Universal Code of Conduct/Community feedback at conferences

Audience feedback on Universal Code of Conduct from Wikimania 2019

Things that the UCoC must have

1. Positive appeal to working together constructively. Finding and depicting truth in a way that everyone who is constructive can live with it.
2. It’s not acceptable to disclose personal information that is not already disclosed by the person themselves.
3. It is unacceptable to reveal someone’s personal information without their consent.
4. Harassment based on someone’s nationality, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc will not be tolerated.
5. Positive reinforcement combines with what behaviors one should refrain from.
6. Personal attacks, insults, attacks based on personal intelligence, etc.
7. It should be translatable.
8. The UCoC should be given the status of global policy, and its wording should be rigorous enough so that the UCoC can be enacted directly in the movement.
9. No personal attacks, wikiquette, anonymity.
10. Stress on the need for enforcement (else it’s useless).
11. It is about both online and offline projects.
12. Every person has the right to be safe and also has the duty to be respectful to others.
13. Everybody has to be respected about their whole characteristics: gender (identity, expression), age, religion, conditions, impairment, disability (including autism), race, body type, sexual orientation, favourite Wiki project or favourite free licence. Someone's preference should not be made fun of (for example, there are often sexist comments on village pumps of many languages).
14. No personal attacks. Constructive criticism only.
15. Anti-discrimination especially against LGBT+ and women.
16. Policies and processes for dealing with policy violations are closely related and should be developed together.
17. The process should be clear and must be clearly communicated alongside the policies.
18. Civil language i.e. bad language is unacceptable on the projects.
19. Follow something like IT infrastructure - listing a couple of things that are non-negotiable at all. And the rest must be explained.
20. Suggestion - try the anecdotal approach.

Things that the UCoC must not have

1. The moralization of what is good and what is bad.
2. When deciding sanctions, the severity of the offense will be weighed against the offender’s contributions to the movement.
3. Lifetime bans are published along with the subject’s real name.
4. The margin for varying interpretations as abuses thrive in grey areas.
5. Anything that assumes/discourages those with ….(not readable further)
6. The UCoC should not override local policies if the local policy does not fall behind in the standard set by the UCoC.
7. Limitations to freedom of expression.
8. Avoid defining what is right and what is wrong.
9. Enforcement should not be left to WMF.
10. Any type of gender-based policies will probably not go down well (like biasing for women editors). Keep it neutral.
11. Avoid ambiguous language.

Audience feedback on Universal Code of Conduct from the CEE meeting 2019

Things that the UCoC must have

1. A call for civility, accuracy and good faith expectations
2. Create a minimum list of categories one cannot discriminate against
3. Freedom of individuals that respect the freedom of other individuals (freedom to write)
4. Don’t press people to speak up (especially if the say they do not want to)
5. Anything that has to do with not harassing others
6. Assuming good faith
7. Do not bite the newbies
8. Detailed info on what is accepted and what is not accepted. Leave no space for assumptions
9. Don’t post things simultaneously on many channels/in many places
10. No threats with violence, sueing or disclosing identity
11. Define patterns of harassment you include (e.g. stalking on talk pages, name-calling etc.)
12. No personal attacks, name-calling
13. Respect differences
14. Put yourself in the position of the other to see their POV
15. Definition and explanation of terms
16. Have it checked by lawyers on how it aligns with the legislation of a country (to prevent court cases based on various interpretations possible in a country)
17. Respect towards others opinions
18. LGBTQ+
19. Offwiki action
20. Rewriting articles as payback
21. Civilized behaviour

Things that the UCoC must not have

1. Add exotic uncommon patterns (e.g. revenge porn) to not inspire harassers
2. Avoid things that seem weird in the context of the country traditions
3. Username policies (too many differences)
4. Any cultural context (e.g. specific language types banned)
5. Be nice to one another
6. Restrictive language
7. Don’t worry about rules
8. Things that WMF wants but are not in the current policy
9. Limiting the thinking and ideas
10. Vague, pompous inclusiveness call

Ideas for process

1. Talk to other Open source communities, talk to experts on policy elsewhere
2. Don’t have all the discussions on Meta, go to the local village pumps
3. Encourage people to engage in their own language
4. Ask influencers from communities to publicly stand up for the Ucoc
5. Create narratives