Title: Discussion: Code of Conduct Response Questions Author: Andrea Middleton Published: November 1, 2017 Last modified: September 17, 2020 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 1:37 pm _on_ November 1, 2017   # Discussion: Code of Conduct Response Questions Over the years since we put our Code of ConductCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) in place for WordPress events, global community teamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress— monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. volunteers have helped organizers respond to reports that they’ve received. Over the past few months, some “edge case” questions have come up that I’d like the group to discuss, so we can create a consistent and transparent response system. The global community team is committed to ensuring WordPress community events are safe and welcoming places for all attendees. We can’t control how people behave at our events, but we do set expectations for behavior both with our code of conduct but also — and even more powerfully — in the ways we respond to issues. Currently, if a community member breaks the code of conduct at an event, our standard practice is to ask the attendee to leave*. In some cases, the community member will be asked to refrain from attending WordPress community events for a certain period of time, usually a year. We tell the person that after that year is over, they should email support@wordcamp.org and ask to start attending again, at which point we’ll reassess. Multiple questions arise from this practice: **What if the person doesn’t respect this request?** We can remove someone from a meetup.com group, but we don’t currently have any tools to blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. someone from buying a ticket to a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally- organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).. We don’t have a centralized list of people who have been asked not to participate in the program for a certain period of time. I’m not sure how to reliably prevent someone from attending a WordCamp without some kind of automated tool, but the thought of creating a list of people-asked-not-to-attend-WordCamp is quite unpleasant. Is there another way? **What if the person starts attending again after the year is over, and breaks the code of conduct again?** Do we then ask the person to refrain from participating in WordPress event for a longer time, or permanently? On one hand, if someone is not able to consistently follow the code of conduct, there doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason to keep giving him/her multiple chances to disrupt our events. On the other hand, permanent is… permanent. If the person has worked on the issue that caused their behavior ( received treatment for an addiction, attended an anger management course, etc), is it possible for them to regain the program’s trust? **What if we receive reports that a community organizer has broken the code of conduct?** We depend on the community organizers in our groups to _enforce_ our code of conduct. So if it’s found that an organizer has behaved inappropriately, should we follow the standard practice described above, or should we hold our organizers to a higher standard of behavior and respond in a different way? **What are we missing?** If you have other questions or feedback about how we respond to code of conduct reports, please comment on this post! _*EDIT: I should have been more specific: not all code of conduct reports result in an attendee being asked to leave an event. The consequences of a code of conduct report depend on the kind of behavior reported. _     ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?share=bluesky) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?share=facebook) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?share=x) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?share=linkedin) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2017%2F11%2F01%2Fdiscussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b022797152ac62a3b3a4274567b18d69f89882f000e53267bf2ffe1d88fff202? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Saurabh Shukla](https://profiles.wordpress.org/saurabhshukla/) 2:07 pm _on_ November 1, 2017 3. > I’m not sure how to reliably prevent someone from attending a WordCampWordCamp > WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related > to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes > together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share > the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). without some kind > of automated tool, but the thought of creating a list of people-asked-not-to- > attend-WordCamp is quite unpleasant. Is there another way? 4. Any other way is going to be manual and will need a list like that. So, automation is the only answer, IMO. 5. > On one hand, if someone is not able to consistently follow the code of conductCode > of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, > and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct), > there doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason to keep giving him/her multiple > chances to disrupt our events. On the other hand, permanent is… permanent. If > the person has worked on the issue that caused their behavior (received treatment > for an addiction, attended an anger management course, etc), is it possible > for them to regain the program’s trust? 6. People grow up and change everyday. Even if 1 out of 10 such repeat offenders changes after the 100th incident, it is worth not making things permanent. If there’s an automated tool and list, the entry can be extended every year automatically with a manual removal whenever the miracle happens. 