FAQ

This FAQ attempts to address common questions and concerns around the BioPAL community’s Code of Conduct. If you still have questions after reading it, please feel free to contact us at biopal@esa.int.

Why have you adopted a Code of Conduct?

We think the BioPAL community is awesome. If you’re familiar with the BioPAL community, you’ll probably notice that the Code basically matches what we already do. Think of this as documentation: we’re taking implicit expectations about behavior and making them explicit.

Maintaining a Code of Conduct forces us to consider and articulate what kind of community we want to be, and serves as a constant reminder to put our best foot forward. But most importantly, it serves as a signpost to people looking to join our community that we feel these values are important.

We know that the BioPAL community is open, friendly, and welcoming. We want to make sure everyone else knows it too.

What does it mean to “adopt” a Code of Conduct?

For the most part, we do not think it means large changes. We think that the text does a really good job describing the way the BioPAL community already conducts itself. We expect that most people will simply continue to behave as they have in the past.

However, we do expect that people will abide by the spirit and words of the Code of Conduct when in “official” BioPAL spaces. In practice, BioPAL spaces include mailing lists, various communication channels, and events.

What happens if someone violates the Code of Conduct?

We are all stewards of our community, and are encouraged to participate in ways that defend the values highlighted in this document and help others understand when their actions go against these values (by engaging them and directing them to this document if necessary). If that doesn’t work, or if you need more help, you can contact biopal@esa.int. For more details please see our Reporting Guidelines.

Acknowledgments

Original text courtesy of the Speak Up!, Django and Jupyter Projects, modified by BioPAL. We are grateful to those projects for contributing these materials under open licensing terms for us to easily reuse.

License

All content on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.