In any group of humans, things will sometimes go sideways. Whether it's simple unintentional miscommunication or more extreme unacceptable behavior, we need to have an agreed upon protocol to resolve these situations ourselves or to escalate in the case one-to-one resolutions in unachievable.
This is the process for incident resolution at GeekSpeak Slack. Please read Rand's documented culture post to understand why we need this.
When an incident occurs, we ask that per the Code of Conduct for those involved to resolve peacefully:
“If you see someone violating any part of this Code of Conduct, we urge you to respectfully dissuade them from such behavior. Expect that others in the community wish to help keep the community respectful, and welcome your input in doing so.”
Resolution amongst the individuals will not always be achievable. In this case, the reporter and/or observer of the incident has a choice. They can share the incident with #geekspeak-slack-rules to seek feedback and perhaps resolve the incident or they can raise the incident with the administrator (see below for specifics). We understand the need for the latter workflow, but we highly encourage the former.
When ready and if appropriate, the reporter needs to send the administrator a direct message with the following information.
- What’s the nature of the incident and/or CoC violation?
- Who is involved in this incident?
- What material supports this situation?
- Any privacy concerns? (Reporter consent is required before sharing any information regarding the incident)
With this information in hand, the administrator will strive to respond to the reporter as quickly as possible with an estimate of when they think they’ll be able to triage and resolve this incident. In extreme cases, the administrator may suspend one or more accounts until they are able to triage and resolve an incident.
Incident resolution can vary from hours to days depending on the availability of those involved. Once the incident is resolved, the administrator will communicate the resolution to the reporter and other other parties relevant to the incident. In extreme cases, the administrator will communicate the resolution with #rands-slack-rules with reporter permission.
In cases the result in account suspension, the individual suspended may appeal the decision starting one week after the suspension by sending a mail to the administrator with justification for overturning the appeal. If a suspension is overturned, the new context will be shared with #geekspeak-slack-rules
- “Is situation XYZ an incident?” Unsure if there’s a CoC violation? Ask #geekspeak-slack-rules and/or DM @lyle. We'll help.
- “How many incidents have you handled since this place started?” none.
The administrator(s) of GeekSpeak Slack as of November 10th, 2017:
Lyle (Lyle Troxell)