.. _CoC_reporting_manual:

Matplotlib Code of Conduct - How to follow up on a report

This is the manual followed by Matplotlib's Code of Conduct Committee. It's used

when we respond to an issue to make sure we're consistent and fair.

Enforcing the Code of Conduct impacts our community today and for the future.

It's an action that we do not take lightly. When reviewing enforcement

measures, the Code of Conduct Committee will keep the following values and

guidelines in mind:

* Act in a personal manner rather than impersonal. The Committee can engage

the parties to understand the situation, while respecting the privacy and any

necessary confidentiality of reporters. However, sometimes it is necessary

to communicate with one or more individuals directly: the Committee's goal is

to improve the health of our community rather than only produce a formal

decision.

* Emphasize empathy for individuals rather than judging behavior, avoiding

binary labels of "good" and "bad/evil". Overt, clear-cut aggression and

harassment exists and we will be address that firmly. But many scenarios

that can prove challenging to resolve are those where normal disagreements

devolve into unhelpful or harmful behavior from multiple parties.

Understanding the full context and finding a path that re-engages all is

hard, but ultimately the most productive for our community.

* We understand that email is a difficult medium and can be isolating.

Receiving criticism over email, without personal contact, can be

particularly painful. This makes it especially important to keep an

atmosphere of open-minded respect of the views of others. It also means

that we must be transparent in our actions, and that we will do everything

in our power to make sure that all our members are treated fairly and with

sympathy.

* Discrimination can be subtle and it can be unconscious. It can show itself

as unfairness and hostility in otherwise ordinary interactions. We know

that this does occur, and we will take care to look out for it. We would

very much like to hear from you if you feel you have been treated unfairly,

and we will use these procedures to make sure that your complaint is heard

and addressed.

* Help increase engagement in good discussion practice: try to identify where

discussion may have broken down and provide actionable information, pointers

and resources that can lead to positive change on these points.

* Be mindful of the needs of new members: provide them with explicit support

and consideration, with the aim of increasing participation from

underrepresented groups in particular.

* Individuals come from different cultural backgrounds and native languages.

Try to identify any honest misunderstandings caused by a non-native speaker

and help them understand the issue and what they can change to avoid causing

offence. Complex discussion in a foreign language can be very intimidating,

and we want to grow our diversity also across nationalities and cultures.

*Mediation*: voluntary, informal mediation is a tool at our disposal. In

contexts such as when two or more parties have all escalated to the point of

inappropriate behavior (something sadly common in human conflict), it may be

useful to facilitate a mediation process. This is only an example: the

Committee can consider mediation in any case, mindful that the process is meant

to be strictly voluntary and no party can be pressured to participate. If the

Committee suggests mediation, it should:

* Find a candidate who can serve as a mediator.

* Obtain the agreement of the reporter(s). The reporter(s) have complete

freedom to decline the mediation idea, or to propose an alternate mediator.

* Obtain the agreement of the reported person(s).

* Settle on the mediator: while parties can propose a different mediator than

the suggested candidate, only if common agreement is reached on all terms can

the process move forward.

* Establish a timeline for mediation to complete, ideally within two weeks.

The mediator will engage with all the parties and seek a resolution that is

satisfactory to all. Upon completion, the mediator will provide a report

(vetted by all parties to the process) to the Committee, with recommendations

on further steps. The Committee will then evaluate these results (whether

satisfactory resolution was achieved or not) and decide on any additional

action deemed necessary.

How the committee will respond to reports

When the committee (or a committee member) receives a report, they will first

determine whether the report is about a clear and severe breach (as defined

below). If so, immediate action needs to be taken in addition to the regular

report handling process.

Clear and severe breach actions

We know that it is painfully common for internet communication to start at or

devolve into obvious and flagrant abuse. We will deal quickly with clear and

severe breaches like personal threats, violent, sexist or racist language.

When a member of the Code of Conduct committee becomes aware of a clear and

severe breach, they will do the following:

* Immediately disconnect the originator from all Matplotlib communication channels.

* Reply to the reporter that their report has been received and that the

originator has been disconnected.

* In every case, the moderator should make a reasonable effort to contact the

originator, and tell them specifically how their language or actions

qualify as a "clear and severe breach". The moderator should also say

that, if the originator believes this is unfair or they want to be

reconnected to Matplotlib, they have the right to ask for a review, as below, by

the Code of Conduct Committee.

The moderator should copy this explanation to the Code of Conduct Committee.

* The Code of Conduct Committee will formally review and sign off on all cases

where this mechanism has been applied to make sure it is not being used to

control ordinary heated disagreement.

