Handhelds.org Community Code of Conduct
This Code of Conduct covers your behaviour as a member of the Handhelds.org Community, in any forum, mailing list, wiki, web site, IRC channel, conference, public meeting or private correspondence. The Handhelds.org Community Council will arbitrate in any dispute over the conduct of a member of the community.
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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 will not be expecting big changes.
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Please use a valid email address to which direct responses can be made.
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Please avoid flamewars, trolling, personal attacks, and repetitive arguments. On technical matters, the Technical Review Board can make a final decision. On matters of community governance, the Community Council can make a final decision.
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Make sure not to post messages with confidentiality and/or restrictive copyright disclaimers. Public communication channels on Handhelds.org are public by nature.
Be respectful. The Handhelds.org Community and its members treat one another with respect. Everyone can make a valuable contribution to Handhelds.org. We may not always agree, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behaviour 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 Handhelds.org Community to be respectful when dealing with other contributors as well as with people outside the Handhelds.org projects and with users of Handhelds.org.
Be collaborative. Handhelds.org 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 Handhelds.org maintainers, as well as with the upstream community that is interested in the work you do. Your work should be done transparently and patches from Handhelds.org 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 Handhelds.org 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 Technical Board and the Community Council, both of which will help to decide the right course for Handhelds.org. 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 a derivative distribution or alternative set of packages available using the Handhelds.org Package Management framework, 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 Handhelds.org 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.
Retire gracefully. Developers on every project come and go and Handhelds.org 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 minimises 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. Mailing lists and web forums are an important part of the Handhelds.org Community platform.
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Based upon the Ubuntu Code of Conduct version 1.0.1 with the permission of Mark Shuttleworth Jan 30, 2007.
