Version: 1.0.1
Created: February 12, 2022
Last Edited: August 31, 2022
- Be considerate. This is a community for comic artists, and we want an open, welcoming, and inclusive environment. We have members from a variety of diverse backgrounds here, and we also have minors in this community. Please be cognizant of this when participating in chat or voice.
- If someone is inconsiderate: We expect members to be willing to accept feedback and aim to do better if it is pointed out by moderators that they have said or written inconsiderate comments. This may include editing what was written in Discord, and/or apologizing depending on the nuance of the situation.
- No hate. No bigotry. Spouting hate or expressing bigoted statements surpasses being inconsiderate and goes straight into inappropriate behavior. We do not tolerate this.
We apply this Code of Conduct in addition to, not in lieu of, Discord’s Community Guidelines.
In the interest of fostering an open, welcoming, and inclusive environment, Heatsink Comics Collective aims for participation in our community to be a harassment-free experience for everyone. We encourage our members to listen and learn from one another. This is both a professional space and a friendly space where creators are encouraged to learn by doing and grow by making friends.
Heatsink Comics Collective started as a series of online programming and print publications dedicated to supporting and growing the cartooning community in South Florida and beyond. Following the motto of “We believe in learning by doing and growing by making friends,” Heatsink Comics Collective originated as an offshoot of Radiator Comics, a distributor, producer, and promoter of hand-made, self-published and small-press comics that focus on self-expression and storytelling.
“A Code of Conduct is a tool for creating inclusive spaces.” - Audrey Eschright
The Heatsink Comics Collective Code of Conduct applies to both events and online spaces, including but not limited to our Discord Server and Zoom Events. We expect all community participants to abide by this Code of Conduct, including moderators and event facilitators. We apply this Code of Conduct in addition to, not in lieu of, Discord’s Community Guidelines.
The purpose of this Code of Conduct is to cultivate an inclusive, welcoming space, and if we, the Heatsink Comics Community, find that this document does not fully achieve that purpose, then the document shall be edited to better serve the community. We welcome feedback from any and all community members.
For example, an effective code of conduct requires updating when a potential missing stair situation is pointed out. Another example is for “on a technicality” situations. A code of conduct can be an effective tool for outlining best practices in a wide berth of situations, but in order to adapt to handling specific situations, moderators may need to review situations on a case by case basis and treat this as a living document rather than word of law.
Heatsink Comics Collective is dedicated to being an inclusive community that continues to be an excellent space in which to communicate, collaborate, and contribute.
We want this to be a positive experience for everyone, regardless of age, caste, citizenship, level of ability, education, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, immigration status, level of experience, neurodiversity, physical appearance or body size, nationality, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, race, or religion (or lack thereof).
We aim to cultivate community norms to foster an open, welcoming, and inclusive environment. Examples of behavior that contributes to that include:
- Using welcoming and inclusive language.
- Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences.
- Gracefully accepting constructive feedback.
- Focusing on what is best for the community.
- Showing empathy and kindness towards other community members.
- Using content warnings and spoiler tags when appropriate.
- Ask for help when you're unsure and be patient when others are asking questions.
- If anyone asks you to check your language, please be respectful of their request.
- Active listening, rather than waiting to speak.
Heatsink Comics Collective is an inclusive, diverse community. If you are new to discussions about diversity, we encourage you to follow these guidelines to support marginalized groups in our community:
- Acknowledge that the lived experiences of marginalized groups are valid.
- Process intense feelings about diversity with a friend in private.
- Listen to marginalized groups, but try not to put the burden of education on them.
- Be open to learning how to be more inclusive.
- Avoid critiquing people's tone when they talk about discrimination.
- Understand that creating an inclusive culture takes time, energy, and resources.
✳️ More information can be found in the Resources section.
We want all participants in our community to have the best possible experience they can. In order to be clear what that means, we've provided a list of examples of behaviors that are inappropriate.
Inappropriate behavior examples includes:
- Personal attacks and/or harassment.
- Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following.
- Deliberate exposure of another person’s private information without permission (doxxing).
- Sustained disruption of online discussion, talks, or other events.
- Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist language or otherwise exclusionary language.
- Unwelcome sexual attention.
- Public, explicit discussion of sexual content or behavior that contributes to a sexualized environment.1
- Violence or threats of violence.
- Using the community to engage in illegal acts in your area.
- Influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior.
- Blatantly spreading lies or misinformation.
Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behavior are expected to comply immediately.
❗ Keep in mind that this space is all-ages. We welcome mature content as long as it follows the above rules. When in doubt, use spoiler tags paired with content warnings.
It is up to individual users to decide if they will click on content or not, and please be aware that we cannot guarantee users will not see content they do not like.
Selfbots are automated bot users posing as user accounts. They are against Discord’s Terms of Service. They are often malicious, and it can be difficult to verify that they are a bot due to the unlimited responses that can be programmed within them.
One way to potentially identify selfbots is to ask direct open-ended questions like "Who is the current political leader of your country of birth?" or “Which comic initially piqued your interest in the comics field?” and checking if they give an answer that is relevant to the question.
If you suspect a user is a selfbot, then please let a mod know. If they fail to give relevant answers to open-ended questions, then they will be removed and reported to Discord.
If someone says the conversation is getting too intense, then please take a break on the topic and give them space.
