Amey-Thakur Code of conduct enforcement
A code of conduct that is never enforced is worse than none, because it promises protection that does not exist. The document is the easy part; the process for what happens after a report is the substance.
Method
- Name who receives reports and how. A specific contact that is not a public issue, with at least two people so a report about one of them has somewhere to go.
- Acknowledge and protect the reporter. Confirm receipt, explain the process, and keep their identity to the smallest group necessary. Reporters take a real risk.
- Gather facts before deciding. Read the actual exchange, ask both sides where appropriate, and separate what happened from how it felt to each party.
- Respond proportionately with a ladder. Private warning, moderation, temporary suspension, permanent ban. Jumping to the extreme for a first minor incident is as damaging as ignoring repetition.
- Record decisions privately and consistently. A short record of what was reported, decided, and communicated is what makes the second incident handleable and the process defensible.
- Communicate the outcome to those who need it. The reporter learns what happened; the community learns only what is necessary, since public detail often re-victimises.
Boundaries
- Enforcement addresses conduct in project spaces; it is not a general arbiter of disputes between people elsewhere.
- Serious matters such as threats or illegal behaviour go to the appropriate authorities and platform, not to a maintainer process.
- Enforcers need support and rotation, because handling reports is draining work (see maintainer-sustainability).