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Fix #505 Reorganise existing GfRC #508

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24924de
Reformat: Make HTML code easier to read as text
mpilgrem May 31, 2025
204571c
Fix #505 Reorganise existing GfRC
mpilgrem May 29, 2025
d27e664
Be express about copyright and licensing
mpilgrem May 30, 2025
240db80
Seek to clarify the scope of the Foundation's Guidelines
mpilgrem May 30, 2025
108da6a
Add GHC Steering Committee's own GfRC to the Acknowledgements
mpilgrem May 31, 2025
eb471c5
Be silent on the consequences if any part of GfRC is derivative
mpilgrem Jul 18, 2026
d277e54
Merge branch 'hakyll' into fix505
mpilgrem Jul 18, 2026
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200 changes: 167 additions & 33 deletions guidelines-for-respectful-communication/index.html
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Expand Up @@ -12,54 +12,188 @@ <h1 class="text-2xl sm:text-4xl md:text-5xl leading-snug sm:leading-tight">Haske
<div class="mx-auto prose md:prose-lg">

<h2>Preamble</h2>
<p>The Haskell Foundation has adopted these guidelines for respectful communication.</p>

<p>We do not seek to impose these guidelines on members of the Haskell community generally. Rather it is a signal that we seek high standards of discourse in the Haskell community, and are willing to publicly hold ourselves to that standard, in the hope that others may voluntarily follow suit.</p>
<p>
The Haskell Foundation has adopted the Standards of Public Behaviour set
out below. Each representative of the Foundation commits themself to those
standards when interacting with other representatves and the public on
Haskell-related matters. We aspire to apply them in all our interactions
in the Haskell sphere, including email, social media and discussion
forums.
</p>
<p>
The standards apply to our behaviour; that is, what we do. They
specifically do not, and should not, seek to constrain anyone's beliefs;
that is, what they think.
</p>
<p>
If one of us fails to meet these standards, the ideal course of action is
to write to that person privately, gently drawing attention to their
lapse. If you are not comfortable with that, please contact the Chair of
the Foundation, or (if the Chair is the problem) the Vice-Chair.
</p>
<p>
Our response should usually be to apologise and stop doing what it was
that you are unhappy about. Even if we feel we have been misinterpreted or
unfairly accused, the chances are good there was something we could have
communicated better, and an apology is far more likely to bring healing
than is a counter-accusation.
</p>
<p>
We do not seek to impose these standards on members of the Haskell
community. Rather, adopting the standards is a signal that we seek high
standards of discourse in the Haskell community, and are willing to
publicly hold ourselves to that standard, in the hope that others may
voluntarily follow suit.
</p>

<h2>Motivation</h2>
<p>We are motivated to adopt a set of guidelines for respectful communication for several reasons</p>

<p>
We are motivated to adopt these standards for several reasons, including:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Diversity and inclusion. We recognize that the Haskell community, echoing the technology industry more generally, skews white and male. We see it as our duty and honour to spread the joy of Haskell widely and to broaden the patterns of participation, in the hopes that, one day, we will no longer be askew.</li>
<li>Making an explicit commitment will encourage us to review our messages to see if they meet the goals set out here, and will give others some specifics to point to if we fail.</li>
<li>
Diversity and inclusion. We recognize that the Haskell community,
echoing the technology industry more generally, skews white and male. We
see it as our duty and honour to spread the joy of Haskell widely and to
broaden the patterns of participation, in the hopes that, one day, we
will no longer be askew.
</li>
<li>
Making an explicit commitment will encourage us to review our messages
to see if they meet the goals set out here, and will give others some
specifics to point to if we fail.
</li>
</ul>

<h2>Guidelines for Respectful Communication</h2>
<p>As members of the Haskell Foundation, we commit ourselves to a high standard of public behaviour. We have one over-arching rule:</p>

<p><b>We strive to treat every person with respect.</b></p>

<p>Specifically, we aspire to these behaviours:</p>
<h2>Acknowledgements</h2>

<p>
We would like to thank the communities and projects that established code
of conducts and diversity statements as our inspiration. They include:
</p>
<ul>
<li>We welcome into the Haskell community people of all backgrounds, identities, and beliefs, provided only that they in turn behave in the respectful way articulated in these guidelines. </li>
<li>We treat everyone with courtesy, aware that their diverse backgrounds, experiences, goals, and perspectives may be very different to ours.</li>
<li>In our communication, we consistently honour and affirm the passion, professional expertise, and good intentions of others. When we doubt these qualities in someone else, we prefer to deal with those matters discreetly, instead of making public accusations.</li>
<li>We strive to be scrupulously polite at all times. There should be no rudeness, name-calling, or harassment in our communication.</li>
<li>We avoid forms of expression and other behaviours that attack, humiliate, demean, or marginalise - even where we disagree with that person.</li>
<li>Disagreement itself is fine: we are enriched by robust technical debate. But we seek to make the tone of that debate to be a conversation among people who respect, or even admire, each other.</li>
<li>Where we disagree, we try to be curious about the perspective, goals, motivation, and priorities of the other person.</li>
<li>
A month before this document was first published, Michael Snoyman
proposed a
<a href="https://www.snoyman.com/blog/2018/11/proposal-stack-coc" target="_blank">
Stack code of conduct
</a>
with a motivation similar to ours.
</li>
<li>
The
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/kind-communication.html" target="_blank">
GNU Kind Communication Guidelines</a>,
published in October 2018, also express the positive tone we seek;
<a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/769167/" target="_blank">
Stallman’s post
</a>
explains the intent.
</li>
<li>
The
<a href="https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/community/conduct" target="_blank">
Snowdrift community code of conduct
</a>
also has a companion
<a href="https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/community/honor-users" target="_blank">
Guidelines for healthy communication</a>.
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://github.com/todogroup/opencodeofconduct/blob/gh-pages/index.md" target="_blank">
Open code of conduct
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://github.com/python/pycon-code-of-conduct/blob/master/code_of_conduct.md" target="_blank">
Pycon code of conduct
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/code-of-conduct" target="_blank">
Rust code of conduct
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://typelevel.org/code-of-conduct" target="_blank">
TypeLevel code of conduct
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.contributor-covenant.org/" target="_blank">
Contributor covenant
</a>
</li>
<li>
The GHC Steering Committee's
<a href="https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/GRC.rst">
Guidelines for Respectful Communication
</a>
</li>
</ul>