7. There has to be a chance at redemption, even in extreme cases where there was a threat of, or actual physical violence involved. Otherwise, the community doesn’t remain truly open, I feel. 8. > if it’s found that an organizer has behaved inappropriately, should we follow > the standard practice described above, or should we hold our organizers to a > higher standard of behavior and respond in a different way? 9. Organisers, and I feel that term extends to speakers, volunteers and sponsors, get extra privilege, greater access to the community platform and hence additional power compared to a regular attendee. They represent the WordPress project so their actions have greater repercussions on the image of the whole project and the community . 10. So, I feel there must be higher standards of expected behaviour and stricter actions. This is where, I feel a permanent people-asked-not-to-_organise_-WordCamp-MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our [Meetup Organizer Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). list makes sense. If someone like that changes over a period of time, they could still informally help out when they’re ready without having an “official” role. 11. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2a9a436a279049025e6d68d400ef12f39d4ef00898b745428aaabecbc42a171d? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 12. [Sallie Goetsch](https://profiles.wordpress.org/wpfangirl/) 4:54 pm _on_ November 1, 2017 13. Those are all important questions and I don’t have any particularly good suggestions in response, though I’m inclined to agree with [@saurabhshukla](https://profiles.wordpress.org/saurabhshukla/) that we should hold organizers to a higher standard. It’s easier for us to do more damage to more people and therefore to the reputation of the WordPress community as a whole. 14. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/eae9b03fdf1750ad9ecddf610003712fb406bce09006a0c4596071960057ea0e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 15. [Ulrich](https://profiles.wordpress.org/grapplerulrich/) 9:57 pm _on_ November 1, 2017 16. I am not really sure how you could stop someone from buying a ticket. 17. I wonder how high reward is for the effort. The problem that I see with an automated blocking is that there are always people with the same name and if you realize you are being blocked there are ways around it. 18. I think a mixed automated checking and human review would be the best way. So do not blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. anyone from buying a ticket but get a notification if someone with the same details buys a ticket so that information can be verified before contacting the person. 19. To get an idea of the size and effort of the task it would be interesting to know how many cases there have been since the start of the program. 20. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 4:37 pm _on_ November 2, 2017 * You’re correct, blocking a ticket purchase is pretty easily worked around. An automated alert and then human review is a good idea. * I don’t have a comprehensive list that goes back to the start of the program of the CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.”- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) cases that the global community teamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. has been asked to help with. Back in 2013-15, we were involved in 2-3 serious cases (involving assault, harassment, or threats of violence) per year. In 2016, I think we handled 6-8 cases. This year, we’ve been involved in more than 10. This matches the growth of the program( especially the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our [Meetup Organizer Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). program), so I don’t think we’re seeing an increase in bad behavior, just an increase in the number of humans in our community. Since 2013, we have responded to 4 different reports by asking people to refrain from attending events for a year or more. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f38676be97b8d7ee8c454d9c32aff580948400109f6ca16262ecb498ee1f81ef? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Maeve Lander](https://profiles.wordpress.org/enigmaweb/) 3:10 am _on_ November 3, 2017 - > Since 2013, we have responded to 4 different reports by asking people > to refrain from attending events for a year or more. - Out of interest, have these 4 respected that request to the best of your knowledge? * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 5:46 pm _on_ November 3, 2017 * None to our knowledge. 🙂 But like I said, there’s really no system for alerting us if they did. The current alert system is, “one of the 3 people who knows this person was asked to refrain from attending, also attended the event and recognized this person.” The likelihood of that happening is pretty low. * And with that in mind, then our request that someone refrains from attending our events for a time… is pretty much unenforceable. If we know that, then how can we consider this an effective way to respond to an issue? 21. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/977d1ed12f4aa5875261bde52d70676ca9985d3cd1ac164441add8cc11e96b32? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 22. [Luca Sartoni](https://profiles.wordpress.org/lucasartoni/) 3:58 am _on_ November 2, 2017 23. > Currently, if a community member breaks the code of conductCode of Conduct “ > A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities > or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) > at an event, our standard practice is to ask the attendee to leave. 24. Can we clarify this part? 25. If someone breaks the CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) at an event, the consequences depend on the gravity of the misbehaviour. I understand the conversation is about extremely serious situations, so probably it would be appropriate to clarify that in the post, otherwise, it looks like that any minor incident has such dramatic consequence, giving the wrong perception of the crucial role of the CoC. 26. