Code of Conduct

The Poster.Party community is made up of members from around the world, and diversity is one of our huge strengths! We've set up this Code of Conduct to help guide all Poster.Party community members in how to compassionately communicate, even when our backgrounds or identities differ. We are all here to help each other learn, grow our skill sets, and improve the state of scalable search.

The short version

The Poster.Party Community Code of Conduct applies to both Poster.Party events and online spaces. If you're unsure whether the space or the behavior is in scope for this Code of Conduct, we still encourage you to report by email.

Poster.Party is dedicated to providing a positive experience for everyone, regardless of age, caste, citizenship, disability, education, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, immigration status, level of experience, neurodiversity, physical appearance or body size, nationality, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, race, or religion (or lack thereof).

Poster.Party has some community guidelines that ensure the Poster.Party community continues to be an excellent space in which to communicate, collaborate, and contribute: Be considerate, patient, respectful, and nice; communicate effectively, and ask for help when you're unsure.

Poster.Party is a global, diverse community. If you are new to discussions about diversity, we encourage you to follow some guidelines to support marginalized groups in our community. Acknowledge that the lived experiences of marginalized groups are valid. Process intense feelings about diversity with a friend. Listen to marginalized groups, but try not to put the burden of education on them. Be open to learning how to be more inclusive. Avoid critiquing people's tone when they talk about discrimination. Understand creating an inclusive culture takes time, energy, and resources. See our full Code of Conduct for a longer explanation of these guidelines.

There are specific types of behavior that are not tolerated inPoster.Party events and online spaces. Inappropriate behavior includes: 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 language 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 an Poster.Party event; or influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior.

The consequence of for each inappropriate behavior can be a warning, temporary ban, or permanent ban. You consent to our processing of personal data for the purpose of incident responses.

Scope

The Poster.Party Community Code of Conduct applies to any Poster.Party online experience. This includes Poster.Party as a website and any social media presence outside of our web domain. The Poster.Party Community Code of Conduct may also apply to private correspondence between Poster.Partycommunity members, if the communication includes stalking, harassment, discrimination, threats of violence, or other behavior that impacts the physical safety or mental health of Poster.Party community members.

The Poster.Party Community Code of Conduct applies to all Poster.Party 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 Poster.Party Community Code of Conduct throughout the event.

We hope all participants in Poster.Party online and event spaces will help us to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

Our standards

Poster.Party is dedicated to providing a positive experience for everyone, regardless of:

  • Age

  • Caste

  • Citizenship

  • Disability

  • Education

  • Ethnicity

  • Gender identity or expression

  • Immigration status

  • Level of experience

  • Physical appearance or body size

  • Nationality

  • Neurodiversity

  • Sexual orientation

  • Socio-economic status

  • Race

  • Religion (or lack thereof)

Community guidelines

We have a few community guidelines that we ask people to adhere to. Being explicit about our community norms will ensure that thePoster.Party community continues to be an excellent space in which to communicate, collaborate, and contribute. When the guidelines are unclear, we expect the spirit of the guidelines to be followed.

  • Be considerate. Your 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 patient. Communities are often built on volunteer time both from participants and organizers. It is possible that your question or suggestion might not receive an immediate response. Be patient and consider the norms of the community. One reminder ping is welcome, many reminder pings in rapid succession are not a good display of patience. Similarly, posting the same content in multiple threads is frowned upon and should not be done.

  • Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It's important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. We expect members of the Poster.Party community to be respectful when communicating with other community members, as well as with people outside the Poster.Party community.

  • Be nice. Please be courteous, respectful and polite to fellow community members.

  • Communicate effectively. Clear communication can help to avoid misunderstandings. Remember that words and phrases can be interpreted differently depending on people's backgrounds. It's better to ask for clarification than to make assumptions. Disagreements are normal, but we expect participants in the community to resolve disagreements constructively. Please avoid flame wars, trolling, personal attacks, and repetitive arguments.

  • 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.

Supporting diversity

Poster.Party values community diversity. If you are new to conversations about diversity, here are our guidelines for supporting marginalized groups in our community:

  • Acknowledge that the lived experiences of marginalized groups are valid. We acknowledge that each community member will experience the world differently, based on their past experiences, background and identity. We encourage you to bring your experiences to community conversations, while being open to learning about other people's different lived experiences.

  • Process intense feelings about diversity with a friend. 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 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.

  • Be open to learning how to be more inclusive. It's important that our community talk about how to become more inclusive. If you see behavior that is discriminatory, we encourage you to report it to the Code of Conduct committee. We also recognize that community members may choose to privately or publicly critique behavior that negatively impacts marginalized groups in our community. It is not against the Code of Conduct to provide such a critique.

  • Avoid critiquing people's tone when they talk about discrimination. Talking about discrimination and different lived experiences can be difficult. Seeing biased or discriminatory statements can bring up past negative experiences for marginalized groups in our community. These negative experiences often bring up strong emotions, which may lead to the person communicating in a more blunt tone. We encourage community members to acknowledge others' experiences with discrimination, rather than critiquing the tone that people use to communicate about that discrimination.

  • Understand creating an inclusive culture takes time, energy, and resources. Poster.Party acknowledges that discrimination, harassment, unconscious bias, and systemic inequality exists. Because of this, people from marginalized groups in our community may have less access to resources or opportunities. It is important for our community to take action and correct these issues. All community change requires resources (such as time, influence, or money). We acknowledge that such resources will be spent towards correcting past bias and discrimination.

Inappropriate behavior

We want all participants in the Poster.Party community 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 are inappropriate for Poster.Party community spaces:

  • Deliberate intimidation or stalking

  • 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 of them without permission, do so. Photographers (even paid event photographers) following or stalking attendees in order to get shots of a diverse group of community members is not acceptable.

  • Sustained disruption of online discussion, talks, or other events. Sustained disruption of events and online discussions will not be tolerated. Sustained disruption also includes drinking alcohol to excess or using recreational drugs to excess, or pushing others to do so.

  • Harassment of people who don't drink alcohol. We do not tolerate derogatory comments about those who abstain from alcohol or other substances. We do not tolerate pushing people to drink 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 and communications, as well as inappropriate touching, groping, or sexual advances. Staff should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Staff and other volunteer organizers should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

  • Unwelcome physical contact. This includes touching a person without permission, including sensitive areas such as their hair, pregnant stomach, mobility device (wheelchair, scooter, etc) or tattoos. This also includes physically blocking or intimidating another person. Physical contact or simulated physical contact (such as emojis like "kiss") without affirmative consent is not acceptable. This includes sharing or distribution of sexualized images or text.

  • Violence or threats of violence. 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 ("doxxing") online.

  • Bringing a weapon to an Poster.Party 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 will only be allowed to return without the weapon.

  • Influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior. 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.

Reporting a Code of Conduct incident

We encourage community members to make a Code of Conduct incident report to Poster.Party via email. If you are the subject of an incident report or if you wish to report inappropriate behavior, your personal data will be processed byPoster.Party.

License and attribution

The Elastic Community Code of Conduct is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It was updated by Sage Sharp of Otter Tech. Our Code of Conduct was inspired by and borrows content from Codes of Conduct of open source projects, including: