All of us at the Eclipse Foundation are very proud of the fact that the many thousands of individuals who collaborate across our many channels have always communicated in a very professional, respectful, and welcoming manner. It’s particularly gratifying for me that, while we’ve had a Community Code of Conduct for years, we’ve received very few complaints.
However, even our most effective policies need to be updated to reflect the way our community, and the channels we use to communicate, are evolving. Recently, we published a new Communication Channel Guidelines document. Our next significant update is to draft a set of social media guidelines. The purposes of these social media guidelines are to provide guidance to the many community members who represent our projects, working groups, and events through various social media channels. I encourage all community members to review our proposed social media guidelines and provide constructive, actionable feedback on the content. We’re collecting community input until July 12 at 11:59 PM PT through GitLab.
With our extensive use of social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Slack, and engagement in online conversations based on blogs, YouTube videos, news articles, Reddit posts, and wikis, it’s extremely important that everyone officially representing the Eclipse Foundation adheres to a consistent set of responsible and professional behaviors across all channels.
Ongoing Improvements in Policies and Processes
Our proposed guidelines for social media communications are the first step in a larger effort to better clarify how the standards and responsibilities outlined in the Community Code of Conduct apply to the various aspects of “life at the Eclipse Foundation.”
Over the coming months, we’ll be providing additional guidelines related to our code of conduct. In the spirit of the open collaboration and full transparency that we all value so highly, we’ll keep you up to date on our latest proposed guidelines and processes as they become available for review.