Etiquette
On 9th of December 2020 a group of community members sent to osmf-talk (OSMF members' mailing list) a statement Calling People to Take Action and Confront Systemic Offensive Behavior in the OSM Community (.pdf on the wiki, Gdoc here) asking amongst others:
- people to support the statement, help co-write and translate it and
- OSMF to implement the suggested changes.
The content of the statement was locked on December 16th and it includes the names of 310 community members and 47 organisations in support.
The board had asked the Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) to work with other parts of the community and come back with a suggested course of action. The LCCWG subcommittee which was formed for this task presented:
- This report on the 29th of January.
- A draft implementation plan (March 2021).
The board urged the LCCWG to accelerate implementation of moderation of the talk and osmf-talk mailing lists before July and clarified that it does not expect a rewrite of the etiquette guidelines in that time frame. Find more information about the LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee here.
Based on this directive, the LCCWG Moderation subcommittee was formed and expanded via a public Call for Participation. This group has been working on an update to the Etiquette Guidelines, a new Process for Moderation, and internal guidelines for a new Moderation Team. Drafts were open for public review and comment. Details are listed below.
- Draft Process for Moderation: Was open for public comment July 23 to August 18, 2021. The Discussion page was used for comments and suggestions. A public discussion was held on August 21, 2021 at 2:30pm UTC. Thanks to all of the participants!
- Draft Etiquette Guidelines Revision: Was open for public comment August 13 to September 8, 2021. The Discussion page was used for comments and suggestions. Two public discussions were held on Thursday September 2, 2021 at 2pm UTC. and September 4; 0600 UTC. The subcommittee thanks all of those who participated in these discussions.
In June 2011, after an extensive community and working group effort, the OSMF Board officially adopted etiquette guidelines and a moderation process laid out on this wiki page, and these have since guided moderation on OSM mailing lists and forums. You can find the OSMF adopted version of the Etiquette page here, and a longer history of the development of the etiquette and moderations guidelines on the talk page. Any subsequent edits, whether minor formatting or content issue, or substantial changes, are part of community efforts within the wiki and not yet officially adopted by the OSMF for use on communication channels.
Mailing lists, web fora, and IRC channels are important and very public communication channels for the OpenStreetMap community. Many new OSMers have their first exposure to the community in these channels. Communication through online methods does not allow one to see facial expression, hear tone or see other cues. Due to the nature of this communication initial impressions are very important. We should strive to make a good first impression and we should be aware that many of these channels are archived in one form or another and will survive for a long time.
Enthusiastic discussions are part of the lifeblood of a successful project and disagreements are inevitable. We should strive to keep our discussions and disagreements appropriate.
Guidelines for behaviour are seldom needed as we understand all of this, and we mostly do a good job of treating others as we would be treated. But once in a while a joke can be missed, a misunderstanding can arise, or a disagreement can become too personal. We should strive to keep our community energetic and accessible with these expected behaviour minimums.
Best practices
How do these guidelines apply in the OpenStreetMap Community?
- The best use of these guidelines is self governance.
- When we forget ourselves, our friends should remind us.
- If our friends don't remind us, those we disagree with might remind us.
- Sometimes a neutral party may arbitrate.
- And sometimes the best option is to take a break, if we realize it or not.
Mailing lists
- Assume good faith
- Stay on topic
- No grandstanding
- If you've made your point already, you don't need to tell us all again
- Nitpicking doesn't help you or anyone else
- Learn to live with the reply-to setting. We're not changing it, no matter what your opinion is and so on.
- Don't publicly call people out. Many issues can be resolved by gently contacting the other person.
- Communicate with the same respect you would utilize in person.
- Calmly adding to the discussion can help keep things tame on the mailing list. (Moderate people who do not participate, makes extreme actions seem the norm)
Process for moderation
The moderators for the mailing lists will follow the guidelines below. For each infraction an individual will be met with the following responses. Which gradually become more direct up to the point where members may be blocked.
- Send polite mail to individual
- Robust mail outlining what the issue is
- Temporary block of 24 hours
- 2nd block for one week with mediation with blocked individual
- 3rd block, discussion between moderators about final block
If the community is generally unhappy with moderation they can contact the board via the Communication Working Group to suggest a change in moderation.
Moderator guidelines
Moderators will adhere to the following guidelines when enacting the above policy
- Try to keep participants on topic but do not be too heavy handed
- Calm down or block aggressive or abusive behaviour
- License discussions should be moved to legal-talk
- Other than license announcements actual discussions should occur on the legal-talk mailing list
See also
- Community Code of Conduct (Draft)
- Code of Conduct for the diversity-talk@ mailing list, which is used there instead of this Etiquette guide.