<p>We seek to apply these standards in all our public interactions in the Haskell sphere, including email, social media, discussion forums, and so on.</p>
<p> All these guidelines apply to our behaviour; that is, what we do. They specifically do not, and should not, seek to constrain anyone's beliefs; that is, what they think.</p>

<p>If one of us fails to meet these standards, the ideal course of action is to write to that person privately, gently drawing attention to their lapse. If you're not comfortable with that, please contact the chair of the Foundation, or (if the chair is the problem) the vice-chair or co-chair.</p>
<h2>Our Standards of Public Behaviour</h2>

<p>Our response should usually be to apologise and stop doing what it was that you are unhappy about. Even if we feel we have been misinterpreted or unfairly accused, the chances are good there was something we could have communicated better, and an apology is far more likely to bring healing than is a counter-accusation.</p>
<p>Version: 2026-07-18</p>

<h2>Acknowledgements</h2>
We'd like to thank the communities and projects that established code of conducts and diversity statements as our inspiration, including these:
<ul>
<li>A month before this document was first published, Michael Snoyman proposed a <a href="https://www.snoyman.com/blog/2018/11/proposal-stack-coc" target="_blank">Stack code of conduct</a> with a motivation similar to ours.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/kind-communication.html" target="_blank">GNU Kind Communication Guidelines</a>, published in October 2018, also express the positive tone we seek; <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/769167/" target="_blank">Stallman’s post</a> explains the intent.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/community/conduct" target="_blank">Snowdrift community code of conduct</a> also has a companion <a href="https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/community/honor-users" target="_blank">Guidelines for healthy communication</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/todogroup/opencodeofconduct/blob/gh-pages/index.md" target="_blank">Open code of conduct</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/python/pycon-code-of-conduct/blob/master/code_of_conduct.md" target="_blank">Pycon code of conduct</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/code-of-conduct" target="_blank">Rust code of conduct</a></li>
<li><a href="https://typelevel.org/code-of-conduct" target="_blank">TypeLevel code of conduct</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.contributor-covenant.org/" target="_blank">Contributor covenant</a></li>
<li>
The over-arching rule: <b>We strive to treat every person with respect.</b>
</li>
<li>
We welcome into the Haskell community people of all backgrounds,
identities, and beliefs, provided only that they in turn behave in the
respectful way articulated in these standards.
</li>
<li>
We treat everyone with courtesy, aware that their diverse backgrounds,
experiences, goals, and perspectives may be very different to ours.
</li>
<li>
In our communication, we consistently honour and affirm the passion,
professional expertise, and good intentions of others. When we doubt
these qualities in someone else, we prefer to deal with those matters
discreetly, instead of making public accusations.
</li>
<li>
We strive to be scrupulously polite at all times. There should be no
rudeness, name-calling, or harassment in our communication.
</li>
<li>
We avoid forms of expression and other behaviours that attack,
humiliate, demean, or marginalise - even where we disagree with that
person.
</li>
<li>
Disagreement itself is fine: we are enriched by robust technical debate.
But we seek to make the tone of that debate to be a conversation among
people who respect, or even admire, each other.
</li>
<li>
Where we disagree, we try to be curious about the perspective, goals,
motivation, and priorities of the other person.
</li>
</ul>

<h3>Copyright and licensing</h3>

<p>
To the extent that the Haskell Foundation holds any copyright in the work,
it releases it under
<span style="white-space:nowrap">
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">
CC0 1.0

@Bodigrim Bodigrim Jul 15, 2026

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@simonpj since you written this original version of GfRC from the scratch and acknowledgements are merely to give credit, not to inherit their copyrights, from my perspective it would be better if we can release the entire document under CC0 1.0. Are you happy to grant such provision?

</a
><img
src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.svg"
style="display: inline;max-width: 1em;max-height:1em;margin-left: .2em;margin-top: 0em;margin-bottom: 0em;"
><img
src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/zero.svg"
style="display: inline;max-width: 1em;max-height:1em;margin-left: .2em;margin-top: 0em;margin-bottom: 0em;"
></span>.
</p>

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