Can you help review these guidelines for The Club? What do you think of them? What is missing or do you think needs clarification?
They are currently in DRAFT mode. Ministry of Testing will add them to ministryoftesting.com and ensure folks read them and agree to them when signing up for a free The Club account.
DRAFT FOR REVIEW: Ministry of Testing’s The Club Guidelines
We’re a growing community of down-to-earth and friendly people who are interested in testing. The community is available to support each other in their careers and collectively move the testing craft forward. It can be a busy place and sometimes overwhelming on The Club so here are some pointers that must be adhered to when participating. Unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. This ensures we remain a community of welcoming and friendly people.
How to join The Club?
Visit the Ministry of Testing signup page to create a free Ministry of Testing account. You only need a free Club account to get started. This is to ensure that all who join the community read and accept the Code of Conduct and The Club Guidelines.
Summary of the guidelines
These are the guidelines we expect all of our users to follow and are an extension of the Ministry of Testing Code of Conduct. They are mostly around behaving sensibly and with respect. We tolerate no inconsiderate behaviour or harassment of any kind. We’re good nice people here, let’s keep it fun and friendly, please.
- Be a nice human being - we would rather not write an essay on this.
- Think before you speak - mean and bad behaviour just sucks.
- We are global and diverse - be respectful towards other people and their potential sensitivities. If someone tells you that they are offended or upset by something you have said, respect their feelings and wrap up the discussion straight away.
- Look for the most appropriate category or chat channel to post in. Post a new topic in a category for longer form discussions or add something to a chat channel for faster-paced chat. You’ll find categories and chat channels on the left-hand sidebar. Each category and chat channel has a description to help you decide if it’s the right one to post in. If you get it wrong, don’t worry, an Admin will either message you or move it for you. Don’t post the same message in multiple chat channels or categories. You may link to a new category topic you recently posted in an appropriate chat channel, only if it’s relevant. And if a chat goes deep, consider turning it into a topic with the “Quote in Topic” feature. Category topics will automatically close after 2 years. Chat channel messages are retained for 90 days.
- Introduce yourself - there’s a chat channel just for that, it’s
Introductions. Note you’ll get access to all chat channels, including
Introductions after you’ve spent some time on The Club and earnt a level of trust to unlock access to the chat channels.
- Self-promotion is allowed in the
Blogs, Books, Videos & Audio category. People don’t like self-promotional stuff in the wrong category or in a chat channel. It will do your brand/reputation more harm than good. If you post spam, this will be deleted by an Admin or Moderator. Spamming, as determined by the Moderators, or reported by users, may result in you being banned from the entire The Club.
- Tool vendors are welcome members of the testing community. If you’re a tool vendor and want to ask for feedback, be sure to state who you work for and why you’re asking for feedback. Be clear with your intentions and don’t pretend to not be a tool vendor. Be helpful and freely give back to the community without expecting anything in return.
- Not sure where to post? - Seek guidance from one of the Moderators (listed below) or ask in the
Site Feedback category.
- One account per person - We’ve found that in these types of communities, it’s best if everyone only has one account. If we find that you have registered multiple accounts, we will politely ask that you choose one and we’ll remove all others. Ignoring this request may result in the banning of all accounts but one. Trying to create more accounts may result in a ban on all accounts. This also covers multiple people using one account.
- Moderators are friends and are here to help. If you think someone is in breach of the community guidelines, you can direct message a Moderator (listed below) or raise a more general issue in the
Site Feedback category. The Moderators are here to help keep this a safe & enjoyable space for everyone to be, please be respectful to them.
- Enjoy yourself - have fun, learn stuff and help others!
We hope you will enjoy your time here and help spread the importance and awesomeness of testing!
Any questions can be pointed towards the Moderators below.
Reach out to the Moderators
Simon Tomes (simon_tomes) – MoT employee and The Club Admin
Richard Bradshaw (friendlytester) – MoT employee
Áine McGovern (mcgovernaine) – MoT employee
Mark Winteringham (mwinteringham) – MoT employee
Diana Dromey (dianadromey) – MoT employee
Getting the best out of The Club
We are all here to learn from each other and teach each other so that we can grow in our careers. In order for you to get the best help from the community, please provide as much context as you can when asking a question. This helps you and the community in many ways.
- You are less likely to receive answers you have already gotten elsewhere. E.g. Stack Overflow. Added context would be “I received this suggestion on Stack Overflow but it is not working. Instead, I am getting this error/message/response.”
- You are more likely to get answers that address the problem you are facing.
- People are generally more willing to help when they don’t have to ask for additional context.
Be mindful of client data and what you can share based on work NDAs. There are ways to be helpful and get help while being mindful of this. Often, simply anonymising the data will suffice. We take no responsibility or legal liability for any content shared that breaches any legal agreements you have signed with an employer, client or 3rd party.
New Category or Chat Channel Requests
The Club is structured in a way to provide enough space to find a relevant category/chat channel to post in and not overwhelm people with too many options. It’s a fine balance. If you would like to request the creation of a new category or chat channel, please do so in the Site Feedback category. Clearly state:
- The purpose of the new category or chat channel
- Why it would be beneficial to the community
- Why you feel that no other category or chat channel currently serves the purpose that this new one would serve.