Another solid way to de-escalate a situation is to use mindfulness techniques. For instance the Mindfulness STOP Method:
S: Stop. Pause momentarily.
T: Take a breath. Reconnect with your breath. The breath is an anchor to the present moment.
O: Observe. Notice what is happening. What is happening inside you, and outside of you? What do you feel, and why do you feel that way? What are you doing, and is it helping the situation?
P: Proceed. Use the information gained during this check-in to consider changing course. Whatever you do, do it mindfully.
Adapted from Cogbtherapy.com
✳️ More information can be found in the Resources section.
Our Handling Teachable Moments, aka minor incidents, process is for handling situations when a member acts, writes, or says something that goes against our community guidelines but is not immediately recognized as inappropriate behavior.
Additionally some behavior may be treated as a teachable moment despite qualifying as inappropriate behavior in situations specific to language if the offender expresses a lack of knowledge and a willingness to learn and adjust their language.
We aim to balance making room for members to learn from their mistakes whilst taking care not to enable them to cause further harm.
Depending on the nuance of the situation, moderators may opt to treat the situation as a major infraction instead due to additional negative behavior from the participant or if this is a repeat issue.
- If you feel able to address the situation on your own, privately message the person and ask them if they are willing to discuss it.
- Please note: you are not obligated to deal with this yourself.
- If the person is unwilling to discuss it, then please reach out to a mod for handling the issue.
- Please reach out to a mod. We are here to assist.
- We can handle reaching out to the user and/or communicating with the community why certain behavior does not match our community values.
- If necessary, mods may enact additional steps to resolve the issue as outlined below.
❗ In cases of unintentional harmful language, members who use problematic language should take steps to correct their language to demonstrate willingness to empathize, learn, and make amends.
- Moderators time-out the offending party and ask them to reflect on how they have violated the code of conduct.
- Mods bring the issue to the community to discuss the issue and welcome discussion.
- If the issue is not resolved through mediation, Mods present a proposed course of action to deal with the violating party with consent from the community.
The consequences of flagrant/blatant/wilful inappropriate behavior is removal from the community at the discretion of the members of the community.
- If you are not a moderator, then please report the issue to a moderator.
- Moderator identifies the issue to the moderator group.
- Moderators discuss.
- Moderators may reach out to instigators with questions.
- Moderators may timeout the instigator if they are continuing to act inappropriately after being told to stop.
- Decision is reached based on ban vs no ban.
- Sometimes those impacted by the negative behavior may request other options than banning, and moderators aim to include that in their consideration.
- Mods notify the community, and invite feedback from the community.
- Mods consider feedback.
- Mods communicate final determination.
❗ Noted Exception: if a new member joins the community and immediately starts making inappropriate posts, then moderators may timeout or ban the user before getting community buy-in due to the likelihood of it being a troll.
This applies as follow up for both teachable moments and major infractions.
If the offended party does not feel a sincere effort to correct the harm is made, and feels uncomfortable with the offending member, they can request a quorum of community members to decide by consensus whether or not to remove the offending member. As all moderators are volunteers, the quorum will be made up of overall community members and not limited to moderators.
When deciding on the quorum, moderators will ask for community members to step forward as volunteers and then randomly select five names pulled from the list of those who volunteered. Example app for selecting names randomly.
If a member feels that a previous ban should be further reviewed, then they may call for one, and the moderators will have a town hall type discussion in Discord to review the situation. Please note that personal information may be excluded from such discussions in order to protect those impacted by the behavior of the member who was banned.
Thank you for joining us today. Heatsink Comics Collective is dedicated to being an inclusive and diverse community. One of our goals with these events is to build fellowship among cartoonists in a supportive, fun, and safe space. Please be mindful of the language that you use in order to reflect those values. We want to ensure that everyone feels welcome and has a good time!
"We are working to be more cognizant of encouraging inclusive values and being a welcoming community. With this in mind,"
- The Pencilsword: On a plate by Toby Morris
A comic that explains the concept of privilege - Questions by Alexandra Dal
A comic that illustrates microaggressions- Content Warning: includes examples of microaggressions
- 4 Unique Struggles that QTPOC Face by Joamette Gil
A comic about intersectionality - Wondermark: Sealioning by David Malki
A comic about sealioning, a type of trolling that hides behind the veneer of debate.
- How to Handle Mistakes by The Guide to Allyship
- How bystanders can shut down microaggressions by American Psychological Association
- Content Warning: includes examples of microaggressions
The Heatsink Comics Collective Code of Conduct is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It was initially adapted from Elastic’s Community Code of Conduct, which is under the same license. Our Code of Conduct was inspired by and borrows content from Codes of Conduct of other open source projects, including:
- WeAllJS COC
- Contributor Covenant
- OpenStack
- Puppet Labs
- Ubuntu
- Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines
- Otter Tech's Code of Conduct Template
Here is a place to include notes of major updates and dates implemented once a document is no longer a work in progress.
| Version | Date | Contributors | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | (pending final review) | Atrian Wagner Ben Cherry Neil Brideau Winifred |
Initial document created. |
Footnotes
-
While we allow swearing and mature content, we ask that users refrain from posting explicitly pornographic content in the public channels. A good rule of thumb to go by is to ask yourself “is this going to make someone else uncomfortable?” Additionally use content warnings and spoilers tags if posting mature or nsfw content. ↩