Proposal: Vanilla Template for Codes of Conduct

[cyberspaceline]

Hello! I'm new here, but am a big fan!

Proposal

A page on the Self Defined App site that contains a template Code of Conduct for events and social spaces to modify and use.

More Info

I'm writing a code of conduct for my new social web app and I referenced Self Defined App in it to point people toward a more comprehensive resource than I could fit in my document. I actually looked around Self Defined App to see if you already had a Code of Conduct that you were using or provided as a template that I could use for inspiration. I didn't see one (though I could be missing it) and thought it would make a really great resource! (I ended mashing up Recurse Center's Social Rules, Contributor Covenant, Discourse's community guidelines and universal rules of civilized discourse and Geek Feminism's Code

If you're into the idea I'd like to help contribute to it :)

[tatianamac]

Hi, @celinepark94 ! Thanks for thinking of this and opening an issue! I definitely think this is something that could make sense if there was a way that it tied into our objectives.

To make sure I'm understanding, are you proposing changing our existing Code of Conduct as well? Right now we are relying on the fairly standard Contributor Covenant (which you reference).

As it sounds like you've done a lot of research into CoCs, I'm also curious about what your motivation is for creating a new one; that is, what you personally find lacking in some of the existing CoCs?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

[cyberspaceline]

Ah! To be honest, I didn't see the Code of Conduct you had. I'm not proposed you change it, it looks good! I was looking for things specifically targeted at the broader community as the Contributor Covenant is very specifically for Open Source Contributors. I wonder if what I am actually looking for is a good resource on how to write and modify good Codes of Conducts for those of us starting communities of our own, such that they are inclusive and well suited for our contexts.

Using existing CoC's as templates makes it easy to forget things we might need to think hard about that might be specific to our contexts. For example if the CoC is for a physical or digital context, a one time event or a long term application, for a specific set of people or for everyone?

I was also constantly worried that I was forgetting someone, or somehow being unintentionally ableist in my own language. What good is a CoC if it itself marginalizes someone??? I want to reference definitions that had been created by a community that dedicated itself to ever evolving and becoming better rather than rely on my limited experience. Self Defined is just that!

Further, I have thought that the JS Conf CoC that often gets passed around as a template is quite vague. It leaves lots of room for harm that was non-intentional, and as a result lots of room for people to disagree on, say, the definition of "harassment". Geek Feminism had a much better, more explicit definition which I found to be helpful but was understandably very specific to the issues of women (real issues for sure, but the CoC I need should protect more). Ultimately I view CoC's potentially as a document that can help people learn and move past their mistakes rather than a set of rules to have for the sake of having or to lay out punishments.

I thought that this sort of viewpoint aligned well with what Self Defined is doing, so when I was struggling through writing my own, I had hoped to find a good resource here! A more modular template, or an article or something like that.

All that said, I understand that a resource like this is perhaps outside of the scope of Self Defined's current goals! I just wanted to bring it up :)