Ministry of Testing reserve the right to not action channel requests. Ministry of Testing reserve the right to modify or discontinue channels. Ministry of Testing is not liable to any users or any third party for such modifications or terminations.
Unacceptable Conduct
Unacceptable conduct will result in disciplinary procedures and, in exceptional cases, instant removal from the Ministry of Testing community.
The following constitutes unacceptable conduct:
- Blatantly sexual content (pornography, nudity, etc.)
- Unwelcome sexual attention
- Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion
- Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
- Personal abuse.
- Links to anything which would breach the guidelines if posted directly.
- Posting any phone numbers or email addresses that are not your own.
- 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 the Moderators immediately.)
- Posting libellous material.
- Misdirection or deceiving links (such as to sites which hijack the browser, etc.).
- Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the rights of others.
- Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names
- Soliciting passwords or personally identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes.
- Publication of non-harassing private communication
- Posting material that breaches copyright laws.
- Posting Spam of any description, see spam policy.
- Posting or soliciting any members for anything unless it is in direct response to a question asked by a member of the community that your product could genuinely help with.
- Ignoring Admin or Moderator requests to cooperate. This includes requests to end conversations that have been deemed* to breach or are close to breaching the code of conduct.
*Note: “deemed” is at the Moderators’ discretion. We often err heavily on the side of caution.
Conduct to be mindful of
This is conduct that will not directly result in disciplinary proceedings but we would like you to be mindful of it. Continuing to ignore guidance and reminders about this conduct may result in disciplinary procedures.
- Swearing/use of curse words
- Substantially editing your post to change its meaning after others have responded to it. Sometimes you share something you didn’t mean to share, or on reflection, you changed your mind. The replies won’t make sense if you’ve substantially edited your original post. To withdraw something you’ve said, you can either strikethrough the original post or delete it.
Surveys
We are a global and diverse group of people. With this in mind, there are legal requirements for certain regions that must be considered, most notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which covers Europe and people of European origin as these make up a large proportion of our user group.
You can read more about this on the European Commission website but in summary, surveys either must not collect any personally identifiable information or they must state how that information will be used, stored and destroyed and they must log the user’s consent for the storage of this information. This is a legal requirement for our users of European origin but it also provides a good basis for the protection of all of our users’ personal data and privacy. Any surveys that do not comply with this will be deleted.
Direct Message Harassment and Spam
For any and all direct message harassment where it can’t be seen, we would like those who are being subjected to harassment to send screenshots of the entire chat log to a Moderator.
The Moderator in that instance will then assess the message logs and 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 re-offend it will be an instant ban from the Ministry of Testing community.
Where there have been any misunderstandings happening, the Moderator will aim to help resolve any miscommunications.
For those who are making claims about someone harassing them where they have not, equal measures shall take place i.e. they will be barred from communicating with that person and will be given a strike. The breaking of this communication ban shall be an instant ban from the Ministry of Testing community.
If you believe that you have been the target of spam via direct message, please inform one of the Moderators directly. Spam via direct message is considered to be the sharing of irrelevant or inappropriate advertising, promotional, or solicitation content; whether or not for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
Direct message spam will either follow the disciplinary procedure or the procedure outlined above for direct message harassment depending on the nature and frequency of the spam.
Spam
Spam is considered to be:
- Sharing of irrelevant or inappropriate advertising, promotional, or solicitation content; whether or not for commercial or non-commercial purposes
- Sharing the same message across multiple categories and chat channels. If you aren’t sure what category or chat channel to ask in, ask a Moderator.
We want you to be able to share your own work, including blog posts and side projects, with others. Ministry of Testing reserve the right to remove link-based posts if we or the community feel that they are promotional rather than for knowledge sharing.
Disciplinary procedures
In summary, we have a “3 strikes and you’re out” ruling. As is customary in most workplaces, you will be notified that your warning is official and on the third warning, you will be banned from The Club. Your strikes will be recorded in a shared document for Admins and Moderators to keep track of.
In exceptional cases, instant removal from the Ministry of Testing community may occur. You will be notified of this via email from an Admin sent to the email account associated to your The Club profile.
Post Deletion
Posts can only be deleted by an Admin or Owner. Reasons that posts are deleted fall under the breaches of guidelines and spam policies. You will receive a notification via direct message that your post has been deleted or edited.
Reporting an Issue
An issue may be reported by directly messaging a Moderator or creating a new topic in the Site Feedback category
False reporting, especially to retaliate or exclude, will not be accepted or tolerated.
Modifications to these guidelines
Ministry of Testing may amend the guidelines from time to time and may vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in exceptional circumstances. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it. In case we amend the guidelines, the updated version can be found here.
Major modifications to these guidelines will always be set out with a new topic post in the Site Feedback category.
Additional Notes
- Unless specifically requested not to, direct message conversations with Moderators may be shared with other Moderators in the discussion of a resolution or issue.
- If you feel that you have been unfairly affected by a Moderation decision, please contact another Moderator listed via direct message to state your case. Admin decisions are final.
Thanks
These guidelines have been inspired by a variety of resources. We specifically note the following:
- MoT Slack Guidelines
- Irish Tech Slack Code of Conduct
- Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines
- Geek Feminism Code of Conduct