Code of Conduct

SSPC is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment by and/or of members of our community in any form.

To make clear what is expected, we ask all members of the community to conform to the following Code of Conduct.

1. Expected Behaviour

We are confident that our community members will together build a supportive and collaborative atmosphere at our events and during online communications. The following bullet points set out explicitly what we hope you will consider to be appropriate community guidelines:

• Be respectful of different viewpoints and experiences. Do not engage in homophobic, racist, transphobic, ageist, ableist, sexist, or otherwise exclusionary behaviour.
• Use welcoming and inclusive language. Exclusionary comments or jokes, threats or violent language are not acceptable. Do not address others in an angry, intimidating, or demeaning manner. Be considerate of the ways the words you choose may impact others. Be patient and respectful of the fact that English is a second (or third or fourth!) language for some participants.
• Do not harass people. Harassment includes unwanted physical contact, sexual attention, or repeated social contact. Know that consent is explicit, conscious and continuous—not implied. If you are unsure whether your behaviour towards another person is welcome, ask them. If someone tells you to stop, do so.
• Respect the privacy and safety of others. Do not take photographs of others without their permission. Do not share other participant’s personal experiences without their express permission. Note that posting (or threatening to post) personally identifying information of others without their consent ("doxing") is a form of harassment.
• Be considerate of others’ participation. Everyone should have an opportunity to be heard. In update sessions, please keep comments succinct so as to allow maximum engagement by all participants. Do not interrupt others on the basis of disagreement; hold such comments until they have finished speaking.
• Don’t be a bystander. If you see something inappropriate happening, speak up. If you don't feel comfortable intervening but feel someone should, please feel free to ask other community members for support.
• As an overriding general rule, please be intentional in your actions and humble in your mistakes.

All interactions should be professional regardless of platform: either online or in-person. See this explanation of the four social rules - no feigning surprise, no well-actually's, no back-seat driving, no subtle -isms - for further recommendations for inclusive behaviours.

2. Unacceptable Behaviour

Examples of unacceptable behaviour by SSPC members and participants at any project event or platform include:

• written or verbal comments which have the effect of excluding people on the basis of membership of any specific group
• causing someone to fear for their safety, such as through stalking, following, or intimidation
• violent threats or language directed against another person
• the display of sexual or violent images
• unwelcome sexual attention
• nonconsensual or unwelcome physical contact
• sustained disruption of talks, events or communications
• insults or put downs
• sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or exclusionary jokes
• excessive swearing
• incitement to violence, suicide, or self-harm
• continuing to initiate interaction (including photography or recording) with someone after being asked to stop
• publication of private communication without consent

3. Consequences of Unacceptable Behaviour

Participants who are asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. This applies to all SSPC events and platforms, either online or in-person.

In addition, since our community operates on GitHub there are Terms and Conditions to acceptable behavious set by Github. See: GitHub Community Guidelines.

This Code of Conduct is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 CA).

The Code of Conduct is in part borrowed from the following. Code of Conduct. Attribution: Kirstie Whitaker and the Turing Way, along with the attribution to the Carpentries, the Alan Turing Institute Data Study Group organising team, Citizen Lab and the other resources.