Proposal: MetricsDAO Code of Conduct

MetricsDAO
1

Authors:

Written in collaboration by MetricsDAO members: mar1na (catscatscode)#3578, catjam#6271, Rochelle#9484, PCWCFA#0438.

Short Summary:

Propose and seek community feedback on a Code of Conduct for the MetricsDAO community to abide by.

Motivation:

MetricsDAO is growing, experimenting and learning. To help our community remain a safe and inclusive space throughout our growth, it is important to proactively outline a set of standards to be upheld by community members.

Proposal Details:

This proposal recommends the following Code of Conduct be adopted by the MetricsDAO community where it will be visible in Discord and can be referred to if the need arises.

We are seeking community feedback on the current proposal for 1 week: Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments of this post before 11:59pm ET on Thursday, September 22, 2022. Following the feedback period, these inputs will inform the Code of Conduct that will be considered for a governance proposal.

The Code of Conduct should be a living document, and evolve together with MetricsDAO.

References:

This Code of Conduct references the MetricsDAO Constitution: Public Draft 03 version which has been ratified by the Governors as of this writing.

This Code of Conduct was informed and inspired by the experiences and learnings of other communities. Links to references, and licensing details where applicable, are provided in the Acknowledgements section of this Code of Conduct.

:bulb: MetricsDAO Code of Conduct

Purpose

MetricsDAO is growing, experimenting and learning. To help us continue moving towards our goals and remain in sync with our values it is important to outline a set of standards to be upheld by community members. The goal of creating this Code of Conduct is to proactively clarify the expectations around putting MetricsDAO values into practice through daily actions. This community is currently a safe and inclusive space, and the following Code of Conduct will enable our community to retain these qualities as we learn and grow.

Values

This Code of Conduct is created to help uphold the values of MetricsDAO through daily actions of all community members. Our foundational values are outlined in the MetricsDAO Constitution. (At the time of this writing, Public Draft 03 of the constitution has been ratified by the Governors).

MetricsDAO foundational values are:

  • Collaboration
  • Curiosity
  • Integrity
  • Inclusiveness
  • Scientific rigor
  • Transparency.

Goals

MetricsDAO and the MetricsDAO community exist to produce the best analytical outputs in the blockchain data space.

We believe that collaboration and building in public lead to producing the best analytics. To quote @danner.eth, “Science never happens in a dark room alone!” We believe that crucial elements of a collaborative analytical process include:

  • learning from one another’s work,
  • forking code to improve upon it and add unique contributions,
  • creating work that lasts,
  • publicly sharing and constructively discussing one’s own and each other’s work whenever possible, to exchange ideas and crowdsource improvements,
  • always transparently offering acknowledgments where they are due: for instance, when forking code or otherwise taking inspiration from other analysts.

Code of Conduct

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:

  • Demonstrating empathy and kindness towards others. Assume positive intent in circumstances where you disagree or feel uncomfortable by another’s perspective.
  • Giving and gracefully accepting constructive, timely, and specific feedback. Whenever possible and appropriate, we deliver feedback in public in our Discord server. For instance:
    • respectfully and constructively pointing out an error by requesting support in a public channel,
    • providing a gentle and professional reminder of this Code of Conduct in a public reply message,
    • and other appropriate circumstances where offering kind, respectful, and constructive feedback in public helps enact MetricsDAO values, among them transparency and collaboration.
  • Prioritizing learning over being right. When we make mistakes, we accept responsibility, apologize to those affected, and learn from the experience.
  • Communicating any errors you feel may have been made in a respectful and constructive manner. We are a community of passionate and committed humans building something that did not exist before, and we are dedicated to owning and fixing the mistakes that may occur, and learning from them. Assume positive intent on the part of MetricsDAO, the unintentional nature of possible oversight, and a commitment to rectifying issues.
  • Disclosing conflicts of interest proactively when they occur in order to focus on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community.
  • Respecting others’ right to privacy and confidentiality.
  • Disagree and commit: We will not always agree on the challenging issues we tackle as a DAO, but we have a responsibility to work as a team and support decisions once they have been made.
  • Communicating openly, assuming positive intent, and finding win-win solutions.

