits the situation.

If the admins determine that anyone is violating any part of this Code of Conduct, the admins may take any action they deem appropriate within this Slack team, up to and including expulsion and exclusion from NashDev Slack.

As admins, we will seek to resolve conflicts peacefully and in a manner that is positive for the community. We can’t foresee every situation, and thus if in the admin team’s judgment that the best thing to do is to ask a disrespectful individual to leave, we will do so.

2.1 What, When, and How

Admins may come across or be notified of content on NashDev that violates the Code of Conduct. In some situations, this may lead to an admin deleting the message (or messages) that violate the CoC. Messages that are most likely to be deleted are commercial solicitations, disrespectful messages to other members, or links to disturbing or distressing content without appropriate measures to warn of or hide the content (including image uploads and unfurls).

Ideally, another NashDev member notices this content and contacts the original poster, who then modifies or deletes the message so that it is no longer problematic. In this case, no further admin action is required. If admin action is desired, due to lack of response or any other reason, an admin will notify the original poster of the violation and the need to reword or remove the problematic message. The admin will also specify a time after which admin action will be taken to delete the content if it is not addressed. This time may be as little as a few minutes, or as much as 24 hours.

The determination of how much time is allowed is up to the admin team, but the following context will be used to help determine the time before admin action:

• How blatant the violation is
• How likely it is to be seen by others (higher-volume channels get less time)
• How likely it is to trigger negative reactions in others

Additional consequences beyond the removal of content are up to the admin team, per the same incident process found in the following section “Incident Process”.

3.1 Something is Off

A significant part of the admin job is the management of incidents on the NashDev Slack, but ideally the community (that’s you) has both the tools and the desire to resolve many situations without admin support.

The Code of Conduct exists to give members a model idea of what is and isn’t acceptable in NashDev including behavior, marketing activity, and etiquette. If you experience strange behavior in a channel and are wondering if it’s acceptable, please first consult the CoC.

With CoC clarity in hand, please contact the member(s) and explain:

• This is the activity I saw which I have an issue with,
• It’s not allowed by the CoC, and,
• Let’s figure out how to resolve it. We ask in non-heinous cases to start with member-driven resolution. If you are not comfortable with this approach, go ahead and jump to “It’s Admin O’Clock”.

Ideally, the above discussion can help resolve the situation. It often does. If it doesn’t, if you are not comfortable contacting the member(s), or if this is an obvious heinous situation, jump to "It’s Admin O’Clock".

3.2 It’s Admin O’Clock

Administrators can be contacted directly, in the #support channel by typing !help. You may also contact an admin directly, they are listed at the bottom of this document. Please choose the path most comfortable for you.

When you contact an admin(s), provide the following:

• The activity you saw that you have an issue with,
• If applicable, the CoC violation.