Code of Conduct - Drafting & Discussion

Hey all, as you may or may not know, the #community Working Group has been developing a robust code of conduct these past few weeks / months. I’d first of all like to give a massive thanks to @estmcmxci for taking this on and doing the lion’s share of the writing, and the rest of the WG (@Coltron.eth @Limes @matoken.eth @validator.eth) and other community members like @vegayp for getting involved as well.

I believe a code of conduct is necessary to act as a north star for how individuals who want to join the DAO/community conduct themselves, and to act as a neutral reference point for when conflicts arise, and allow us to make decisions without individuals’ emotions getting involved.

Following the break is the proposed Code of Conduct, and we’d appreciate everyone’s thoughts and opinions. It’s lengthy, but important.

I think the goal is, after the community here on the forums largely feels this CoC is sufficient, we can make this into a social proposal to adopt it DAO-wide.


Pledge

We as members, contributors, and leaders of ENS DAO pledge to maintain a safe space that encourages high standards for inclusivity and representation.

Accessibility is core to our ethos, and so all exchanges on our platform will be documented and stored in a public space for members of our community to refer to.

On a higher level, interactions among anyone interacting with ENS DAO or on behalf of ENS DAO should be in good faith, and good faith should be assumed of the other party as well.

Participating in the community means we welcome people from all walks of life; no matter their orientation, race, creed, status, age, culture, philosophy, ideology, gender, and so forth.

We will do our best to accommodate both the needs of neurotypical and neurodiverse community members; understanding that each community members’ voice is equally impactful and important to development of our overall ecosystem.

Intentionality and mindfulness in how we choose to engage with the community is at the center of what it means to be a productive member.

We as productive members understand that although our own values and beliefs may not align with others in the community, it does not give us the right to infringe upon, alienate, or marginalize them. We acknowledge and respect the sovereign rights of each member in our community, but not at the risk or peril of another.

Therefore, we pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Value-Aligned Conduct

The ENS DAO operates from a prosocial, human centered perspective:

  • Prosocial - We value things that first and foremost create and support public goods. Profit is not bad in and of itself, but providing services to support the ENS community is more important. Indeed, profit is critical for our goal of creating a regenerative economy that supports the token engineering community.
  • Human centered - We encourage initiatives that are focused on using token engineering in an ethical manner and strive to only create positive impact.
  • Acknowledgement & Recognition - As best we can, we praise members contribution to the Commons and incentivize participation of existing and ongoing initiatives throughout the ENS DAO.

We hold ourselves to high standards of safety, resilience and integrity:

  • Safety - We create an environment where everyone should feel safe to be themselves, interact with others, and express their opinions and contributions free from any malicious reaction.
  • Resilience - We ask members of this community to communicate openly and to make an effort to maintain alignment with the ENS Mission, Vision, and Values. If conflicts arise, we expect members to act peacefully towards a resolution and the restoration of harmony and efficiency.
  • Integrity - Honesty and consistency lead to trust, which is a core value of healthy communities. Our approach is to trust first, but any obvious instances of scamming, deceit, spamming, or fraudulent activity will be treated as a violation of this code of conduct

We encourage our members to be radically open source, non-hierarchical, creative and transparent in their intentions and accountable for their actions:

  • Open-source - Ideas are meant to be shared. We default to using GPLv3 and Creative Commons with attribution licensing on our work, but we accept all open source licenses.
  • Non-hierarchical - Everyone is encouraged to exercise their autonomy, creativity and full agency when acting in the Commons. Every individual is wise in their own manner, and the diversity of perspectives enriches our Commons.
  • Transparent - We value individuals’ efforts to act transparently and to proactively identify their incentives, especially if there are conflicts of interest, especially when it comes to proposing, funding, work progress and other important activities involving the ENS Commons.
  • Accountable - Community members are expected to be accountable for all their actions and commitments. Accountability brings trust, and trusting in each other is critical for our success.

“We welcome new community members to review the ENS DAO’s Value Board, which explicitly states our values which we believe promote a healthy ENS DAO and ENS Community.” - Marcus Martínez, Community WG LC.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:

  • Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
  • Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
  • Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
  • Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
  • Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community
  • Giving praise generously where praise is due

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

  • The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
  • Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
  • Public or private harassment
  • Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
  • Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Enforcement Responsibilities

Stewards, Lead Coordinators and Contributors are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Community leaders have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

Conflict Management & Resolution

Despite best efforts to create a safe space for Community Members to thrive in, there remains a possibility for conflict that can endanger the health of our Community. In anticipation of this, our Community has developed a protocol to prevent and manage conflict. We outline our approach below:

Maintaining Trust through Transparency and Accessibility

Conflict can be prevented by maintaining a high level of trust within the Community. Community leaders are responsible for maintaining this trust by communicating the values described herein. The Community Working Group will do their best to communicate those values by distributing information equally throughout all channels of the ENS DAO.

