FAQ/Guidelines

Hats Forum Code of Conduct

This section is based on the Hats Community code of conduct - the language is modified to suit a forum/discussion environment.

Members of the Hats Community and users the Hats Forum commit to the following agreements in all their interactions with the Hats Community and forum, while holding themselves and the Community as a whole accountable for putting them into practice whenever possible. We intend for these agreements to evolve over time based on Community input.

  • Listen to understand. Be open to learning and willing to embrace some discomfort in order to learn.
  • Land the plane. Speak and write succinctly to provide space for others.
  • Practice self-care. We value mental and physical well-being. If you notice ways that the Hats Community and protoDAO could be a more positive environment for you, we’d love to hear it.
  • Create inclusive spaces. We recognize the potential of every person to contribute, and seek to advance a paradigm where individual capabilities can be expressed fully in service of collective goals.
  • Stay open to emergence. We’re trying things on; it’s OK to change your mind.
  • Maintain confidentiality. For information shared in any of our non-public channels, take the learnings but do not reveal who made any specific comment without consent.

General Principles

We are creating a credibly neutral protocol and ecosystem that people feel incentive-aligned to participate in. Part of that credible neutrality comes from the fact that the protocol is permissionless. The protocol is open source under AGPLv3, and you are free to use it however you wish.

Following are things you can do permissionlessly:

  • Using the protocol code
  • Using the protocol contracts (permissionless, non-upgradeable, non-custodial)
  • Using the app
  • Using any of the existing extensions, plugins, modules, integrations, etc. so far as the builder doesn’t restrict you from doing so
  • Building any extensions, plugins, modules, integrations, etc. that connect to the protocol
  • Proposing to add something that you built to the Hats awesome list
  • Making a PR against any of the repos maintained by Haberdasher Labs or the protoDAO

In general, we encourage permissionless contributions whenever possible. For actions that are unlikely to affect other members of the Hats Community or protoDAO, you are welcome to make whatever open-source contributions you are inspired to create. We request that you log your contributions in the Hats contributions database using this form and sharing your contribution to the appropriate Telegram channel so that others can be aware of your work and coordinate with you appropriately.

For actions that are likely to affect members of the Hats Community or protoDAO and that may affect the shared resources that live in the protoDAO commons, you are free to act within the constrained set of authorities designated by your hat. With all actions, hat wearers are expected to:

  1. Use the advice process to get input from others who will be affected by an action prior to executing that action, on a spectrum proportional to the significance of the action, and
  2. Transparently share those actions with others in the appropriate channel.

For actions that fall out of the scope of your hat, a proposal should be brought to the appropriate hat-wearer for consideration. If in the case that there is no relevant hat-wearer, the appropriate communication channel will be used. If you believe a new Hat should be created to fill a specific role, please specify your rationale as a post in the Hats Community Forum within the Community category.

Code of Conduct and Moderation Process

Forked from the FWB Code of Conduct and Moderation Process

Community members and all those participating in the Hats Community and/or forum are expected to proactively support the creation of a safe environment within Hats Community and forum spaces.

The goal of this Code of Conduct is to set the overall tone for our community. This isn’t an exhaustive list of things you can and can’t do. Rather, take this document in the spirit in which it’s intended, and try to be your best self. We want to nurture a culture that is healthy and hospitable to all. This Code of Conduct represents more than just the right way to treat fellow Community Members and forum users; it’s also what we believe is optimal for the growth and value creating potential of the Hats ecosystem.

The Hats Protocol Community and forum is committed to fostering a friendly, safe, and comfortable environment for all, regardless of sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, or level of experience.

Examples of encouraged behavior by members include:

  • Being kind and courteous to others
  • Using welcoming and inclusive language
  • Acknowledging preferred gender pronouns
  • Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
  • Collaborating with other community members
  • Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
  • Focusing on what is best for the community
  • Approaching and listening to others in good faith and leading with empathy

Examples of unacceptable behavior by members include (but are not limited to):

  • Implicitly or explicitly offensive comments related to sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or age
  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
  • Disregarding preferred gender pronouns, or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names
  • Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or messages, including the use of explicit or violent sexual language colloquially
  • Unwanted simulated physical contact (e.g. textual descriptions of physical or sexual acts)
  • Threats or incitement of violence of any kind, including encouraging an individual to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
  • Deliberate intimidation
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • Sustained disruption of discussion
  • Harassment, including persistent attempts to communicate with someone (publicly or privately) after requests are ignored or otherwise declined
  • Publication of non-harassing private communication (e.g. screenshots of personal exchanges) or private personal information (e.g. name, location, identifying details)

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies to all spaces managed by Haberdasher Labs or related to the Hats Protocol Community, forum, and protoDAO. Violations of this code outside of these spaces may also affect a person’s ability to participate within them.

The Code of Conduct applies equally to all members of the community, including staff.

Reporting An Issue

Users who wish to report an issue can open a ticket using the submission form.

Our team will review the submission as promptly as possible and address the issue to the best of its abilities.

You may be contacted by a Hats protoDAO Arbitrator (a Hat currently worn by Haberdasher Labs) in a private channel visible only to you to ask for additional information if it is required.

Removal from Hats Community and Forum

Hats protoDAO is not a true DAO as the ultimate executive authority is held by Haberdasher Labs rather than distributed among its members. Over time we aim to decentralize this authority, giving more power to the community to moderate and resolve disputes. However, at this time, permission to participate in the Hats Community, forum and protoDAO is provided solely by Haberdasher Labs, and Haberdasher Labs can choose to remove someone from the Hats Community, forum, and protoDAO at any time at their sole discretion due to violations or misalignments with the conditions contained in this document.

Default Guidelines

Finally, please read and keep in mind the default Discourse guidelines:

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a kind, friendly place for civilized public discourse.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always adding something positive to the discussion, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
  • Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
  • Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
  • Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of a major news site.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong category; please read the category definitions.
  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
  • Don’t post no-content replies.
  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
  • Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

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This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.