Replicante Code of Conduct - Enforcement Manual

This is the enforcement manual followed by the Code of Conduct Committee. It’s used when we respond to an issue to make sure we’re consistent and fair. It should be considered an internal document, but we’re publishing it publicly in the interests of transparency.

The Code of Conduct Committee

All responses to reports of conduct violations will be managed by a Code of Conduct Committee (“the committee”).

How the committee will respond to reports

When a report is sent to the committee they will immediately reply to the report to confirm receipt. This reply must be sent within 24 hours, and the committee should strive to respond much quicker than that.

See the reporting guidelines for details of what reports should contain. If a report doesn’t contain enough information, the committee will obtain all relevant data before acting.

The committee will then review the incident and determine, to the best of their ability:

This information will be collected in writing, and whenever possible the committee’s deliberations will be recorded and retained (i.e. IRC transcripts, email discussions, recorded voice conversations, etc).

The committee should aim to have a resolution agreed upon within one week. In the event that a resolution can’t be determined in that time, the committee will respond to the reporter(s) with an update and projected timeline for resolution.

Acting Unilaterally

If the act is ongoing, or involves a threat to anyone’s safety (e.g. threats of violence), any committee member may act immediately (before reaching consensus) to end the situation. In ongoing situations, any member may at their discretion employ any of the tools available to the committee, including bans and blocks.

If the incident involves physical danger, any member of the committee may – and should – act unilaterally to protect safety. This can include contacting law enforcement (or other local personnel).

In situations where an individual committee member acts unilaterally, they must report their actions to the committee for review within 24 hours.

Resolutions

The committee must agree on a resolution by consensus.

Possible responses may include:

Once a resolution is agreed upon, but before it is enacted, the committee will contact the original reporter and any other affected parties and explain the proposed resolution. The committee will ask if this resolution is acceptable, and must note feedback for the record. However, the committee is not required to act on this feedback.

Records of reports

Each report is given a unique ID based on the date the incident occurred. If the date the incident occurred on is not clear or indicated in the initial report, the date the first report about the incident is used.

The report ID is thus in the form: YYYY-MM-DD#N. N is a counter starting at 1 and incremented for every report on that day, with the hope it never has to grow.

Information about an incident, details of the investigation, decisions, and resolutions, are recorded in the form of emails sent to the conduct@replicante.io address. Members of the conduct commette must ensure information is recorded in this way ASAP. Internal emails to detail handling of reports must have subjects starting with [REPORT_ID].

Records of an incident will be kept for at least a year since the date of the event or initial report, whichever is earliest. Records may be kept for longer if they relate to repeating or significant events, at the commette discretion.

Records may be shared with relevant law enforcement if necessary and appropriate. Access to the records will otherwise be restricted to the commette alone.

Attribution

Adapted from the Django enforcement manual.