Code of Conduct Refresh

[thulieblack]

The AsyncAPI Community has been experiencing significant growth, and it is necessary for us to refresh our Code of Conduct (CoC) in order to ensure that the community remains inclusive and safe for all members. This proposal outlines some key steps that can be taken to refresh our CoC, including improving the description, establishing a CoC Committee, and creating a clear reporting process.

Improve the Code of Conduct description

While the current CoC has been effective, I believe it is time to review and improve it further. The new CoC needs to promote inclusivity and respect across the community. We must be intolerant of any form of discrimination, especially between citizens of different countries under political wars. We need to outline clear expectations for behavior from all community members, contributors, and maintainers, and establish a consequence clause for anyone who violates the CoC, including a temporary or permanent ban.

We can implement some ideas from successful communities such as Django Project, Python Community, and Ubuntu. This will help ensure that the CoC is effective and aligns with the best practices of other open-source communities.

Code of Conduct Committee/Moderators

To ensure that the CoC is enforced fairly and consistently, we need to establish a Code of Conduct Committee consisting of 3-5 members. The committee will be responsible for reviewing and settling any CoC violations and taking appropriate action. Committee members will be selected based on their demonstrated commitment to inclusivity and their experience in the community.

The committee will be responsible for ensuring that the CoC is enforced, but they will also be available to offer support to community members who have concerns or questions. They will have the responsibility of liaising with community members to promote a safe and inclusive community for all.

Reporting Process

We need to establish a clear reporting process whereby community members can report CoC violations or concerns. This process will be outlined in the new CoC and will provide information on how to reach the committee members. We can either create a dedicated email address or a form that can be reached by all committee members simultaneously.

The Code of Conduct Committee will be responsible for responding promptly to all reports and taking the necessary steps to address any violations. This process will be transparent, and the committee will ensure that all reports are handled fairly, respectfully, and confidentially.

Finally

Refreshing our Code of Conduct and establishing a committee is a critical step in ensuring that our community remains a safe and inclusive space for all members. We believe that by working together and committing to these changes, we can create a community that is welcoming, respectful, and supportive.

cc @asyncapi/tsc_members

[smoya]

I'm entirely +1 on this initiative.

I want to mention the fact we stick to an old version of the Contributor Covenant COC. New versions include things such as enforcement guidelines, including type of bans, etc: https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct/#enforcement-guidelines .
I'm co-owner of https://bcneng.org and this is what we follow in https://bcneng.org/coc/. We also have a netiquette https://bcneng.org/netiquette/ that is useful (also mandatory to agreed by users) for adding more specific expected behaviors.

Happy to help!

[thulieblack]

This is useful, thank you, Sergio. Will definitely ping you in the coming weeks when I start working on the draft.

[thulieblack]

So I had a call with Joanna Lee, VP of Strategic Programs & Legal at CNCF and Linux Foundation, for some expert advice on the best practices when it comes to updating our CoC and selecting a CoC committee.

These are some of the insights we should consider:

1. Let people know the team behind the project.
2. Selection of CoC members - The process can either be:

• through election
• nomination (select maintainers or project leaders)
  The CoC committee can be interim, and reselection can be done every two years.

3. Communication channel for the CoC committee - We should set up an email address that goes out to all CoC committee members because having an anonymous form may attract spammers. If someone isn't comfortable, wants to be anonymous, or maybe one of the CoC members has a conflict of interest, they can directly send a message to any member whose part of the CoC committee.
4. Escalation path if the committee needs support - If the CoC committees need support, we can seek aid from TSC members.
5. Additional things we need to adhere - Prioritize confidentiality and privacy. We need to maintain a safe space for our community members.

Some additional materials/procedures we can use or replicate from CNCF:

1. CODE OF CONDUCT INCIDENT RESOLUTION PROCEDURES
2. INTERIM CNCF CODE OF CONDUCT COMMITTEE

These are some notes and things I picked up that we need.

Questions?

[derberg]

nice work!

looking at all the comments and discussion my assumption is:

• we just improve https://github.com/asyncapi/generator/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md basing on https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/main/code-of-conduct.md and making sure latest https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct/ is used
• cross link with https://github.com/asyncapi/community/blob/master/slack-etiquette.md ?
• we setup committee https://www.cncf.io/conduct/committee/
• our TSC is what they have as TOC. We also do not have any additional staff, but I believe it is ok. We can have 3 people as main, and 3 as backup that can be reached out if the main ones are not available, or main 3 need advice? (the official email reach only main 3 people, the other 3 can be reached directly only)
• I guess in large part we can copy https://www.cncf.io/conduct/procedures/
• I suggest better do nomination than through election. So basically any community member can suggest 3 names (from TSC list):
  • nominations are done in public/private (not sure, probably private, to not put pressure on TSC members that community votes on but are not interested to do the job)
  • you sum up votes and majority gets it
  • of course nominated person should agree to do the job
  • 2y cadence is fine, as long as reelection is possible

Prioritize confidentiality and privacy. We need to maintain a safe space for our community members.

[email protected] should probably not be a mailbox where conduct is sent, but rather a distribution list, so any email is automatically redirected to committee members? you know, to make sure copy of report is not located in a single place where administrator can look into.

Do I get it right?

[thulieblack]

Yes, that sums up everything, @derberg.

[thulieblack]

@smoya, we can add all the relevant things we want to highlight on our CoC but still maintain the Contributor Covenant standards.

Not sure if it's contemplated anywhere but I think we should also make sure people who joins both our Slack (maybe other places such as GH?) agrees with the COC. Or at least, showing a message that it is implied by making use of our Slack workspace (we can say that by joining, you agree. If you don't, you should not use our workspace).

