Like the Go community as a whole, the OSR team and community is made up of a mixture of people from all over the world. Diversity is one of our huge strengths, but it can also lead to communication issues and unhappiness. To that end, we have a few ground rules that we ask people to adhere to.
- Be friendly and patient.
- Be welcoming. We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability.
- Be considerate. Your actions or omissions may affect other members of the community, and you should take those consequences into account when deciding what to do. Remember that we're a world-wide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else's primary language.
- Be a good sport. Go is a zero sum game where there is necessarily a winner and a loser. Most of us will lose roughly half the time. Therefore, playing Go is an excellent way of practicing virtues including but not limited to: equanimity, empathy, humility, graciousness, and perseverence. It is also a way of working with our greed, envy, pride, ambition, impatience and anger. Don't cheat: cheaters, as well as being dishonest to others, cheat themselves of opportunities for personal growth.
- Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, 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. Members of the OSR community should be respectful when dealing with other members as well as with people outside the OSR community.
- Be careful in the words that you choose.
- Be kind to others.
- Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior aren't acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Violent threats or language directed against another person.
- Discriminatory jokes and language.
- Posting sexually explicit or violent material.
- Posting (or threatening to post) other people's personally identifying information ("doxing").
- Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.
- Unwelcome sexual attention.
- Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
- Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.
- When we disagree, try to understand why. Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time and OSR is no exception. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. The strength of OSR comes from its varied community, people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Don’t forget that it is human to err and blaming each other doesn’t get us anywhere. Instead, focus on helping to resolve issues and learning from mistakes.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of things that you can’t do. Rather, take it in the spirit in which it’s intended - a guide to make it easier to enrich all of us and the communities in which we participate. Please be mindful that how we behave is a reflection of both ourselves and the groups we belong to, including the OSR. (The OSR team reserves the right to act on their discretion should a situation occur that its not strictly covered by the guidelines above.)
This code of conduct applies to all OSR members, and to all methods of communication used by OSR members. This includes but is not limited to the OSR web site, Discord, KGS, OGS, gokibitz.com, e-mail, and any other services which the OSR community uses for communication. Participation in OSR activities will be taken as acceptance of this code of conduct. If you believe someone has violated this code of conduct, we ask that you report it by emailing openstudyroom@gmail.com.
* This code of conduct is based on an original text by the Speak Up! project, adapted and expanded by the OSR Team.
Last updated 15-01-2019.