igraph Code of Conduct

Introduction

This code of conduct applies to all spaces managed by the igraph project, including all public and private mailing lists, issue trackers, wikis, blogs, Twitter, and any other communication channel used by our community. Any events related to our community shall also be bound by this code of conduct or a very similar variant thereof.

This code of conduct should be honored by everyone who participates in the igraph community formally or informally, or claims any affiliation with the project, in any project-related activities, and, especially, when representing the project, in any capacity.

This code of conduct is neither exhaustive nor complete. It serves to distill our common understanding of a collaborative, shared environment and goals. Please try to follow this code in spirit as much as in letter, to create a friendly and productive environment that enriches the surrounding community.

Specific guidelines

We strive to:

1. Be open. We invite anyone to participate in our community. We prefer to use public methods of communication for project-related messages, unless discussing something sensitive. This applies to messages for help or project-related support, too; not only is a public-support request much more likely to result in an answer to a question, it also ensures that any inadvertent mistakes in answering are more easily detected and corrected.

2. Be empathetic, welcoming, friendly, and patient. We work together to resolve conflict, and assume good intentions. We may all experience some frustration from time to time, but we do not allow frustration to turn into a personal attack. A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.

3. Be collaborative. Our work will be used by other people, and in turn we will depend on the work of others. When we make something for the benefit of the project, we are willing to explain to others how it works, so that they can build on the work to make it even better. Any decision we make will affect users and colleagues, and we take those consequences seriously when making decisions.

4. Be inquisitive. Nobody knows everything! Asking questions early avoids many problems later, so we encourage questions, although we may direct them to the appropriate forum. We will try hard to be responsive and helpful.

5. Be careful in the words that we choose. We are careful and respectful in our communication and we take responsibility for our own words. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. We do not tolerate harassment or other exclusionary behavior, such as:

   • Violent threats or language directed against another person.

   • Sexist, racist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.

   • Posting sexually explicit or violent material.

   • Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”).

   • Sharing private content, such as emails sent privately or non-publicly, or unlogged forums, such as IRC channel history, without the sender’s consent.

   • Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.

   • Unwelcome sexual attention.

   • Excessive profanity. Please avoid swearwords; people differ greatly in their sensitivity to swearing.

   • Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.

   • Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.

Diversity statement

The igraph project welcomes and encourages participation by everyone. We are committed to being a community that everyone enjoys being part of. Although we may not always be able to accommodate each individual’s preferences, we try our best to treat everyone kindly.

No matter how you identify yourself or how others perceive you: we welcome you. Though no list can hope to be comprehensive, we explicitly honor diversity in: age, culture, ethnicity, genotype, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, neurotype, phenotype, political beliefs, profession, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, subculture and technical ability, to the extent that these do not conflict with this code of conduct.

Though we welcome people fluent in all languages, igraph development is conducted in English.

Standards for behavior in the igraph community are detailed in the Code of Conduct above. Participants in our community should uphold these standards in all their interactions and help others to do so as well (see next section).

Reporting guidelines

We know that it is painfully common for internet communication to start at or devolve into obvious and flagrant abuse. We also recognize that sometimes people may have a bad day, or be unaware of some of the guidelines in this Code of Conduct. Please keep this in mind when deciding on how to respond to a breach of this Code.

For clearly flagrant breaches, report those to the igraph organisation (see below). For possibly unintentional breaches, you may reply to the person and point out this Code of Conduct (either in public or in private, whatever is most appropriate). If you would prefer not to do that, please feel free to report to the igraph organisation directly, or ask the organisation for advice, in confidence.

You can report issues to the igraph organisation, at igraph@igraph.org. Currently, the following persons will receive your report:

• Gábor Csárdi

• Tamás Nepusz

• Szabolcs Horvát

• Vincent Traag

If your report involves any of the above mentioned persons, or if they feel they have a conflict of interest in handling it, they will recuse themselves from considering your report. Alternatively, if, for any reason, you feel uncomfortable making a report to the organisation directly, then you can also contact any of the above mentioned persons individually.

Incident reporting

We will investigate and respond to all complaints. The igraph organisation will protect the identity of the reporter, and treat the content of complaints as confidential (unless the reporter agrees otherwise).

In case of flagrant breaches, e.g., personal threats or violent, sexist or racist language, we will immediately disconnect the originator from igraph. In particular, the organisation will

1. Immediately disconnect the originator from all igraph communication channels.

2. Revoke any granted permissions from the originator.

3. Reply to the reporter that their report has been received and that the originator has been disconnected.

4. In every case, the moderator should make a reasonable effort to contact the originator, and tell them specifically how their language or actions qualify as a “flagrant breach”. The moderator should also say that, if the originator believes this is unfair or they want to be reconnected to igraph, they have the right to ask for a review, as below, by the igraph organisation.

5. The igraph organisation will formally review and sign off on all cases where this mechanism has been applied to make sure it is not being used to control ordinary heated disagreement.

In cases not involving flagrant breaches of this code of conduct, the process for acting on any received code of conduct violation report will be:

1. acknowledgement that the report has been received

2. reasonable discussion/feedback

3. mediation (if feedback didn’t help, and only if both reporter and reportee agree to this)

The organisation will respond to any report as soon as possible, and at most within 5 working days.

Endnotes

This Code of Conduct is inspired by the SciPy Code of Conduct.

The current organisation of the igraph community is rudimentary. A more professional organisation may develop in the future, at which point the procedure of handling incident reports will also be further formalized.