Hey folks,

Recently on the Geek Feminism blog there have been some posts about their
recent adoption of a community anti-harassment policy [1, 2, 3]. This
differs from their model conference anti-harassment policy (which is
awesome and which I seem to recall is one of the bases for our own
conference policy) in that it applies to the community as a whole and its
associated community activities (in GF-land, this includes things like
their blog, wikis, internal organizational groups, etc.).

I thought I'd broach the subject here -- should we adopt a similar policy,
or at least initiate such a conversation? Even given the limited degree to
which Code4Lib exists as a "thing" (pretty much the listserv, the wiki, and
the main website) it seems likely that someone has experienced harassment
in a sphere outside the conference; and if not, it's likely it will happen
some day. It seems like it would be good to have something in place that
outlines our values and expectations in this space.

Have other folks thought about this or discussed it at all? Has a similar
conversation occurred that I missed? (If so, I apologize for overlooking
it!) What questions do we need to address to think about what will work
best for our community? What opinions do people have on the value of such a
document?

One potential challenge that exists for C4L is its lack of formal
structure. GF has an Anti-Abuse Team and other standing entities that
provide structure and continuity to the ongoing existence of the community.
Code4Lib has always avoided having any continuous, formal structures or
bylaws of this sort, and in general the community seems to value its
relatively anarchic state. But it might be hard to reconcile our lack of
formal organizational structure with such a document, especially if/when it
comes time to enforce the policy. (I don't know if that's a valid
justification for not having a policy though!)

-dre.


[1] http://geekfeminism.org/about/code-of-conduct/
[2] http://geekfeminism.org/2014/06/25/announcing-our-code-of-conduct/
[3]
http://geekfeminism.org/2014/06/30/is-harassment-in-your-community-unwelcome-adopt-a-community-anti-harassment-policy/