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 3:22 pm _on_ November 2, 2017 * Good point, I’ll add an edit to the post. 🙂 27. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f38676be97b8d7ee8c454d9c32aff580948400109f6ca16262ecb498ee1f81ef? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 28. [Maeve Lander](https://profiles.wordpress.org/enigmaweb/) 8:33 am _on_ November 2, 2017 29. I feel that preventing people attending is not in the spirit of the WordPress, even if they have behaved badly in the past. I do not think that we, the community team, have that authority. And I think it might be a recipe for disaster to put community organizers in the position of having to enforce a ban. 30. I agree that organizers (incl speakers and volunteers) should be held to a higher standard… but are they not already? Their reputation within the community would be impacted by bad behaviour. Need there be any other punishment? 31. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 4:03 pm _on_ November 2, 2017 * > I feel that preventing people attending is not in the spirit of the WordPress, > even if they have behaved badly in the past. * Does your perspective on this change, depending on the previous bad behavior? For example, if the previous bad behavior involved physical assault? * > Their reputation within the community would be impacted by bad behaviour. > Need there be any other punishment? * Currently we don’t make any public announcement about code of conductCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) issues that include the names of the people involved. Reputation being affected depends on who knows about the issue, and if we handle code of conduct issues quietly, then it’s very possible that the general public won’t know about it. * I wish I thought that someone’s fear of public shaming were enough to keep them from behaving inappropriately at WordPress events, but unfortunately that isn’t the case for everyone. * On the topic of reputation, I prefer handling code of conduct issues privately to the alternative, mostly to spare the victim(s) of abuse (in the case of abusive behavior) further pain. The challenge there is whether this practice adequately communicates to the community what kinds of behavior aren’t tolerated at our events. If you see someone being harassed and you don’t see anyone dealing with it in the moment, and then you don’t see or hear about any resolution of the issue later, then your assumption will naturally be that our events tolerate harassment. I think we all want to avoid attendees coming to that conclusion. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f38676be97b8d7ee8c454d9c32aff580948400109f6ca16262ecb498ee1f81ef? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Maeve Lander](https://profiles.wordpress.org/enigmaweb/) 2:55 am _on_ November 3, 2017 - > Does your perspective on this change, depending on the previous bad behavior? > For example, if the previous bad behavior involved physical assault? - Criminally bad behaviour such as physical assault is outside our jurisdiction. This gets to the heart of my concern – if we claim authority to ban, we take on a responsibility and potential legal liability in excess of both our authority, and our ability to enforce. - I am not saying that we should welcome criminals or people of poor standing at events. To the contrary, I believe our Code of ConductCode of Conduct“ A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) should be prominent, and that breaches should be dealt with to the full extent of our authority. It is the extent of that authority, and our ability to enforce a ban, that I am questioning. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 5:52 pm _on_ November 3, 2017 * If criminally bad behavior happens at one of our events, I think we do have a responsibility to respond to it, apart from any legal repercussions. Even if an attendee decides not to prosecute the person who groped her at an after-party, we can still take steps to prevent that person from groping someone at the next event we host, by asking him/her to refrain from attending in the future. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b8e2d92dc909086792c7f00e607b9668b50ea1c946615591901aedd1858134d0? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Nouran](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nuanel/) 9:29 pm _on_ November 5, 2017 - I agree very strongly with this. Imo the community would bear some of the moral culpability, if we knew that someone had committed something like that and took no steps to prevent it from happening again. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c25c5eaaea26fdac6c4a75d16e3facd04470a2b20883e59ab10795bde40f70b2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Morgan Kay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwendydd/) 4:38 pm _on_ November 2, 2017 * > I feel that preventing people attending is not in the spirit of the WordPress, > even if they have behaved badly in the past. * The reason people are asked not to attend is that their presence prevents other people from attending or from getting the most out of an event. Asking one person not to attend (such as a known predator or creep) might mean that 5- 10 more people will attend, or will participate fully instead of trying to avoid that problem person. We absolutely need to be sending the message that bad behavior is not acceptable. Yes, WordPress is all about full participation, but we need to recognize that the participation of some people can prohibit the participation of others. * Some people can and do change, and we do need to have mechanisms for allowing people back in. But preventing problem people from attending makes events safe for other people to attend. