Community code of conduct

The Elastic Community Code of Conduct applies to both Elastic events and online spaces. If you're unsure whether the space or the behavior is in scope for this Code of Conduct, we still encourage you to report it using our Reporter Guidelines.

Elastic is dedicated to providing a positive experience for everyone, regardless of age, caste, citizenship, disability, education, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, immigration status, level of experience, neurodiversity, physical appearance or body size, nationality, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, race, or religion (or lack thereof).

Elastic has some community guidelines that ensure the Elastic community continues to be an excellent space in which to communicate, collaborate, and contribute: Be considerate, patient, respectful, and nice; communicate effectively, and ask for help when you're unsure.

Elastic is a global, diverse community. If you are new to discussions about diversity, we encourage you to follow some guidelines to support marginalized groups in our community. Acknowledge that the lived experiences of marginalized groups are valid. Process intense feelings about diversity with a friend. Listen to marginalized groups, but try not to put the burden of education on them. Be open to learning how to be more inclusive. Avoid critiquing people's tone when they talk about discrimination. Understand creating an inclusive culture takes time, energy, and resources. See our full Code of Conduct for a longer explanation of these guidelines.

There are specific types of behavior that are not tolerated in Elastic events and online spaces. Inappropriate behavior includes: Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following; harassing photography or recording at events; sustained disruption of online discussion, talks, or other events; harassment of people who don't drink alcohol; sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist language or otherwise exclusionary language; unwelcome sexual attention or behavior that contributes to a sexualized environment; unwelcome physical contact; violence or threats of violence; bringing a weapon to an Elastic event; or influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior.

The consequences of inappropriate behavior are outlined in the Elastic Incident Response Plan. You consent to our processing of personal data as described in the Elastic Incident Response Plan.

The Elastic Community Code of Conduct applies to any Elastic online forum. This includes Elastic spaces like mailing lists, wikis, web sites, code repositories, IRC channels, and Slack communities. The Elastic Community Code of Conduct may also apply to private correspondence between Elastic community members, if the communication includes stalking, harassment, discrimination, threats of violence, or other behavior that impacts the physical safety or mental health of Elastic community members.

The Elastic Community Code of Conduct applies to all Elastic events. This includes Elastic events such as official Elastic events, Elastic meetups, Elastic{ON} tour stops, trainings, workshops, and unofficial Elastic events. The Code of Conduct applies at all our event venues and event-related social events. All event attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers, including the event organizing team, are required to follow the Code of Conduct. Organizers are expected to enforce the Elastic Community Code of Conduct throughout the event.

We hope all participants in Elastic online and event spaces will help us to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

Elastic is dedicated to providing a positive experience for everyone, regardless of:

• Age
• Caste
• Citizenship
• Disability
• Education
• Ethnicity
• Gender identity or expression
• Immigration status
• Level of experience
• Physical appearance or body size
• Nationality
• Neurodiversity
• Sexual orientation
• Socio-economic status
• Race
• Religion (or lack thereof)

Community guidelines

We have a few community guidelines that we ask people to adhere to. Being explicit about our community norms will ensure that the Elastic community continues to be an excellent space in which to communicate, collaborate, and contribute. When the guidelines are unclear, we expect the spirit of the guidelines to be followed.

• Be considerate. Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions.
• Be patient. This mostly applies to forums, mailing lists, and code contributions (i.e. asynchronous forms of communication). Communities are often built on volunteer time both from participants and organizers. It is possible that your question or code contribution or suggestion might not receive an immediate response. Be patient and consider the norms of the community. One reminder ping is welcome, many reminder pings in rapid succession are not a good display of patience. Similarly, posting the same question in multiple threads is frowned upon and should not be done.
• Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It's important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. We expect members of the Elastic community to be respectful when communicating with other community members, as well as with people outside the Elastic community.
• Be nice. Please be courteous, respectful and polite to fellow community members.
• Communicate effectively. Clear communication can help to avoid misunderstandings. Remember that words and phrases can be interpreted differently depending on people's backgrounds. It's better to ask for clarification than to make assumptions. Disagreements, social and technical, are normal, but we expect participants in the project to resolve disagreements constructively. Please avoid flame wars, trolling, personal attacks, and repetitive arguments. Resources for how to most effectively engage with Elastic's various forums for project participation and communication — including forums, IRC, and more — are shown here.
• Ask for help when unsure. Nobody is expected to be perfect in this community. Asking questions early avoids many problems later, so questions are encouraged, though they may be directed to the appropriate forum. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful.

Supporting diversity

Elastic values community diversity. If you are new to conversations about diversity, here are our guidelines for supporting marginalized groups in our community:

• Acknowledge that the lived experiences of marginalized groups are valid. We acknowledge that each community member will experience the world differently, based on their past experiences, background and identity. We encourage you to bring your experiences to community conversations, while being open to learning about other people's different lived experiences.
• Process intense feelings about diversity with a friend. If you have never experienced discrimination, learning about it may make you feel uncomfortable, upset, or even angry. You may feel sad because you didn't realize the world was unjust. You may feel guilty because you hold unconscious bias. You may feel excluded because your experiences with hardship are not viewed as discrimination. We encourage you process those feelings with a person with a similar background who understands the discrimination marginalized groups in our community face.
• Listen to marginalized groups, but try not to put the burden of education on them. We encourage community members to be curious about different lived experiences. However, note that people from marginalized groups in our community are often asked to explain their experiences. Providing education and examples of discrimination can be emotionally draining. We ask that community members to do their own research before asking for education from marginalized groups in our community. If a community member does not want to discuss a diversity topic with you, please respect their wishes. Reasonable communication of topic boundaries is not against the Code of Conduct.
• Be open to learning how to be more inclusive. It's important that our community talk about how to become more inclusive. If you see behavior that is discriminatory, we encourage you to report it to the Code of Conduct committee. We also recognize that community members may choose to privately or publicly critique behavior that negatively impacts marginalized groups in our community. It is not against the Code of Conduct to provide such a critique.
• Avoid critiquing people's tone when they talk about discrimination. Talking about discrimination and different lived experiences can be difficult. Seeing biased or discriminatory statements can bring up past negative experiences for marginalized groups in our community. These negative experiences often bring up strong emotions, which may lead to the person communicating in a more blunt tone. We encourage community members to acknowledge others' experiences with discrimination, rather than critiquing the tone that people use to communicate about that discrimination.
• Understand creating an inclusive culture takes time, energy, and resources. Elastic acknowledges that discrimination, harassment, unconscious bias, and systemic inequality exists. Because of this, people from marginalized groups in our community may have less access to resources or opportunities. It is important for our community to take action and correct these issues. All community change requires resources (such as time, influence, or money). We acknowledge that such resources will be spent towards correcting past bias and discrimination.

Inappropriate behavior

We want all participants in the Elastic community have the best possible experience they can. In order to be clear what that means, we've provided a list of examples of behaviors that are inappropriate for Elastic community spaces:

• Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following
• Harassing photography or recording at events. If someone says they do not want a picture or video taken of them, respect that choice. If they ask you to delete or remove a picture taken without permission, do so. Photographers (even paid event photographers) following or stalking attendees in order to get shots of a diverse group of community members is not acceptable. Some Elastic events include three types of lanyards: photos always okay, ask if a photo is okay, or no photos. Attendees are expected to look for lanyard types and obtain permission before taking a photo or video if the "ask me" lanyard is visible. If photography permission lanyards are not present, attendees are expected to always seek permission before taking a picture. Crowd shots where attendees faces are not visible is acceptable, regardless of lanyard type. Speakers can tell event organizers if they do not want their talk recorded.
• Sustained disruption of online discussion, talks, or other events. Sustained disruption of events, online discussions, or meetings, including talks and presentations, will not be tolerated. This includes 'Talking over' or 'heckling' event speakers or influencing crowd actions that cause hostility in event sessions. Sustained disruption also includes drinking alcohol to excess or using recreational drugs to excess, or pushing others to do so.
• Harassment of people who don't drink alcohol. We do not tolerate derogatory comments about those who abstain from alcohol or other substances. We do not tolerate pushing people to drink, talking about their abstinence or preferences to others, or pressuring them to drink - physically or through jeering.
• Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist language or otherwise exclusionary language. This includes deliberately referring to someone by a gender that they do not identify with, and/or questioning the legitimacy of an individual's gender identity. If you're unsure if a word is derogatory, don't use it. This also includes repeated subtle and/or indirect discrimination.
• Unwelcome sexual attention or behavior that contributes to a sexualized environment. This includes sexualized comments, jokes or imagery in interactions, communications or presentation materials, as well as inappropriate touching, groping, or sexual advances. Sponsors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Meetup organizing staff and other volunteer organizers should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.
• Unwelcome physical contact. This includes touching a person without permission, including sensitive areas such as their hair, pregnant stomach, mobility device (wheelchair, scooter, etc) or tattoos. This also includes physically blocking or intimidating another person. Physical contact or simulated physical contact (such as emojis like "kiss") without affirmative consent is not acceptable. This includes sharing or distribution of sexualized images or text.
• Violence or threats of violence. Violence and threats of violence are not acceptable - online or offline. This includes incitement of violence toward any individual, including encouraging a person to commit self-harm. This also includes posting or threatening to post other people's personally identifying information ("doxxing") online.
• Bringing a weapon to an Elastic event. No weapons are allowed at event venues, including but not limited to explosives (including fireworks), guns, and large knives such as those used for hunting or display, as well as any other item used for the purpose of causing injury or harm to others. Anyone seen in possession of one of these items will be asked to leave immediately, and will only be allowed to return without the weapon.
• Influencing or encouraging inappropriate behavior. If you influence or encourage another person to violate the Code of Conduct, you may face the same consequences as if you had violated the Code of Conduct.

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behavior are expected to comply immediately. If you are the subject of an incident report or if you wish to report inappropriate behavior, your personal data will be processed by Elastic as set forth in the Incident Response Plan. You consent to such processing.

We encourage community members to make a Code of Conduct incident report to the Elastic Code of Conduct committee, following the Reporter Guidelines. The report will be handled using the Incident Response Plan. If you are the subject of an incident report or if you wish to report inappropriate behavior, your personal data will be processed by Elastic as set forth in the Incident Response Plan.

The Elastic Community Code of Conduct is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It was updated by Sage Sharp of Otter Tech. Our Code of Conduct was inspired by and borrows content from Codes of Conduct of other open source projects, including:

• Contributor Covenant
• OpenStack
• Puppet Labs
• Ubuntu
• Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines
• Otter Tech's Code of Conduct Template