Proposal: WordPress Community Conduct Project

Update: We’re kicking off the project on the 5th September 2017 at 17:00 UTC on the WordPress Slack #community channel

Please see update post for more details.

In 2012 a Code of Conduct was introduced for official WordPress events to make WordCamps safer and more inclusive. It is now applied to all WordCamps worldwide and anyone who attends 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. automatically agrees to it.

Since the Code of Conduct was first introduced, the community has grown and diversified.

At the 2015 Community Summit, a group discussed expanding the scope of the WordCamp Code of Conduct to apply to the WordPress community as a whole. Work on such a Community Code of Conduct has been ongoing since early 2013, and a ticket was created in 2015, but no finalized version has ever been presented to the community and ratified.

The WordCamp Code of Conduct has been active for 5 years as a tool to promote the safety and inclusion of all community members at WordCamps world wide. The Community Conduct Project aims to expand the scope of the Code of Conduct to promote the same values of safety and inclusion in all official community spaces including WordCamps, WordPress Meetups, official fora and websites including comment sections, and official chat channels (specifically SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. and IRC).

Proposal

Everything needs a starting point, so this began as a proposal by Jenny Wong and Morten Rand-Hendriksen, and reviewed by various community members.

We would like to now take this opportunity to share this project proposal with you all, the amazing WordPress community.

We propose a new Community Conduct Project to update the WordCamp Code of Conduct and expand its scope to become a WordPress Community Code of Conduct (CCoC).

The Project has two main goals:

a) Create a CCoC, to be posted on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, promoting safety and inclusion for all community members in community spaces,

and

b) create a system for reporting, handling, and resolution of CCoC-related issues as they arise.

To meet these goals, several questions need to be answered including:

  • Who can be called a “WordPress Community Member”?
  • In what spaces does the CCoC apply?
  • Under what circumstances can a person be considered to be acting as a community member?
  • What values and ideals would a CCOC protect?
  • Based on these values and ideals, what is the baseline assumption a person can expect whilst being in a WP space.
  • What spaces, physical or virtual, are considered “community spaces” in which all members can be expected to promote and/or adhere to these values and ideals and any agreed upon community guidelines derived from them?

The answers to these questions will help inform the process of drafting a new CCoC, a system for reporting, handling, and resolving issues, which will become the enforcement procedures based on WordPress community values.

The work will be done in three phases:

  • Phase 1: Community review and input on the existing Code of Conduct including a survey for the community to participate in.
  • Phase 2: Review and categorize feedback.
  • Phase 3: Draft a revised Code of Conduct based on feedback from Phases 1 and 2.

The first task of the project will be to gather data about the current Code of Conduct. As a starting point, we have prepared a draft for a survey to be discussed by the group at the first meeting. This survey will be published publicly to learn more about how the current CoC is used in the real world.

Join In

Any and all community members are encouraged to provide input and/or join the project, no previous skills or experience required. In particular, we are seeking diverse voices so if you identify as a member of a diverse, underrepresented, or marginalized group you are encouraged to join.

All meetings will be conducted in the #community-team Slack channel, and minutes published on the Make Community blog to ensure full transparency using the tag CCOC. Working documents will be available for review by the community throughout the project and these will be linked at the end of each post.

If you or someone you know are interested in contributing to this project, please leave a comment below providing a rough ideal time in UTC format, which timezone you are based in and join the #community-team channel. Before scheduling a regular meeting time, we will review the ideal times and timezones of interested community members, to ensure everyone can take part.

Thanks for reading  <3

#ccoc, #proposal