“Commons need to have clearly defined boundaries.”

Boundaries are healthy and prosocial; without boundaries, communities run the risk of miscommunication which can lead to apparent or intentional infringement of Community Members’ respective soverignty. Each member will act with respect to their roles. Unless otherwise specified, those roles will define and guide the way in which members will engage with the Community as a whole.

Creating Safe Spaces to Communicate Issues Within The Community [2]

It is the responsibiliy of each member of the Community to hold each other accountable for violations to the Code of Conduct. The Community Working Group has therefore created a space where members can address issues while respecting their privacy. Members of the Community Working Group are responsible for fielding and reviwing each issue submitted to the form. Their job is to create a constructive process to inform the community of the issue in a way that each individual can grow from the process.

Escalation and Community Involvement

Incidents and conflicts that require special attention are to be brought to the attention of the Community Stewards. The Stewards will meet to discuss the issue and work to resolve it through a process of consensus. If the issue cannot be resolved through consensus of the Community Working Group, it will then be brought to the attention of the Community as a whole. The Community Working Group is responsible for leading the discussion with the Community on how best to resolve the issue through public discourse.

Transformational Approach to Conflict Resolution

Sanctions are a more appropriate measure for conflict resolution. Outright punishment (banning) tends to create resentment which rots community sentiment. Instead, Community Leaders should learn from the experience and create a usecase that can be used to help imrpove the overall Community experience.

View our Protocol for Conflict Resolution: Conflict Protocol

Guidelines

  1. This space is a public good, treat it with as much respect as you would your own space.
  2. Common sense is not so common; asking the community for help is encouraged.
  3. Pro social discussions help to grow the community, think about how you can add to existing conversation.
  4. Open dialogue and constructive criticism is encouraged.
  5. Don’t dignify bad behavior with a response, simply flag it.
  6. This is a place for civil discussion; mind your manners and be thoughtful
  7. Keep discussion orderly. No spamming, double posting or divergent replies.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces, and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. Examples of representing our community include using an official e-mail address, posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event.

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Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.

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This is so important, the person or group responsible for making recommendations should disclose all interests and biases of the proposer to the decision-maker, so they can make an informed decision.

Great job!

The one thing I would add to the TOS is a choice of law provision, so that there is consistency with contractual interpretation, expectations, and available remedies, so I would add:

Cayman Islands’ procedural and substantive law shall apply to the interpretation and enforcement of these Terms of Service, including the available remedies, if any.

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Such a good Job @estmcmxci!

I hope everyone share their opinion on how we can improve it and embrace this as a community alignment.

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Part of the reason I chose my name was because of the scams happening in the crypto space by developers taking advantage of the uneducated by invading their privacy and stealing their hard earned money through rug pulls etcetera. It seemed like a totally ridiculous idea, and still is, but reading these proposals really gives me hope that the whole “web3” space is moving towards an honest AND transparent direction which is an incredibly ambitious and difficult goal to accomplish. Thank you all for contributing and designing this space. I’m not a developer and the only command I’ve ever written was in DOS almost 20 years ago! c:/run_duke3d and I probably don’t even remember that correctly! Happy Saint Patrick’s day everyone! Cheers!

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I am 1000% in favor of this, and I really, really appreciate the excellent work and effort from all involved!

My only small suggestion would be to maybe bold the most important parts, or put it all through something like GPT-3 to make a condensed version for those with a shorter attention span. I realize it is important to thoroughly read and understand it all as written, but most people I have known are the TL;DR type. I would rather them see the most important parts bolded than just skip reading the entire thing. Perhaps this could also be achieved through revision and formatting, without trimming away too much. Maybe just some rearranging.

Thanks again all involved, this is excellent work! And very, very important and necessary.

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This looks really good!

GPLv3 is very opinionated as a “viral” license. The DAO (and participants) can choose what they wish, but I’d push for MIT (which is TNL’s standard choice of license). CC-BY is good, but intended as a license for prose rather than executable code.

I feel like some clarity on what the boundaries of the community are would be valuable here. Does conduct “outside” the ENS community warrant sanction within it? What does it mean for conduct to be “outside” or “inside” ENS? What rises to the level of sanction? What about conduct from before the member joined the DAO?

