The Rust Foundation (“Foundation”) has adopted the following code of conduct.
We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of level of experience, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other similar characteristic. Consequently, we will not tolerate bullying or harassment of anyone, in any form, anywhere within the Foundation’s activities. This Code of Conduct sets out our policy and tells you where you can report violations.
Rust Project Code of Conduct #
The Foundation operates within the larger Rust community. The Rust Project Code of Conduct (https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/code-of-conduct) is the baseline for the Foundation's Code of Conduct. Agreeing to the Foundation Code of Conduct requires that the Rust Project Code of Conduct is also agreed to, followed and adhered to in all circumstances where the Foundation Code of Conduct applies.
Applicability #
This code of conduct applies to all participants in Foundation activities, including member representatives, grantees, board and staff. Foundation staff members are required to sign up to this Code of Conduct as part of their contracts of employment, and breaches are subject to our disciplinary procedures. We expect our staff members to set a good example.
Foundation activities should be taken to include:
- Foundation-sponsored events (conferences, workshops, face-to-face or online meetings, social events)
- online collaboration tools that are hosted by the Foundation (email, text chat, video conferencing)
- all forms of social media
- any other forums managed by the Foundation.
This code also applies to non-Foundation activities where someone claims affiliation with or is representing the Foundation.
Our expectations #
We want the Foundation’s activities to be a safe and productive environment for everyone, and we expect all our participants to contribute towards making it so.
We expect participants to be kind and courteous, respect that people have differences of opinion, and keep unstructured or uninvited critique to a minimum. Discussions must be respectful. We expect everyone to be allowed an opportunity to speak, and we encourage everyone to listen objectively and respond constructively.
We also expect everyone to pay attention to others’ conduct, and challenge or report anything which does not adhere to this Code.
We understand that sometimes there will be breakdowns in communication that, while they may not constitute a breach of this Code, may escalate. We want to promote and facilitate effective and respectful communications, and therefore we may be able to provide mediation services in instances where the parties involved are invested in improving their working relationship.
What constitutes a violation of the Code of Conduct? #
You must not insult, demean or harass anyone. Unacceptable behavior includes (and is not limited to) the following:
- Violence, threats of violence or violent language directed against another person.
- Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
- Posting or displaying sexually explicit or violent material; using overtly sexual language.
- Posting or threatening to post other people's personally identifying information (“doxing”).
- Personal insults, particularly those related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or disability.
- Inappropriate photography or recording.
- Inappropriate physical contact. You should have someone's consent before touching them.
- Unwelcome sexual attention. This includes, sexualized comments or jokes; inappropriate touching, groping, and unwelcome sexual advances.
- Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following (online or in person).
- Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
- Sustained disruption of community events, including talks and presentations.
- Spamming, trolling, flaming, baiting or other attention-stealing behavior is not welcome.
- A pattern of unreasonably frequent and persistent contact with an individual, either through a single or multiple communication platforms, may be deemed as harassment.
Private harassment is also unacceptable. No matter who you are, if you feel you have been or are being harassed or made uncomfortable by a participant in Foundation activities, please contact us immediately.
Reporting a violation #
Contact us as soon as you become aware of the incident – especially if it is ongoing. If you have an idea for how you’d like us to put things right, please tell us what that is so that we can take it into consideration.
- At an event, you can report an incident face-to-face to any member of the Foundation team.
- Email contact@rustfoundation.org with “Code of Conduct violation” in the subject line.
- If you are not comfortable with making a written report, then we will accept a report from an advocate on your behalf.
- We will accept reports made under a pseudonym - you do not need to use your real name or email address.
- We can accept reports in a language other than English, but we will need to arrange for translation and this may mean it takes us slightly longer to handle your report. Please include the English phrase “Code of Conduct violation” so that we may easily know what your message is about.
We encourage you to report incidents that didn’t affect you directly but did affect someone else. They may not have felt comfortable making a report themselves. We still want to be made aware of the incident so that we can take action.
How we will deal with your report #
We will act as promptly as we can to resolve the situation. Speed may be of the essence where the incident is ongoing, but we will also do our best not to compromise fairness.
We will appoint a member of our staff (an “investigator”) to look into your report in detail. (If you made a report about a member of our staff, we will ensure they have no part in handling your report.)
The investigator may consult and/or work with the Rust Project moderation team (https://www.rust-lang.org/governance/teams/moderation) for any report directly or indirectly related to the Rust Project.
The investigator will conduct a fact-finding exercise to collect all the relevant information and establish what did or did not happen. Their role is to be fair and objective, collecting balanced evidence from both sides. The investigation will be confidential to the fullest extent possible.
If you have provided contact details, the investigator will acknowledge your report, check we’ve understood the issue correctly, and ask you for any further information we may need. They will also gather other sources of evidence, such as by speaking with witnesses. Where your report relates to a specific person, the investigator will inform them that there has been a report about them (without giving your name) and ask for their version of events.
The investigator will make a recommendation to the rest of the team on what action to take. This may include:
- No action required
- Warning the offender
- Blocking them from use of an online channel or platform
- Expelling them from an event
- In extreme cases, bringing their association with the Foundation (membership, fellowship etc) to an immediate end
If you are unhappy with the outcome #
If you are unhappy with the way your report has been handled, the investigation that was undertaken, or the eventual outcome, you can request that the Executive Director (or, for board members, an officer of the board) reviews the process followed in your case, the evidence, the decision and the way that decision was applied. Their decision will be final.
We expect our staff to be treated with the same courtesy, respect and fairness that we expect them to show to individuals. We do not tolerate unacceptable or unreasonable behavior towards staff members, even if this stems from frustration. We will aim to conclude interactions respectfully where we are unable to take an issue further under this code.