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/09ad13522ea71a8f81e1d032251b482a97c6c620453b6866fa550f4cc4bf7d6e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Trisha Cornelius](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trisha_cornelius/) 10: 17 am _on_ November 12, 2017 - I agree completely with Morgan Kay. - I definitely think this is a case where the paradox of tolerance needs to apply. WordPress is a tolerant community which absolutely needs to be intolerant of intolerance. - It is a sad reality that some people will withdraw when they see unpleasant behaviour towards other people and we will lose their voices from the community, and that is a tragic loss. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c25c5eaaea26fdac6c4a75d16e3facd04470a2b20883e59ab10795bde40f70b2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Morgan Kay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwendydd/) 5:11 pm _on_ November 13, 2017 * > WordPress is a tolerant community which absolutely needs to be intolerant > of intolerance. * Brilliant way of phrasing this! 32. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c25c5eaaea26fdac6c4a75d16e3facd04470a2b20883e59ab10795bde40f70b2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 33. [Morgan Kay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwendydd/) 9:17 pm _on_ November 2, 2017 34. > What if the person doesn’t respect this request? 35. There are legal considerations here too – keeping a list of banned people could be considered defamation. IANAL, but if we decide we need to go this route, we might need to talk to a lawyer about our options. If we automate something, we might be able to keep the automated list a secret, but we would still need to have human intervention here to make sure we are blocking the right people, so this could get dicey. 36. > What if the person starts attending again after the year is over, and breaks > the code of conductCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining > the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual > party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) again? 37. Here we really need to balance the need to keep everyone else at our events safe with our desire to see the best in everyone and hope that everyone can change. We could have a 3-strikes-and-you’re-out policy: if a person breaks the Code of Conduct 3 times, they are banned permanently. Or we could escalate: 1st offense = 1 year ban, 2nd offense = 2 year ban, etc. We might be able to have an appeal system, where if someone demonstrates that they have made some major changes in their life, we let them back in, but honestly, I don’t have much patience for repeat offenders. The CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) rules are not hard to follow, and if someone is breaking them repeatedly, there is a big problem. 38. > What if we receive reports that a community organizer has broken the code of > conduct? 39. Many other communities have dealt with problems where highly-respected and powerful people in the community have been accused of harassment, and from what I have seen, most communities have handled that badly (Node.js is an infamous example). So first of all, we need to make sure that our community leaders are at least held to the same standard as everyone else, which is more than a lot of communities can say. 40. However, organizers really ought to receive some basic training (even if it is just in the form of an online quiz) about what a CoC is, why it is necessary, and how to enforce it. Once they have received that training, I think it is reasonable for there to be some rules about what happens to organizers who break the code of conduct: they shouldn’t be allowed to organize events, and depending on the nature of their violation, we might need to take extra steps to make sure they are not in a position of power that they could abuse. We also need to make sure that, in a situation where an organizer has broken the CoC, there is someone else that the violation can be reported to safely. 41. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 5:57 pm _on_ November 3, 2017 * > However, organizers really ought to receive some basic training (even if > it is just in the form of an online quiz) about what a CoCCode of Conduct“ > A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities > or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) > is, why it is necessary, and how to enforce it. * I agree strongly here; this is a place where I think our program doesn’t do enough. I’d love to get a course together in the next 2-3 months. If anyone would like to collaborate on (or lead) this effort, please raise your hand! 🙂 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c25c5eaaea26fdac6c4a75d16e3facd04470a2b20883e59ab10795bde40f70b2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Morgan Kay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwendydd/) 7:59 pm _on_ November 3, 2017 - I would be happy to collaborate here. This can dovetail with the work we are doing on the community CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct). I have some materials that I put together a few years ago that we can use as a starting point. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/977d1ed12f4aa5875261bde52d70676ca9985d3cd1ac164441add8cc11e96b32? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Luca Sartoni](https://profiles.wordpress.org/lucasartoni/) 7:08 am _on_ November 6, 2017 - Happy to help on this! - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/09ad13522ea71a8f81e1d032251b482a97c6c620453b6866fa550f4cc4bf7d6e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Trisha Cornelius](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trisha_cornelius/) 10: 47 am _on_ November 9, 2017 - I would be happy to be involved with this 42. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/15c1992340b393e287c6050901b6c4a5a10204d854c84ee8be6be84aca77de95? