Talk:Wikigraphists Bootcamp (2018 India)/Friendly Space Policy

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Comments from CSteigenberger (WMF)[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


Hi KCVelaga,

first of all let me thank you for putting this much work and thought in here - I am really impressed by what you have done.

I have few minor comments. Please understand that my suggestions are exactly that: suggestions. Feel free to do something different:

  1. I would decide to call this either a Code of Conduct OR a Friendly Space Policy. Using both terms could lead to confusions.
  2. I would be a bit careful stating that the purpose of this policy is to "guarantee" a meeting that is free of badgering and all that. Unfortunately the best policy will not be able to guarantee this. Some people misbehave, no matter what we do to prevent this. So perhaps a better wording might be: "The reason for this policy is to establish behaviourial guidelines for the occasions and the related tasks to help prevent badgering and other unwelcome conduct."
  3. "Harassment and exclusionary conduct will not be tolerated" - to me those are two seperate issues. They could be adressed seperately. However I would be careful on wording for the exclusionary conduct. There might be sessions only open to users with a certain expertise or with a very narrow focus. Those could be seen as exclusionary. Do you want this?
  4. "We understand that some people enjoy engaging in passionate debates, but we ask that you save heated discussion for after the event, informally." - this sounds like you are giving people the permission to have heated debates around the event or even like you are encouraging this behaviour. I don't think encouraging heated discussions was your aim. Heated to me sounds like it has a potential for hurting someone. So I would rather ask participants to show wanted behaviour here, for example "We understand that some people enjoy engaging in passionate debates, but ask everyone to focus on listening and learning from others at this event."

One bigger issue I also want to bring up that at the moment you are having two or even more different things on one page - perhaps it would be good to divide this up a bit more. You have one big part about expectations for participants. You have another big part that is basically giving instructions to the organizers or the RT team. Creating another subpage or having another main headline might make it easier for people to orient themselves.

I hope you find this helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me with further questions. I would also be happy to hear from others what they think about the policy and/or the issues I have raised! --CSteigenberger (WMF) (talk) 18:00, 21 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@CSteigenberger (WMF): Thanks for your detailed comments. Pinging @Manavpreet Kaur: She is the primary contributor to this and is also leading the safety & security team for this event. KCVelaga (talk) 05:07, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I've amended the document as per suggestions. -Manavpreet Kaur (talk) 11:13, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@CSteigenberger (WMF): Pinging. KCVelaga (talk) 11:52, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.