Report handling

When a report is sent to the committee they will immediately reply to the

reporter to confirm receipt. This reply must be sent within 72 hours, and the

group should strive to respond much quicker than that.

If a report doesn't contain enough information, the committee will obtain all

relevant data before acting. The committee is empowered to act on the Steering

Council’s behalf in contacting any individuals involved to get a more complete

account of events.

The committee will then review the incident and determine, to the best of their

ability:

* What happened.

* Whether this event constitutes a Code of Conduct violation.

* Who are the responsible party(ies).

* Whether this is an ongoing situation, and there is a threat to anyone's

physical safety.

This information will be collected in writing, and whenever possible the

group's deliberations will be recorded and retained (i.e. chat transcripts,

email discussions, recorded conference calls, summaries of voice conversations,

etc).

It is important to retain an archive of all activities of this committee to

ensure consistency in behavior and provide institutional memory for the

project. To assist in this, the default channel of discussion for this

committee will be a private mailing list accessible to current and future

members of the committee as well as members of the Steering Council upon

justified request. If the Committee finds the need to use off-list

communications (e.g. phone calls for early/rapid response), it should in all

cases summarize these back to the list so there's a good record of the process.

The Code of Conduct Committee should aim to have a resolution agreed upon within

two weeks. In the event that a resolution can't be determined in that time, the

committee will respond to the reporter(s) with an update and projected timeline

for resolution.

.. _CoC_resolutions:

Resolutions

The committee must agree on a resolution by consensus. If the group cannot reach

consensus and deadlocks for over a week, the group will turn the matter over to

the Steering Council for resolution.

Possible responses may include:

* Taking no further action

- if we determine no violations have occurred.

- if the matter has been resolved publicly while the committee was considering responses.

* Coordinating voluntary mediation: if all involved parties agree, the

Committee may facilitate a mediation process as detailed above.

* Remind publicly, and point out that some behavior/actions/language have been

judged inappropriate and why in the current context, or can but hurtful to

some people, requesting the community to self-adjust.

* A private reprimand from the committee to the individual(s) involved. In this

case, the group chair will deliver that reprimand to the individual(s) over

email, cc'ing the group.

* A public reprimand. In this case, the committee chair will deliver that

reprimand in the same venue that the violation occurred, within the limits of

practicality. E.g., the original mailing list for an email violation, but

for a chat room discussion where the person/context may be gone, they can be

reached by other means. The group may choose to publish this message

elsewhere for documentation purposes.

* A request for a public or private apology, assuming the reporter agrees to

this idea: they may at their discretion refuse further contact with the

violator. The chair will deliver this request. The committee may, if it

chooses, attach "strings" to this request: for example, the group may ask a

violator to apologize in order to retain one’s membership on a mailing list.

* A "mutually agreed upon hiatus" where the committee asks the individual to

temporarily refrain from community participation. If the individual chooses

not to take a temporary break voluntarily, the committee may issue a

"mandatory cooling off period".

* A permanent or temporary ban from some or all Matplotlib spaces (mailing lists,

gitter.im, etc.). The group will maintain records of all such bans so that

they may be reviewed in the future or otherwise maintained.

Once a resolution is agreed upon, but before it is enacted, the committee will

contact the original reporter and any other affected parties and explain the

proposed resolution. The committee will ask if this resolution is acceptable,

and must note feedback for the record.

Finally, the committee will make a report to the Matplotlib Steering Council (as

well as the Matplotlib core team in the event of an ongoing resolution, such as a

ban).

The committee will never publicly discuss the issue; all public statements will

be made by the chair of the Code of Conduct Committee or the Matplotlib Steering

Council.

Conflicts of Interest

In the event of any conflict of interest, a committee member must immediately

notify the other members, and recuse themselves if necessary.

Matplotlib Code of Conduct

Introduction

This code of conduct applies to all spaces managed by the Matplotlib project,

including all public and private mailing lists, issue trackers, wikis, blogs,

Twitter, and any other communication channel used by our community. The

Matplotlib project does not organise in-person events, however events related

to our community should have a code of conduct similar in spirit to this one.

This code of conduct should be honored by everyone who participates in

the Matplotlib community formally or informally, or claims any affiliation with the

project, in any project-related activities and especially when representing the

project, in any role.

This code is not exhaustive nor complete. It serves to distill our common

understanding of a collaborative, shared environment and goals. Please try to

follow this code in spirit as much as in letter, to create a friendly and

productive environment that enriches the surrounding community.

Specific Guidelines

We strive to:

1. Be open. We invite anyone to participate in our community. We prefer to use

public methods of communication for project-related messages, unless

discussing something sensitive. This applies to messages for help or

project-related support, too; not only is a public support request much more

likely to result in an answer to a question, it also ensures that any

inadvertent mistakes in answering are more easily detected and corrected.

