Adoption of an off-the-shelf Code of Conduct

Context and Problem Statement

We want an explicit and documented code of conduct to support people collaborating with us on our projects. We need contributors to understand the code and enforcement policy. Which one should we adopt?

Considered Options

• Contributor Covenant v2.1
• Citizen Code of Conduct
• Formless – No conventions for code of conduct

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: “Contributor Covenant”, because

• It is used by tens of thousands of repos on GitHub, and is therefore likely the most recognised code of conduct of contributors.
• It contains enforcement guidlines and is well maintained.
• Citizen Code of Conduct hasn’t been touched since 2018.

Consequences

• Good, because it prevents us from needing to write one from scratch
• Neutral, because teams need to discuss the implications of adopting the code of conduct
• Neutral, because teams need to thoroughly read the enforcement guidelines section of the code
• Neutral, because teams need to set up and monitor an enforcement contact method.

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