Sugar Labs/Legal/Code of Conduct

NOTICE:  This page is a draft in active flux... Please contribute to these contents and discuss issues on the discussion page.

Sugar Labs, supports the educators and software developers who use and develop the Sugar Learning Platform. Sugar is a place for children to play and learn. Sugar Labs is a place where everyone can play, learn, and teach. The same ideas Principles that make Sugar great, discovery, collaboration, and reflection, are central to the way the Sugar community work. Members of the Sugar community need to work together effectively, and this code of conduct lays down the "ground rules" for our cooperation.

We chose the name Sugar Labs, plural, because we are not one lab, one person, or one idea. We think it captures perfectly the spirit of the sharing and cooperation that is at the heart of the open source movement. In the Free Software world, we collaborate freely on a volunteer basis to build software for everyone's benefit. We improve on the work of others, which we have been given freely, and then share our improvements on the same basis.

That collaboration depends on good relationships between developers. To this end, we've agreed on the following code of conduct to help define the ways that we think collaboration and cooperation should work.

If you wish to sign the code of conduct, you can sign the [[need link].

This Code of Conduct covers your behavior as a member of the Sugar Community, in any forum, mailing list, wiki, web site, IRC channel, install-fest, public meeting or private correspondence. The over sight board will arbitrate in any dispute over the conduct of a member of the community.

Be considerate

Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and we expect you to take those consequences into account when making decisions. For example, when we are in a feature freeze, please don't upload dramatically new versions of critical system software, as other people will be testing the frozen system and not be expecting big changes.

Be respectful

The Sugar Labs community and its members treat one another with respect. Everyone can make a valuable contribution to Sugar. We may not always agree, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It's important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. We expect members of the Sugar community to be respectful when dealing with other contributors as well as with people outside the Sugar project, and with users of Sugar.

Be collaborative

Sugar Labs and Free Software are about collaboration and working together. Collaboration reduces redundancy of work done in the Free Software world, and improves the quality of the software produced. You should aim to collaborate with other Sugar contributors, as well as with the entire Sugar ecosystem that is interested in the work you do. Your work should be done transparently and patches from Sugar should be given back to the community when they are made, not just when the distribution releases. If you wish to work on new code for existing upstream projects, at least keep those projects informed of your ideas and progress. It may not be possible to get consensus from upstream or even from your colleagues about the correct implementation of an idea, so don't feel obliged to have that agreement before you begin, but at least keep the outside world informed of your work, and publish your work in a way that allows outsiders to test, discuss and contribute to your efforts.

When you disagree, consult others

Disagreements, both political and technical, happen all the time and the Sugar community is no exception. The important goal is not to avoid disagreements or differing views but to resolve them constructively. You should turn to the community and to the community process to seek advice and to resolve disagreements. We have the oversight board which will help to decide the right course for Sugar Labs. There are also several Project Teams and Team Leaders, who may be able to help you figure out which direction will be most acceptable. If you really want to go a different way, then we encourage you to make fork the Sugar code base so that the community can try out your changes and ideas for itself and contribute to the discussion.

When you are unsure, ask for help

Nobody knows everything, and nobody is expected to be perfect in the Sugar community. Asking questions avoids many problems down the road, and so questions are encouraged. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful. However, when asking a question, care must be taken to do so in an appropriate forum. Off-topic questions, such as requests for help on a development mailing list, detract from productive discussion.

Step down considerately

Developers on every project come and go and Sugar Labs is no different. When you leave or disengage from the project, in whole or in part, we ask that you do so in a way that minimizes disruption to the project. This means you should tell people you are leaving and take the proper steps to ensure that others can pick up where you leave off.

Mailing lists and web forums

This code of conduct applies very much to your behavior in mailing lists and web forums.

1. Please watch you language. The Sugar community is a family friendly place.
2. Please use a valid email address to which direct responses can be made.
3. Please avoid flamewars, trolling, personal attacks, and repetitive arguments.

The Sugar Labs code of conduct is based on the Ubuntu code of conduct. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. You may re-use it for your own project, and modify it as you wish, just please allow others to use your modifications and give credit to the Ubuntu Project!