2. Be empathetic, welcoming, friendly, and patient. We work together to resolve

conflict, and assume good intentions. We may all experience some frustration

from time to time, but we do not allow frustration to turn into a personal

attack. A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a

productive one.

3. Be collaborative. Our work will be used by other people, and in turn we will

depend on the work of others. When we make something for the benefit of the

project, we are willing to explain to others how it works, so that they can

build on the work to make it even better. Any decision we make will affect

users and colleagues, and we take those consequences seriously when making

decisions.

4. Be inquisitive. Nobody knows everything! Asking questions early avoids many

problems later, so we encourage questions, although we may direct them to

the appropriate forum. We will try hard to be responsive and helpful.

5. Be careful in the words that we choose. We are careful and respectful in

our communication and we take responsibility for our own speech. Be kind to

others. Do not insult or put down other participants. We will not accept

harassment or other exclusionary behaviour, such as:

- Violent threats or language directed against another person.

- Sexist, racist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.

- Posting sexually explicit or violent material.

- Posting (or threatening to post) other people's personally identifying information ("doxing").

- Sharing private content, such as emails sent privately or non-publicly,

or unlogged forums such as IRC channel history, without the sender's consent.

- Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.

- Unwelcome sexual attention.

- Excessive profanity. Please avoid swearwords; people differ greatly in their sensitivity to swearing.

- Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.

- Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour.

Diversity Statement

The Matplotlib project welcomes and encourages participation by everyone. We are

committed to being a community that everyone enjoys being part of. Although

we may not always be able to accommodate each individual's preferences, we try

our best to treat everyone kindly.

No matter how you identify yourself or how others perceive you: we welcome you.

Though no list can hope to be comprehensive, we explicitly honour diversity in:

age, culture, ethnicity, genotype, gender identity or expression, language,

national origin, neurotype, phenotype, political beliefs, profession, race,

religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, subculture and technical

ability, to the extent that these do not conflict with this code of conduct.

Though we welcome people fluent in all languages, Matplotlib development is

conducted in English.

Standards for behaviour in the Matplotlib community are detailed in the Code of

Conduct above. Participants in our community should uphold these standards

in all their interactions and help others to do so as well (see next section).

Reporting Guidelines

We know that it is painfully common for internet communication to start at or

devolve into obvious and flagrant abuse. We also recognize that sometimes

people may have a bad day, or be unaware of some of the guidelines in this Code

of Conduct. Please keep this in mind when deciding on how to respond to a

breach of this Code.

For clearly intentional breaches, report those to the Code of Conduct committee

(see below). For possibly unintentional breaches, you may reply to the person

and point out this code of conduct (either in public or in private, whatever is

most appropriate). If you would prefer not to do that, please feel free to

report to the Code of Conduct Committee directly, or ask the Committee for

advice, in confidence.

You can report issues to the Matplotlib Code of Conduct committee, at

[email protected]. Currently, the committee consists of:

- Stefan van der Walt

- Melissa Weber Mendonça

- Anirudh Subramanian

If your report involves any members of the committee, or if they feel they have

a conflict of interest in handling it, then they will recuse themselves from

considering your report. Alternatively, if for any reason you feel

uncomfortable making a report to the committee, then you can also contact:

- Senior `NumFOCUS staff <https://numfocus.org/code-of-conduct#persons-responsible>`__: [email protected]

Incident reporting resolution & Code of Conduct enforcement

*This section summarizes the most important points, more details can be found

in* :ref:`CoC_reporting_manual`.

We will investigate and respond to all complaints. The Matplotlib Code of Conduct

Committee and the Matplotlib Steering Committee (if involved) will protect the

identity of the reporter, and treat the content of complaints as confidential

(unless the reporter agrees otherwise).

In case of severe and obvious breaches, e.g. personal threat or violent, sexist

or racist language, we will immediately disconnect the originator from Matplotlib

communication channels; please see the manual for details.

In cases not involving clear severe and obvious breaches of this code of

conduct, the process for acting on any received code of conduct violation

report will be:

1. acknowledge report is received

2. reasonable discussion/feedback

3. mediation (if feedback didn't help, and only if both reporter and reportee agree to this)

4. enforcement via transparent decision (see :ref:`CoC_resolutions`) by the

Code of Conduct Committee

The committee will respond to any report as soon as possible, and at most

within 72 hours.

Endnotes

We are thankful to the groups behind the following documents, from which we

drew content and inspiration:

- `The NumPy Code of Conduct <https://numpy.org/code-of-conduct/>`_

- `The SciPy Code of Conduct <https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/dev/conduct/code_of_conduct.html>`_