Welcome to the Irish Tech Community

Preface

As we moved into 2018 it was time to take steps into making the ITC experience more seamless for all parties involved. This means taking stock of what has come before - our victories and our failure and making a plan for the future. This invariably means that how things work from now on is going to be different and hopefully this will be to the benefit of all members of the community.

It’ll negate the need for having one person making all the big decisions or having all of the responsibility. It’ll be more firm on who and what we allow on ITC. The internet is a big place, and we want to curate ITC into something that we can be proud of. A community of people who want to help build up and not tear down but in order to plant the seeds of that spirit there need to be some things to facilitate that change.

Focus of ITC

ITC is to be; supportive, empowering and insightful. Adding genuine value in terms of these via mature interactions

Objective of ITC

To be a force of good in the irish tech scene. To be supportive and encouraging of our peers to find their place in the tech scene. A source of reliable information with people who care about the Irish Tech scene. To be a place of where all people can gather to discuss all areas of tech in a supportive and engaging environment.

TL:DR

  • Rules are now changing so mods will be more predominant in channels
  • We will be looking for more volunteers for people to moderate
  • They will have their own channel to get support from each other and for admins
  • They will have no additional powers other than to enforce the rules.
  • They will have the support of a single admin for any issues that arise that they can’t resolve themselves.
  • More rules to be found in our About ITC page.

A few things to note:

  • The Irish Tech Community is dedicated to providing a harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, work, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or have membership revoked at the discretion of the organizers.

  • ITC is not a substitute for legal advice from a professional lawyer/barrister.

  • ITC should be considered SFW (Safe for Work). As a rule of thumb, before you post anything, consider if you’d want a co-worker or your boss to see it. While the admins are aware that ITC is used by both professionals and vistors alike the tone shall be kept as SFW and to be used in a Social capacity until the community decides otherwise.

The following is not allowed:

  • Any content which is not in keeping with the Code of Conduct
  • Blatantly sexual content (pornography, nudity, etc.)
  • Misogyny, ableism, sexism, racism, nationalist insults, etc.
  • Defamation, personal abuse or any other type of abuse, harassment, stalking, threatening content or any content that would otherwise violate the rights of others
  • Impersonating a person, company, or government organisation
  • Links to anything which would break the rules if posted directly
  • Misdirection or deceiving links (such as to sites which hijack the browser, rickroll, etc.)
  • Anything illegal
  • Posting any private phone numbers, or any personal contact information without explicit prior authorisation of that person
  • Advocating criminality or violence
  • Trolling (A ‘troll’ is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other users. These users should be reported to admins immediately.)
  • Posting libellous material
  • Identifying or speculating as to the identity of any pseudonymous user. (The exception to this being admins, where necessary for the safe moderation and administration of the community.)
  • Soliciting passwords or personally identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes
  • Posting content in respect of any matter that is currently before the courts
  • Posting spam of any description
  • Posting or soliciting any members, including inviting members to use a service, sign up for anything, subscribe, or join any events or similar, excepting:
    • #selfpromo (for posts related to a product or service that you personally have created)
    • #jobs (for posting of job adverts for your company or employer)
    • For charity efforts, ask in #admin first
  • Posting “affiliate links” (where someone clicking the link can result in a reward) in any channel
  • Link dumping, or posting links unrelated to the conversation without comment. Discussion comes from differing view points. If you’re posting a link, please comment on why you’re posting it, or what you find interesting about it. Use common sense when posting links, and ask in #admin if you’re unsure.
  • Posting URL shortened links, such as those from bit.ly, tinyurl, etc - as we cannot confirm that these links are safe. Please post the full expanded link instead
  • Posting or soliciting any members to contribute to or take part in any survey
  • Ignoring requests by admins or moderators to cooperate

Harassment

Previously our rules stated that any breaches of the Terms of Service could be handled in any way that was fit by the admins. This could be either doing nothing about any alleged harassment or people could get banned. This lead to situations that ended up falling through the net and those issues always end up having their own sets of ramifications. Something the admin team have learned a lot about over the last 2 months.

These new changes that we’ll be implementing are in effort to correct these instances and to avoid them happening ever again.

Strikes

ITC will now work on a 3 strike system. All incidents will be recorded and the Admins will be keeping an up to date tally of people who are breaking ToS or generally having a negative attitude.

An example of this; Anything that is blatant - linking to porn or NSFW material is a strike without question Harassment - is a strike Negative Attitudes - will be handled differently an example of this could be young people who needed to be guided into doing better. This will be handed by a DM with an admin who will approach the person in an attempt to guide. Should these words be unheeded a secondary strike will be applied.