Can you give an example of sanctions?

One further note: If this is adopted, it should be moved from the forum and hackmd to the governance-docs repo.

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The one thing I would add to the TOS is a choice of law provision, so that there is consistency with contractual interpretation, expectations, and available remedies, so I would add:

Cayman Islands’ procedural and substantive law shall apply to the interpretation and enforcement of these Terms of Service, including the available remedies, if any.

Thank you @berrios.eth - will look into adding this.


My only small suggestion would be to maybe bold the most important parts, or put it all through something like GPT-3 to make a condensed version for those with a shorter attention span. I realize it is important to thoroughly read and understand it all as written, but most people I have known are the TL;DR type. I would rather them see the most important parts bolded than just skip reading the entire thing. Perhaps this could also be achieved through revision and formatting, without trimming away too much. Maybe just some rearranging.

Great feedback @daylon.eth - will see what we can do here to reduce length without losing any of the message.


GPLv3 is very opinionated as a “viral” license. The DAO (and participants) can choose what they wish, but I’d push for MIT (which is TNL’s standard choice of license). CC-BY is good, but intended as a license for prose rather than executable code.

@nick.eth - I will bring this up with the team. No issue here personally.

I feel like some clarity on what the boundaries of the community are would be valuable here. Does conduct “outside” the ENS community warrant sanction within it? What does it mean for conduct to be “outside” or “inside” ENS? What rises to the level of sanction? What about conduct from before the member joined the DAO?

@nick.eth - These are important questions that I appreciate you bringing up. Will address these.

Can you give an example of sanctions?

@nick.eth - Sanction is a funny word but in this context I think it’s “anything that we can do before leading to real punitive actions,” like a range of warnings and attempts to correct behavior.

One further note: If this is adopted, it should be moved from the forum and hackmd to the governance-docs repo.

@nick.eth - Sounds good.

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Thanks! I’ll take note of your feedback and think of how I best to incorporate it into the existing doc. About the ToS… I agree that it is important to add a choice of law provision; I’ll draft it in.

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I think there’s a lot of interest in this CoC as well, looking forward to reading the rest of the replies here!

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Hi Daylon - this is a really good idea. I had access to GPT-3 in the past, but no longer. Had a chat with @Coltron.eth the other day and he suggested the same. I’ll follow up with you to ask if you know how to access GPT-3 so we can think about the tl;dr.

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Cool! I love customer service. It is kinda of a long read to explain how someone should act or not act. #2 Common sense is not so common’ summarized it for me. Part of a strong sentence that stands out to me is ‘…it does not give us the right to…’. It sounds like an argument and ‘giving up my rights’ is not appealing. How about something like; will not be tolerated, is unacceptable, or deemed to be unacceptable upon discretion of the stewards, or verbiage in that nature. It stands out as a powerful sentence but I feel like it either needs a reference to an event or worded differently. If others feel it should stay as it is, thats cool too. I could see there was a lot of thought put into it. Thank you!

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How about:

While you have a right to be yourself, with your own values and beliefs, to be a part of our community, not only should you be respectful of those whose values and beliefs differ from yours, but also you should refrain from attacking, disparaging, or degrading them, as they have an equal right to be themselves. It is by working together, with our differences, and not against each other that we can achieve our common goal of making ENS a success and our community prosper.

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Yes! i would be in favor of replacing it with what @berrios.eth wrote! I think it speaks to the heart of the document and summarizes it best. I would replace ‘not only should you’ with an expectation. Another idea would be to add this statement to the Our Standards section.

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I would be in favor of removing the word ‘right’ or ‘rights’ all together with something else. I would also be in favor or removing "should you’ and “you should” terms with something else. How about a Rights and Responsibilities section in regards to professional behavior. Thanks @berrios.eth !

‘Be respectful of others’ is what i usually see that should say a lot.

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“We as productive members understand that although our own values may not align with others; infringing upon, alienating, or marginalizing anyone in the community will not be tolerated. We acknowledge and value diversity in the community and will continue to be respectful of our differences without imminent peril of another.”

Good morning everyone! It’s 9:25AM here on the East Coast, USA. Sunny and cool this morning… I’ll be taking all your feedback into account today and preparing a final draft of the CoC… @spencecoin will have a final look and we’ll send it up for a social proposal. Thanks so much for all the feedback!

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I’ll create the R&R section and add @berrios.eth suggestion under it.

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Thanks all for your feedback.

Update is live with a soft poll on if this should go towards a social proposal: [Temp Check] ENS Code of Conduct

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