I don't see any problem why we shouldn't because we are implementing this for our events/conferences

[derberg]

I'm pretty sure there is some slack solution that we can use to make people aware of coc, like agree to terms of service 😄

with GitHub one way is to do what Alejandra did with docs issues templates https://github.com/asyncapi/.github/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/docs.yml but this is just for issues creators, so covers just few cases. More research would be needed

[smoya]

@thulieblack any reason why only TSC members can be nominated? Basically I want to nominate you 😅

[derberg]

@smoya #772 😉

[fmvilas]

I'd love to propose @Barbanio and @AceTheCreator as nominees for the CoC committee 🫶 not sure if they would be up for it but I'd love them to take care of it.

[Barbanio]

Thank you for the nomination. I would love to be a part of this 🥰

[AceTheCreator]

Thanks for the nomination, Fran! It will be an honor to be a part of this ❤️

[fmvilas]

Would like to add @Mayaleeeee too now that she's eligible. cc @thulieblack

[thulieblack]

I'll be dropping my first nomination @smoya @Barbanio @AceTheCreator hope y'all are up for it🤗

[smoya]

Thanks for the nomination! It would be an honour!

[Barbanio]

Thanks for the nomination, Thulie! 💜

[AceTheCreator]

Thanks, Thulie. I'll be happy to be a part of this.

[quetzalliwrites]

My vote is for @Barbanio and @smoya, who have more experience in this area and have consistently demonstrated maturity/impeccable communication in all their collaboration with community members.

[Barbanio]

@alequetzalli, thanks for your words 🥹

[smoya]

Wow, thank you so much @alequetzalli. You made my day!

[Mayaleeeee]

I am delighted to announce my nominations for the position: @AceTheCreator @derberg and @Barbanio

Congratulations to all of you! 🎉🤗

[Barbanio]

Maya, thank you for the nomination 💜

[derberg]

Thanks ❤️ but if possible, I'd like to not be a part of the main committee, but rather stay in the backup, as help if there is some conflict of interest, when CoC moderators is part of the conflict and other CoC moderators need help. Not sure it is healthy to have ED part of the moderators team by default

[Mayaleeeee]

Can I vote for @thulieblack since she is now part of the TSC Member?

[thulieblack]

Thanks @Mayaleeeee 💜
I would love to be part of the alternate members this time around, not the main committee members

[smoya]

And my votes go for awesome @thulieblack, magic @Barbanio, and amazing @AceTheCreator!

[thulieblack]

haha, thank you, Sergio 💜💜

[Barbanio]

Sergio, thanks 💜

[Barbanio]

My nomination is for @alequetzalli, @smoya and @AceTheCreator. I think they all make the community a kinder and more inclusive place ❤️

[smoya]

Thank you @Barbanio!

[mhmohona]

I am gonna nominate the amazing @alequetzalli, @derberg and @AceTheCreator.

[derberg]

ping for people that already provided nominations

@alequetzalli @fmvilas @thulieblack @smoya @Barbanio @AceTheCreator @mhmohona

when we voted, @Mayaleeeee was not yet part of TSC, so just want to bring to your attention that she is a TSC and can also be nominated 😉

anyway, my votes go to @Mayaleeeee @Barbanio @smoya

[Mayaleeeee]

Thank you, @derberg

[thulieblack]

It has been approximately 3 months since we called out for votes for establishing our Code of Conduct committee through the voting process, and we received some great nominations.

Quick Recap Summary:

1. We are restructuring and updating our current Code of Conduct following the CNCF guidelines. We will still maintain the standards set by the Contributor Covenant.
2. The main committee will comprise 3 members and 3 backup members who will support the main committee when unavailable. The committee will run for a two-year tenure and conduct re-election after that.
3. Set up an official email [email protected], which will be distributed to all the committee members and will not be handled by a single person or an administrator.
4. The candidates with the majority votes will be appointed, but it will be crucial that the nominated individuals consent to take up this responsibility.

So far, here are the current nominations:

Main Committee

Nominee	Number of Votes
@smoya	5
@Barbanio	6
@AceTheCreator	6
@alequetzalli	2
@Mayaleeeee	2

Supporting Committee

Nominee	Number of Votes
@derberg	3
@thulieblack	2

When the voting began, @Mayaleeeee wasn't part of TSC, so now she is eligible for votes.

I would like to ask and encourage all TSC members to participate in this voting process. The final deadline is October 31st.

cc @asyncapi/tsc_members

[Tenischev]

My vote for @fmvilas , @derberg and @smoya

[thulieblack]

Congratulations are to @AceTheCreator @smoya @Barbanio for being the first AsyncAPI Code of Conduct Committee members and to @alequetzalli, @Mayaleeeee and @thulieblack for being the support CoC members.

Next Steps

1. Make a public announcement of the new CoC team.
2. The CoC Committee can start to organize, rewrite, and update the current CoC following the previous discussions we had.
3. Setup the [email protected] mailing box cc. @derberg
4. everything should be ready by the end of the year 😁😁

[smoya]

Unless @Barbanio says no to this, I believe we can keep @Barbanio's PR alive and just give push permissions on that branch to any of us. I wouldn't like to "lose" all the discussions in there now that we are very close to merge it. Additionally, the work was mainly done by @Barbanio so I would say better to keep it's authority on the changes.

Just my opinion.

[Barbanio]

Both options are good for me. Let's see what others think.

[AceTheCreator]

I agree with @smoya

[smoya]

@Barbanio I just sent you a DM with the instructions on how to proceed to give permissions to your fork

[smoya]

FYI, we already have access to @Barbanio fork so no issues to push commits into it.