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

  • Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks. This includes, but is not limited to: the use of sexualized language or imagery, sexual advances, or any derogatory comments made on the basis of age, race, gender, personal or political beliefs, or other identifying characteristics.
  • Publishing others’ private or personal information without their explicit permission.
  • Degrading the work, contribution, or compensation of another community member.
  • Making threats or ultimatums against MetricsDAO or degrading any of our partners in the ecosystem.
  • Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces, and also applies when an individual is representing the community in public spaces.

Engaging with and correcting unwanted behavior

If a person or group within MetricsDAO or outside our organization violates one of these principles, we encourage community members to correct them quickly and respectfully.

Avenues for appropriate and considerate delivery of feedback may vary by circumstances, but whenever possible and appropriate we prefer public discourse in our community spaces. Transparency in our community is enhanced when we have respectful and constructive discussions of issues and disagreements in public, and if necessary – offer kind reminders of the common goals, values, and standards outlined in this Code of Conduct. Moreover, public discourse can generate additional helpful information and assistance toward error resolution from the team and community members.

Individuals who are not responsive to feedback (as determined by MetricsDAO) on their unacceptable behavior, and individuals who repeatedly or severely break our code of conduct, will be subject to further action outlined in the Escalation Path section of this Code of Conduct.

Escalation may result in offboarding from our community.

Escalation Path

Definition of Violation

An instance of violation is anything that fits an entry in the Examples of Unacceptable Behavior section of the Code of Conduct.

Reporting

If you wish to bring to the attention of MetricsDAO a behavior that is not in line with this Code of Conduct, please tag or contact a community manager, or one of the current season contributors (users with the “S[#] Contributor” role in our Discord server). Server roles can be viewed by clicking on the user profile image.

MetricsDAO Season 2 runs from July to September 2022 inclusive. Future seasons are quarterly as outlined in the Seasons section of the Constitution, with exact season dates announced in Discord. During any two-week off-season period that follows each season, you may contact previous season contributors for the purposes described in this section.

Timeouts

Community manager can independently place a timeout on the violator based on the number of violations:

  1. One violation: 1 day timeout
  2. Two violations: 1 week timeout.

Timeouts cannot be appealed.

Kicks/Bans

Offboarding of DAO members (listed in the Constituents & Bodies section of the Constitution) will follow the Special Circumstance section of the MetricsDAO Constitution.

Participants and other community members not covered by the previous paragraph may be offboarded from the community and banned from participating in MetricsDAO activities after repeated or severe violations of the Code of Conduct. In this case, agreement on a ban must be reached by at least 3 DAO members including at least 1 Governor (with current season badges for these roles at the time when the decision is made).

Ban Appeals

MetricsDAO has the option but not the obligation to hear server ban appeals at least a month after the date of the ban. Your appeal will be voted by Governors using a simple majority with 51% quorum.

Acknowledgements

This Code of Conduct was informed and inspired by the experiences and learnings of other communities, and contains sections (some adapted, some in full) and inspiration from:

:speech_balloon: Next Steps: Community Feedback

We are seeking feedback from the entire MetricsDAO community on the current proposal for 1 week. Following the feedback period, these inputs will inform the Code of Conduct that will be considered for a governance proposal. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments of this post before 11:59pm ET on Thursday, September 22, 2022!

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This looks great to me! I appreciate the level of detail with regard to values, expectations, and recourse paths.

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Hey! Just wanted to clarify here that the 3 members thing is only for people that are contributors to the DAO on a ongoing basis and are holding a badge of some kind. Agree it’s best to give the bounty ops team agency to work through the kinds of situations that you’re mentioning quickly.

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What part will be communicated to members specifically?

It’s a lot to take in. People come with different levels of motivation and involvement. Just to keep in mind. So, conciseness.

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Thank you @danner.eth for sharing your thoughts!

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Thanks @Zook for your inputs! They are really appreciated.

