Code of Conduct

Welcome!

The purpose of the communities including here on Design.Systems, the Design Systems Slack, Mastodon, and Twitter communities is to promote the discussion of design systems, style guides, component libraries, and pattern libraries.

The Design Systems Slack is dedicated to providing a welcoming environment for everyone and expects participants in this community to act in a way that promotes an environment that is harassment-free, safe, comfortable, and enjoyable to be a part of. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

Admins

The current admins are:

  • Jina Anne
  • Maya Benari
  • Nathan Curtis
  • Mina Markham
  • Donnie D’Amato

What we strive for

We strive to create a welcoming and inclusive culture that encourages people to have discussions about design systems. Our atmosphere requires an open exchange of ideas balanced by thoughtful guidelines. It would be impossible to list everything needed to create a more welcoming space, but we encourage you to embrace these principles for guidance:

  • Be humble; practice empathy and humility.
  • Assume competence in each other.
  • Listen carefully and actively.
  • Ask questions, and seek to understand each other’s context.
  • Encourage other people to listen as much as they speak.
  • Respect each others time by doing research before asking questions that have been addressed before or in other channels.
  • Be open and honest about your intentions (particularly important for those sharing resources).

Unacceptable behavior

To help participants understand behaviors that are unacceptable or run counter to our culture, we’ve listed below actions that violate our Code of Conduct policy.

This list does not cover every case. Each person you interact with is unique, and as a result can define a line of unacceptable behavior that’s unique to them. Ensuring that your behavior does not have a negative impact is your responsibility.

Harassment includes:

  • Negative or offensive remarks based on race, religion, color, sex (with or without sexual conduct and including pregnancy and sexual orientation involving transgender status/gender identity, and sex-stereotyping), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, marital status, political affiliation, mental illness, socioeconomic status or background, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, or clothing.
  • Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior
  • Unwelcome sexual attention or remarks
  • Threats of violence
  • Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
  • Deliberate intimidation
  • Sustained disruption of discussion
  • Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
  • Constant private messaging to pick people’s brains rather than having open conversations in public channels
  • Publication of non-harassing private communication
  • Intentionally or repeatedly referring to people in a way that rejects the validity of their gender identity; for instance, by using incorrect pronouns or forms of address (misgendering).
  • Microaggressions, which are small comments or questions, either intentional or unintentional, that marginalize people by communicating hostile, derogatory, or negative beliefs. Examples include:
  • Patronizing language or behavior
  • Pedantic corrections that don’t contribute to the conversation (For example: “Well actually’s…”)
  • Assuming without asking that particular people or groups need concepts defined or explained to them. (It’s great to be sensitive to the fact that people may not be familiar with technical terms you use every day. But assuming that people are uninformed can come across as patronizing.)
  • Assuming that particular groups of people are technically unskilled (“So easy your grandmother could do it.”)
  • Repeatedly interrupting or talking over someone else
  • Feigning surprise at someone’s lack of knowledge or awareness about a topic
  • The use of racially charged language to describe an individual or thing such as “thug” or “ghetto”
  • Referring to an individual in a way that demeans or challenges the validity of their racial identity
  • Mocking someone’s real or perceived accent or first language.
  • Retaliating against anyone who files a complaint that someone has violated this code of conduct.

Open & Honest Sharing

When it comes to sharing resources, please be open and honest about any costs associated with using the resource. If there is a price, or if there is a sign up form (which comes at a cost at providing personal information), then that needs to be made very clear when announcing.

Reporting

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the admins by sending them a direct message. They’ll respond as promptly as they can.

The admins will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate or harassing behavior must comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the admins may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender and up to and including expulsion from this slack and identifying the participant publicly as someone about whom we've received complaints.

Message retention

Slack — the company — retains complete logs of all channels and direct messages back to the creation of Design Systems Slack. Slack is a U.S. company and therefore subject to subpoenas from U.S. courts. Our logs may be subject to subpoena and could become public as part of legal proceedings.

Privacy

Please be mindful that things you say here may at some point become public. This is a public slack. Please exercise caution and refrain from sharing sensitive information that could harm you or others if it became public.

Credits and license

[This work is available to you to use, publish, and modify under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Please keep the paragraph below attached to your final version.]

We are greatly appreciative of the multiple sources that we drew from to build this Code of Conduct, including:

This code of conduct is based on Annalee Flower Horne's Sample Slack Code of Conduct, which is in turn based on Geek Feminism’s Community Anti-Harassment Policy. We have adapted the Sample Slack Code of Conduct for our own use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.