[Battlemesh] Code of conduct

[ryan at iheartryan.com]

Code of conduct is a great idea.  It's the sort of thing where, if it 
seems like we don't need one, it's either that we've just been lucky, or 
that incidents have gone unreported because there was no way to report 
them.  If something happens and you're unprepared for it, you'll wish you 
were prepared.

The "geek feminism" wiki has a lot of stuff about codes of conduct.  For 
example, here's their page on how to respond to reports:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Responding_to_reports

I was recently at a music fest that did not have a code of conduct 
(because "do we really need one?  We've never had any incidents before") 
and was totally unprepared.  My friend got groped by a man, and she 
reported it to the organizer, who got flustered and reported it to a 
person from the venue, and that person went and talked to the harasser 
and then came back to my friend and explained that "oh, he's just a hippy 
and standards are different in his community".  This did not make my 
friend feel welcome.

So, I think this is a great idea.

--Ryan


On Wed, 29 Jul 2015, Antonio Quartulli wrote:

> Hi²!
>
> On 29/07/15 17:34, Dave Taht wrote:
>> On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Mitar <mitar at tnode.com> wrote:
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> I noticed that the Battlemesh event does not have code of conduct?
>>>
>>> I think we should have one. I have seen that people are recommending
>>> Django's code of conduct. Maybe we could base it of of it?
>>>
>>> https://www.djangoproject.com/conduct/
>>>
>>> Comments? Objections? Can I put it on the wiki and link it from the
>>> event page?
>>
>> I always liked the old SCO's (pre legal nightmare) dress code.
>>
>> "Clothes should be worn between the hours of 9 and 5."
>
> So no midday bath in a lake nearby? :-P
>
> By the way, do we really need a code of conduct? Did something happen in
> the past that makes us think we need such a code?
>
> Everything has always been working "on its own", therefore I am not
> really sure we need something like this.
>
> Writing down a code is something rather stronger than just "let's have a
> code of conduct" (IMHO) and I am not sure everybody would be comfortable
> with that.
>
> Moreover: if we accept it, what will happen if somebody violates any of
> its points? We have no "board" to report the misconduct to, so basically
> we would be back to handling this as we would not have the code at all :)
>
> my 2 cents.
>
> Cheers!
>
>
>
> -- 
> Antonio Quartulli
>
>