In discussion with other authors when preparing this draft of the Code of Conduct (CoC), our thinking was to establish plagiarism and fraud determination & consequences as a separate document from the CoC, with the possibility of linking or merging them down the line.

Among the considerations here, in my opinion, is that plagiarism evidence & determination overlap more with the Bounty Ops pod, as opposed to the procedures (especially recourse paths) in this CoC draft that involve the broader community of MetricsDAO members.

One idea I’d like to propose, based both on the authors’ earlier considerations and your comment, is to potentially mention in the CoC that the plagiarism-related document shall be outlined and is to be followed.

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Thank you for your important feedback @naan!

We will be sure that clear, governance-badge based rights are outlined in the Code of Conduct before proposing the updated version to the governance process. Seems to me that additional details on where to find these roles can be helpful in the paragraph that you referenced. (I.e. a link to the new documentation page with the current Governors, and a reiteration of who/which badges the new Constitution defines as Members.)

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Thanks @hlx for providing your thoughts!

With regards to your question:

  • The top sections (from Authors to References) are part of the format that will be required to propose the next draft Code of Conduct (CoC) for the governance process. Here, they help provide context on the Code of Conduct draft that follows them, and on the drafting process and next steps in the governance process. They will remain visible in this public post, and many of these sections will also be present in the future governance proposal.

  • The text of the CoC begins from the header “:bulb: MetricsDAO Code of Conduct”.
    My understanding is, should a version of the Code of Conduct be ratified in the future through the governance process, the sections starting from “:bulb: MetricsDAO Code of Conduct” and ending with “Acknowledgments” will be published in MetricsDAO documentation.

With regard to your comment: We’ve aimed for the CoC draft to be comprehensive in its coverage of circumstances – but definitely appreciate the value of brevity to make the CoC easier to digest and navigate.
If you have specific suggestions on parts of this draft that can benefit from being more concise and retain the intended meaning, please don’t hesitate to share them here :+1:

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Understood. Thank you for the clarification. Writing a separate policy on Plagiarism might be good :slight_smile:
I have some writings that could be used for this policy.

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Thanks @Zook! Agree that it would be valuable to draw on Bounty Ops’ expertise and existing writing for plagiarism policy.

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This round of comments has closed

Thank you to all community members who have taken the time to review this proposed Code of Conduct! Thanks to everyone who has shared reflections and inputs in this forum.

Next steps

The feedback that was shared on this forum will inform the Code of Conduct governance proposal, which will be submitted via MetricsDAO’s governance process to codify the Code of Conduct into DAO policy.

The Code of Conduct is a living, breathing document. Ongoing discussion is welcome, with the goal to inform its future iterations.

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Thank you @Zook for sharing the Plagiarism policy introduced by Bounty Ops on the active bounties page! :100:

A distinct thank you for reviewing the Plagiarism section added to the Code of Conduct (outlining Mdao’s general stance on unoriginal and unattributed work) – and ensuring it reflects the general spirit of the more specific Bounty Ops policy. :pray:

Ahead of proposing the Code of Conduct via governance today, I ensured the definition of plagiarism in the Code of Conduct is consistent with the definition in the Bounty Ops policy (i.e. reflects both the lack of attribution part of it, and also the purpose of borrowing the work of others).

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Thanks again @hlx for providing your feedback!

To further incorporate your suggestion of brevity, a concise digest of the key points from the Code of Conduct (once it’s adopted) will be shared on MetricsDAO Discord – as part of the new members’ verification when they join our server.

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Hi @naan !

Wanted to update that the badge clause in the Kicks/Bans section has been clarified in the updated METIP #6 version of the Code of Conduct proposal.

Also, you mentioned bounty ops in particular: but draft CoC actually empowers all contributors (who hold current badges at the time) to initiate or participate in banning decisions. The intent with keeping this group broad is to allow flexibility in the future. Welcome further feedback (if any) during the METIP period!

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METIP #6: Adopt the MetricsDAO Code of Conduct proposal is now live: