These channels allow participants to communicate between each other as well as to communicate with WMF staff, lecturers, and other members of the Wikimedia & Education community. In order to encourage a positive experience in these communication spaces, participants are expected to honor the following guidelines:
General guidelines and expectations:
The communication channels are spaces for active, friendly and supportive interactions between participants. Please, demonstrate fair and equal treatment to all.
Participants should be patient and polite in their communications. Keep in mind that a person’s environment and circumstances can be different than your own (internet connection, level of English proficiency, experience with the topic, time availability, etc.) and that this can affect communications.
We appreciate and value different perspectives and points of view; however, we will not tolerate discrimination or harassment against participants based on their age, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, race, language, political beliefs, profession, religion, socioeconomic status, and technical skills.
Best practices:
Assume good faith in your interactions with others.
Be mindful and respectful of cultural differences that might shape communications. Ask clarifying questions before making judgements.
When asking questions, make sure they come from a place of genuine curiosity and intent of understanding. Keep an open mind.
Express disagreements and discomfort respectfully, be clear and speak in first person.
Respect the privacy of participants. Communications should not be shared outside of the W&E Greenhouse channels without express permission of all participants involved.
Keep conversations on topic. Avoid sharing spam, invites to pages or groups that are not relevant to the conversations, links to personal fundraising or personal businesses unless they are clearly required, etc.
Avoid using only capital letters on messages (if you do, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE YELLING).
Before creating a new conversation topic or thread, do a quick search in the channel to make sure that it doesn’t already exist. If it exists, preferably add your thoughts and input into that space to continue the conversation.
Ask for consent before messaging a participant through a private channel and show respect if they do not wish to communicate in that way.
Show appreciation for others: say thank you, give congratulations, celebrate successes.
Do not be afraid to apologize if you have inadvertently caused discomfort to other participants or if you have misunderstood a message.
Unacceptable behavior:
Personal attacks, violence, threats of violence, or deliberate intimidation.
Offensive, derogatory, or discriminatory comments.
Making a screencapture/copying conversations without the consent of the people involved and sharing them on external platforms.
Engaging and persisting in inappropriate or unwanted private communication.
Using this code of conduct for purposes other than reporting genuine violations of the code of conduct (e.g., retaliating against a reporter or victim by filing a report or threatening with filing a report claiming their response was harassment).
Reporting:
Tell the person who’s not behaving according to this code of conduct why their behaviour is unacceptable, be clear and respectful. Direct them to this document if necessary.
You do not have to be the victim of unacceptable behavior to report it. If you see it happening, please make a clear and respectful intervention or report the problem to mguadalupe@wikimedia.org.
If their behavior persists or if you feel like you need more support, report the problem to mguadalupe@wikimedia.org.
What happens next?
The breaches of this code of conduct will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Depending on the severity of the infraction the course of action might be one or several of the actions listed below:
The infractor will have a chance to rectify their behavior and express a public apology. This will count as a first and only warning.
The infractor will be expelled from the Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse and all its associated platforms.
The infractor will be prevented from joining future Wikimedia & education initiatives.
Offensive messages will be deleted from the platform.
The WMF Education team will keep records of the serious infractions that take place during the course of the Greenhouse.
