A strong community needs guidelines.

ZAProductDesign Code of Conduct

Let's grow a happy, healthy digital product design community together!

Don't be a troll
Be respectful of others
Do not harass others
Do not share personal information of others in the community to people inside or outside the community without their explicit permission
All content must be "safe for work"
Job opportunities can be posted in #jobpostings or #freelance-gigs, professional recruitment is not allowed
Don't spam the channels with links, or links to pages, for the purpose of monetisation of user views and which provide no value to the community
All information posted must be of value and benefit to the community - we are here to learn from our peers
If you use the platform to exploit the community in any way, you will be removed

Guidelines

Be kind. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names.
Don't introduce hot topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Don't pull the community into tangents.Please don't dismiss people's work.

Code of Conduct

"ZAProductDesign" in this document refers to the ZAProductDesign Slack organisation at za-pd.slack.com. "The administrators" refers to the administrators of this organisation, which can be accessed in the "Workspace Directory". ZAProductDesign is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

This code of conduct applies to all ZAProductDesign spaces, including public channels, private channels and direct messages, both online and off. Anyone who violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the administrators.

Some ZAProductDesign channels may have additional rules in place, which will be made clearly available to participants. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules.

Harassment includes:

Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion
Unwelcome comments regarding a person's lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
Deliberate misgendering or use of "dead" or rejected names
Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they're not appropriate
Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like "hug" or "backrub") without consent or after a request to stop.
Threats of violence
Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
Deliberate intimidation
Stalking or following
Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes
Sustained disruption of discussion
Unwelcome sexual attention
Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
Deliberate "outing" of any aspect of a person's identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse
Publication of non-harassing private communication

Conduct specific to recruitment activities

ZAProductDesign, and it's admins, acknowledge that finding skilled people in South Africa is a serious problem that needs serious attention. However, the ZAProductDesign slack channel is first and foremost a safe space for people to talk, share and collaborate. Therefore, the following specific conditions regarding recruitment, and recruitment opportunities, apply:

Unsolicited professional recruiting is not allowed on ZAProductDesign under any circumstances.
Users (including admins) may not under any circumstances share personal details of ZADesign members with recruiters without that user's explicit consent.
Advertising an opportunity in brief within the #jobpostings channel is acceptable. Further discussions must happen via direct messages.
Opportunities must not, under any circumstances, use referral programme links where the poster of the message could benefit, e.g. via earning a commission.

We value being able to attract talent to our teams, and a brief message should allow it.

Unsolicited private messages (DMs)

While the community aims to be a place for members of the community to meet and connect, it's also important to respect each other's privacy. If you feel as though a service you provide or business you run may be of use to another member, please respect their privacy and first ask publicly if you may contact them about such discussions before sending unsolicited messages.

Reporting

If you are being harassed by a member of ZAProductDesign, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns there are a few methods for reporting. Administrators will respond as soon as they are able. If the person who is harassing you is on the admin team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. Listed from most public to most anonymous:

Post a message in the #code-of-conduct channel
DM an administrator
Submit an anonymous report

In order to protect volunteers from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response.

We 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, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of ZAProductDesign members or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.

Acceptable Content

The ZAProductDesign community is a collection of design professionals, as such it is expected that the content made available by members of the community should at all times adhere to the acceptable content policy. This policy is intended to protect the community's image, as well as the image of its members, through restrictions on certain classes of content which may be deemed to be unsuitable in a work or family context.

Links to content are deemed as acceptable as the content within.

Classes of content which we deem to be unsuitable include:

Pornographic or sexually suggestive material, either in graphic or text form
Depictions of physical or emotional abuse, either in graphic or text form
Persecution of any individual as a result of their race, gender, religion or other physical traits
Material intended to, without basis, harm the reputation of any individual whether a member or not
Unsolicited advertising with the exception of job offers in the #jobpostings channel
Links, or links to pages, for the purpose of monetisation of user views and which provide no value to the ZAProductDesign community
Content infringing on copyright laws

As a quick self-check, ask yourself whether you would like someone's child to see the content you are posting. If the answer is "no", then there's a good chance you shouldn't be posting it on the ZAProductDesign community.

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, the administrators may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from ZAProductDesign and identification of the participant as a harasser to other ZAProductDesign members and/or the general public.

Intentionally evading exclusions, bans, suspensions, restrictions, or otherwise interfering with the admin team's decisions and actions are not permitted.

Terms and conditions

The workspace owners and admins may, but are not obligated to, monitor or review any areas on Slack where users transmit or post communications or communicate solely with each other, including but not limited to public and private channels, and the content of any such communications. The workspace owners and admins, however, will have no liability related to the content of any such communications, whether or not arising under the laws of copyright, libel, privacy, obscenity, or otherwise. The workspace owners and admins may edit or remove content from Slack at their discretion at any time.

Changes

If you feel there are aspects to this code of conduct which should be modified, please contact a workspace admin and request a formal change.

Credits

This Code of Conduct is heavily based on the LGBTQ in Tech Code of Conduct, Offline First Code of Conduct for Slack, and the Code of Conduct from the ZA Tech Community.