The team understands that not all strikes are equal; or there could be ways of reasoning out poor behaviour (being provoked etc) however, in an environment where you are expected to reason like adults. It’s something we’re no longer excusing.

So, unfortunately, if this shoe fits then this is something to be aware of.

In Channel Harassment:

On the terms of in channel harassment. Once again, approaching this in a fashion where we are all human beings who are worthy of respect and being treated civilly. That is what we will ultimately strive for. For the sake of consistency I’ll reiterate the general house rules.

House Rules:

In all things we ask you to FOCUS.

Is it…

Friendly On Topic Clean Useful Safe

And if what you’re saying isn’t any of the above then you probably shouldn’t say it.

DM Harassment

With DM Harassment we want to change the approach entirely.

For any and all DM harassment where it can’t be seen, we would like those who are being subjected to harassment to start a chat with both the person who they feel is harassing them and an admin. This way both parties can copy paste logs of the conversation to that particular chat - and wait for an admin to response.

We wave the right of the potential accused to not allow a chat log to be shared in this instance, as its the teams feeling that if you have nothing to hide then its discussion shouldn’t be an issue.

As it protects all parties on all sides - it prevents people cutting and chopping of chat logs or of any context to sentences that could be lost.

The admin in that instance will then work with the parties involved to come to a resolution on the subject. If harassment has been found it will be a strike and the offending party will be barred from communicating with that specific person. Should they reoffend it will be an instant ban.

For where they have been any misunderstandings happening the admin will help to resolve any miscommunications.

For those who are making claims about someone harassing them where they have not equal measures shall take place. Ie. they will be barred from communicating with that person and will be giving a strike. Breaking of this shall be an instant ban.

Being Asked to Leave

There may come a point in time where a member of the community may be significantly impacting another members life either personally or professionally. So, things like abusing people on Twitter or there being a conflict of interest between members may result in you being asked to leave.

We want ITC to be a safe and constructive space for everyone to be in. As the internet is a vibrant and expansive place there are plenty of other places for you to go to if you wish to engage in shitty behaviour.

Ultimately, Admins will have the say as to who stays and who goes. As the old saying goes; this is our bar and we decide who comes and goes. It’s the only way of providing some safeguards for people who have been less than honourable in their behaviours or conduct.

In an ideal world, people would act with honour and integrity to each other and generally just be kind. If you are incapable of doing that to each other. Then this is not a place for you and you will be asked to leave. The admins are under no obligation to elaborate on questions as to why certain members are gone. There has to be a level of trust that we are doing things with people’s best interests in mind, and if that trust isn’t there then this may apply to you too.

Concerning Accounts & Slack Features

  • A person should have one account, and each account should be one person. We do not allow company names, or accounts to join the channel. For example 1; you can be a part of company X but you are here to be a part of the community as an indiviual. Example 2 :if you have a company called “foobar inc” and you join as “foobar” then that’s a company name and that’s against the CoC. Please avoid putting your company name in as part of your username or using a company logo as your avatar.

You may not join if:

  • You are currently banned for any reason.
  • You are joining solely to spam.

What you agree to by joining:

  • Act responsibly.
  • Treat others with respect.
  • Abide by the rules.
  • @here @channel @everyone are turned off so people don’t get unwanted notifications, and to avoid abuse of the feature.

Getting Help

If something goes wrong, get help by:

  • Asking for help in channel by typing “@mods” in any channel
  • If you wish to message an admin individually, you can see a list of current admins by typing ‘@admins’ in any channel
  • Sending a direct message to someone listed as an admin/mod
  • Asking for help in the #admin channel (With admins present).

If you would like to provide feedback on any of the above, or suggest an addition, please contact an admin or post in the admin channel.

About Politics

A new integration will be in place for Politics that will make #politics read only for a duration that is seen fit by an admin. This is to ensure that when things get too heated in terms of breaches of our COC. The channel will be frozen, then an admin will assess what happened in channel. If warnings are required, they will be delivered in terms of DM. However, too many repeat offences will result in a ban from the channel and a possible overall ban will be considered.

The admin team feels that while having a space to discuss politics is important - this can only be done in alignment with the TOC of the overall slack. Breaches of these TOC are considered serious by the team, and will be dealt with. If repeated incidents of this happen where we are repeatedly warning people, we will consider the possibilty of shutting down the channel perminantly - with a view that there are many other places on the internet to discuss politics.