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 43. [Timi Wahalahti](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sippis/) 9:29 pm _on_ November 2, 2017 44. I would like to raise few really big questions about having a list of people-asked- not-to-attend-WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).: 45. * who can access the list? organising team, organisers in spesific region or country, WC LO, someone from central? * who can make the decision to put someone on that list or remove from it? * if the list would be just some sheet, who on earth has time to do checks against it? * would the people have kind of a hearing before adding to the list? 46. In my point of view these kind of situations where somebody refuses to respect the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. are quite easy to handle (at least in small communities), because organisers tend to talk each other very much. What is the situation in bigger communities like US? 47. Do we need global list of people-asked-not-to-attend-WordCamp or could we trust organisers to know problematic persons and just give advices and kind of a “norm” how to handle these situations? 48. > should we hold our organizers to a higher standard of behavior and respond in > a different way? 49. IMO this goes without saying and applies to volunteers and speakers also, since we’re the visible part of advocating WordPress and community to attendees. Responding in different way should just be being a bit more strict about following coc, intervene with lower threshold and follow the same path as with attendees not respecting coc after asking repeatedly. 50. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 4:42 pm _on_ November 9, 2017 * > who can access the list? organising team, organisers in spesific region > or country, WC LO, someone from central? > who can make the decision to put > someone on that list or remove from it? if the list would be just some sheet, > who on earth has time to do checks against it? would the people have kind > of a hearing before adding to the list? * These are all excellent questions, and I don’t have the answer to all of them. For one thing, currently we don’t have a list of blocked users — other than in the heads of the people who have helped handle those very serious cases. * The people who have deliberated on the cases that resulted in temporarily blocked users include: me, [@chanthaboune](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/), [@hlashbrooke](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hlashbrooke/), [@camikaos](https://profiles.wordpress.org/camikaos/), [@courtneypk](https://profiles.wordpress.org/courtneypk/), and [@_dorsvenabili](https://profiles.wordpress.org/_dorsvenabili/). I’d be more than happy to include non-full-time volunteers to that list, so if someone’s got experience in these matters and is willing to join in on reviewing highly confidential and sensitive cases like this, please comment here. 😉 * > Do we need global list of people-asked-not-to-attend-WordCampWordCamp WordCamps > are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to > WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes > together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and > share the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). or could > we trust organisers to know problematic persons and just give advices and > kind of a “norm” how to handle these situations? * I think we could start with training organizers to handle these situations better, but I am worried about how that will play out at scale. In smaller communities it’s not too complicated, but you’re entirely correct that national communities the size of the US won’t be able to function that way. 51. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ec06da98bebb8a8eadba0f26b10797332ef270c505be28d216d167d8b24b86fe? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 52. [Adam W. Warner](https://profiles.wordpress.org/awarner20/) 7:49 pm _on_ November 7, 2017 53. I believe a list/automation can work for organizers, volunteers, and speakers as Central holds the approval for organizers and in turn organizers hold the approval of volunteers and speakers. 54. Attendees? I’m afraid I don’t have a definitive reply for how to manage this as others have indicated that this could be bypassed pretty easily. I’ll follow along and give it more thought. 55. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/09ad13522ea71a8f81e1d032251b482a97c6c620453b6866fa550f4cc4bf7d6e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 56. [Trisha Cornelius](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trisha_cornelius/) 10:46 am _on_ November 9, 2017 57. > What if we receive reports that a community organizer has broken the code of > conductCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, > rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct)? > We depend on the community organizers in our groups to *enforce* our code of > conduct. So if it’s found that an organizer has behaved inappropriately, should > we follow the standard practice described above, or should we hold our organizers > to a higher standard of behavior and respond in a different way? 58. Firstly, yes I do think that with greater power comes greater responsibility and community organizers need to set a good example. 59. I think we also need to give community organizer’s better training about how to defuse and de-escalate potential violations. 60. Community organizers should also be held to account for behaviour that they witness or is reported to them but do nothing about. The conduct violation that is ignored is the conduct violation that is accepted. 61. > What are we missing? > If you have other questions or feedback about how we respond to code of conduct > reports, please comment on this post! 62. We need to have better reporting tools. Some people may not want to speak verbally about an incident of harassment, and would prefer to send a text message or email or would prefer to report it to someone of the same gender. 