CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Team Code of Conduct:

By contributing to OpenVic or being present on the OpenVic discord, you are representing the project, and agree to the following team code of conduct. This applies only to contributors to OpenVic, not the community.

This code of conduct applies to the project github and affiliated discords. We do not generally moderate a team member's behavior outside of these areas outside of extreme case-by-case incidents. A known exception being if a team member claims to be representing OpenVic, or is functioning in their role as a team member in these other spaces. In those cases the code of conduct fully applies.

Voluntary effort does not excuse individuals from acting with strict professionalism. Team members must treat each other and members of the community with respect at all times, regardless of reciprocity, with next to zero tolerance for violations.

1. Treat all team members, contributors, and community members with respect regardless of experience level or personal identity. Constructive disagreements are fine, pejoratives are not.
2. Critique ideas and work, not people. The quality of someone's work is unrelated to their quality as a person.
3. Team members must ensure that their language and actions are free of personal attacks and disparaging personal remarks.
4. Receive criticism constructively. Critique of your ideas or work is not a criticism of you as a person.
5. Be responsive. Team members are obligated to answer questions posed to them by fellow team members - partial responses or non-responses are not acceptable unless waived by the person asking. Every team member has a right to a response; if you cannot or will not answer something, say so and explain why.
6. Team members should always presume best of intentions and interpret words and actions through the lens of good faith, excluding cases where that good faith clearly does not exist.
7. Be tolerant of individuals with views that do not align with the views of others.
8. Arguments between team members that get heated must be moved into VC or be discontinued for 24 hours. Enforceable with text mute. Discussion must be civil.
9. Do not engage in overly political or politically adjacent discourse outside of a strictly historical context in the proper channels. Keep discussion of personal political opinions and beliefs at a bare minimum if at all. You are held to a higher, moderation standard compared to regular community members.
10. Bigotry, defined as harassment or discrimination against someone for reasons - or with language - related to their personal identity, has zero tolerance.
11. This code of conduct can be modified at any time for any reason with general consensus from the team. Changes do not apply retroactively.

When conduct violations occur, they should be reported to Catylist as a rule, either publicly, in DMs, or a ticket. If you do not feel comfortable for whatever reason talking to Catylist - feather, spudgun, or any other senior project member should be contacted. When a conduct violation occurs, the following process applies: (1) the involved parties are asked to disengage; (2) a moderator or lead reviews the incident; (3) consequences are issued on a scale from a formal warning up to removal from the team, proportionate to severity and history. All parties involved are entitled to know what action was taken and why with full transparency.