Our Pledge

As Commons Community members, contributors, and travelers, we pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community, in nearly any Commons Community context, include:

• Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
• Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
• Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
• Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
• Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community
• Watching out for each other, confirming each others' comfort level

Examples of unacceptable Commons Community behavior include:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
• Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
• Public or private harassment
• Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, or a message or comment, without their explicit permission
• Misrepresenting others' content, items for sale, opinions or Carpools as if they are your own
• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Oversight and Enforcement Responsibilities

We are all responsible for oversight of our Commons Community. If any of us suspect that a new Member is not actually part of our Community (but is trying to somehow take advantage of our community), please let the Manager know via the Feedback message tool on the Dashboard. Members of the actual community are welcome to be members of our community's Commons, but outsiders with no connection to the community are discouraged.  

The Commons Manager is responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Privacy

The site is intentionally closed and private. If you want to post other Member's comments, messages, Classified Ads, or Commons Carpools in a public forum (like Facebook, TikTok, etc.), you must have the prior permission of the contributor(s). 

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior should be reported to the Manager (manager [at] [commonsname.com]). All complaints will be reviewed and investigated as promptly and fairly as possible; if required, adjudication procedures are listed elsewhere.

The Manager is obligated to respect the privacy and security of anyone reporting any incident, comment, or behavior.

Enforcement Guidelines

The Moderator will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of our Commons Community Code of Conduct:

1. Correction

Community Impact
Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or unwelcome in the community.

Consequence
A private, written warning from the Manager, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested, if the impact was public.

2. Warning

Community Impact
A violation through a single incident or series of actions.

Consequence
A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with the Manager, for a period of time specified by the Manager. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces in the Commons. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.

3. Conditional Ban

Community Impact
A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior.

Consequence
A temporary ban from any sort of active interaction or public communication with the Commons Community, for a period of time specified by the Manager: no Carpools, no Ads, no Messages, no Questions or Answers. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with the Manager, is allowed during this period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.

4. Permanent Ban

Community Impact
Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals.

Consequence
A permanent ban from Membership in the Commons.

If you've done something improper

Engaging in diverse communities, we may accidentally cause offense by using unknowingly offensive terminology or by missing social cues.

If you realize (or are told) that you have offended someone by accident, then please consider taking the appropriate steps:

1. Acknowledge that you've done something inappropriate.
2. Briefly apologize. Do not minimize the issue. If you believe it helpful to explain your intent, first listen and hear out the other person. Then, speak with respect.
3. If possible, edit your message, restate your communication in a better way or withdraw your statement. Publicly revising your statement helps define the culture for others.

This will allow participation and conversation to quickly continue without any need of further action or escalating the situation.

If you don't understand what you did wrong, assume that the hurt party has good cause, and accept it. We cannot know everyone's background and should do our best to avoid causing harm or pain.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Read2.0 Code of Conduct, captured from at https://read20.pubpub.org/code in Feb 2024; this was adapted from Contributor Covenant, version 2.0, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/0/code_of_conduct and the WeAllJS Code of Conduct, available at https://wealljs.org/code-of-conduct. Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by Mozilla's code of conduct enforcement ladder.