63. We need to look at ways to resolve conflicts. Sometimes incidents are based on misunderstandings and not malice, but even then a victim-centric approach should be maintained, so if the injured party does not want to be involved in an apology session their views should be respected. 64. I also believe that we can take advantage of larger conversations that have taken place around technology events. For example, the Ada Initiative and Geek Feminism community have documented some anti-harassment policies. See: [http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-harassment_policy_resources](http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-harassment_policy_resources) [https://blog.valerieaurora.org/2014/02/18/howto-design-a-code-of-conduct-for-your-community/](https://blog.valerieaurora.org/2014/02/18/howto-design-a-code-of-conduct-for-your-community/) 65. Unfortunately, I don’t know of similar articles dealing with racism and racial harassment. 66. The big thing though I think is we need to educate the community: how to spot harassment and how to intervene or escalate as needed. 67. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 4:48 pm _on_ November 9, 2017 * > We need to have better reporting tools. Some people may not want to speak > verbally about an incident of harassment, and would prefer to send a text > message or email or would prefer to report it to someone of the same gender. * I’ve been thinking about this as well. Do we think the community would benefit from a separate reporting form, that would go to a separate queue only available to a small group of trusted volunteers who handle Code of ConductCode of Conduct“ A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) complaints? This would facilitate organizers reporting the issues they’re not sure how to handle, in a more private way, and allow community members to report issues with organizers to the global team (which currently isn’t very easy to do). - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5612a0b1e26e958b7cb153ad8d69325be61525b2bba4819361bb69f127ec34b4? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Mark Root-Wiley](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrwweb/) 6:06 pm _on_ November 9, 2017 - A quick note: Expect that reports could come in from many places, no matter how good the communication of reporting procedures is. Facebook, Twitter, SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/). The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/), Email, etc. Making sure anyone with access to any of those tools knows how to pass along a report and appropriately provide confidentiality then becomes important. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 8:06 pm _on_ November 9, 2017 * +1 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/09ad13522ea71a8f81e1d032251b482a97c6c620453b6866fa550f4cc4bf7d6e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Trisha Cornelius](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trisha_cornelius/) 10: 37 am _on_ November 12, 2017 - +1 to Mark’s comment. - Yes, I do think having a separate reporting form would be beneficial. - Perhaps an idea is to also include a question on the post-WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). survey: Did you feel safe and welcome at the event? * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c25c5eaaea26fdac6c4a75d16e3facd04470a2b20883e59ab10795bde40f70b2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Morgan Kay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwendydd/) 8:14 pm _on_ November 9, 2017 * > We need to have better reporting tools. * There is currently a team of people working on the CoCCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct), and one of our goals is to make sure that we have clear reporting tools and procedures. Expect to see a survey from us some time in the next week as we do some research to see how things stand right now. If you’d like to be involved in this team, we currently meet every other Tuesday – our next meeting will be Oct 14 at 4PM UTC. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/09ad13522ea71a8f81e1d032251b482a97c6c620453b6866fa550f4cc4bf7d6e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Trisha Cornelius](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trisha_cornelius/) 10: 50 am _on_ November 12, 2017 - I will be there 🙂 68. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5612a0b1e26e958b7cb153ad8d69325be61525b2bba4819361bb69f127ec34b4? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 69. [Mark Root-Wiley](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrwweb/) 6:10 pm _on_ November 9, 2017 70. > should we hold our organizers to a higher standard of behavior? 71. There’s been less discussion here of speakers and volunteers, but I do think they also deserve to be held to higher standards given the public positions they hold and that their interactions with attendees are at least partially on behalf of organizers. 72. If nothing else, I think it would be appropriate that folks who violate the code of conductCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_conduct) and are asked not to attend for a period of time also be asked not to speak or volunteer for longer. ### Leave a Reply 󠀁[Cancel reply](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/discussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions/?output_format=md#respond)󠁿 You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2017%2F11%2F01%2Fdiscussion-code-of-conduct-response-questions%2F&locale=en_US) to post a comment. # Post navigation [← Community Team Chat Agenda | Thursday, 2 November](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/01/community-team-chat-agenda-thursday-2-november/) [What makes a WordPress Meetup Great? →](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/11/02/what-makes-a-wordpress-meetup-great/)