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The Rands Leadership Slack Incident Process

Our brief governing philosophy:

Please strive to resolve a non-heinous situation by yourself; if it’s a heinous situation, please get in touch with an Admin.

Something is Off

A significant part of the Administrator's job is the management of incidents on the Rands Leadership Slack (“RLS”). Still, ideally, the community (that’s you) has the tools and the desire to resolve many situations without Administrator support, as this community is dedicated to Leadership.

The Rands Code of Conduct (“CoC”) gives members a model of what is and isn’t acceptable in RLS, including behavior, marketing activity, and etiquette. If you experience strange behavior in a channel and wonder if it’s acceptable, please consult the CoC first.

With CoC clarity in hand, please contact the member(s) and explain:

  1. This is the activity I saw which I have an issue with,
  2. It’s not allowed by the CoC, and
  3. Let’s figure out how to resolve it.

We strongly urge members to start with member-driven resolution in non-heinous cases. If you are uncomfortable with this approach, jump to “Involving Admins.”

Ideally, the above discussion can help resolve the situation. It often does. If it does not, if you are uncomfortable contacting the member(s), or if this is an apparent heinous situation, jump to “Involving Admins.”

Involving Admins

Administrators can be contacted directly or in the #rands-admin channel. Please choose the path most comfortable for you.

When you contact an Administrator(s), provide the following:

  1. The activity you saw that you have an issue with,
  2. If applicable, the CoC violation.

Once you’ve contacted an Administrator, they’ll help you triage the incident.

Things to know:

  • The Administrators are committed to a first response within 24 hours. Usually faster. Directly contacting a single Admin could be longer due to time zone differences and work schedules.
  • #rands-admin contains all the Administrators and is public. If you're filing a formal incident, we suggest directly contacting an Administrator, as formal incidents are confidential to the admins.
  • Administrators will discuss which Administrator is most appropriate to drive a particular incident in cases where an Administrator is too close to a situation to be considered neutral.

Proactive Administration

In most incidents, Administrators will not proactively identify and act on incidents primarily because they are unaware of an individual situation in a community of 30,000+. As such, most incidents are initiated by the community. However, in heinous situations, Administrators will act unprompted. Obvious spammers and apparent threats to member safety are two types of incidents where Administrators will act immediately.

The Incident Process

In the case of a formal incident being reported, there are two possible paths:

  1. Raising a concern to the Administrator to give them context, or,
  2. Filing a formal complaint that will likely result in Administrative action.

In both cases, the reporter needs to provide the following information to the Administrator:

  1. What’s the nature of the incident or Code of Conduct violation?
  2. Who is involved in this incident?
  3. What material supports this situation?
  4. Any privacy concerns? (Reporter consent is required before sharing any information with the accused members)

With this information in hand, the Administrator will:

  1. Work to determine whether this is a raised concern or a formal complaint with the reporter. In the case of a raised concern, the understanding is there may be no action other than Administrative awareness.
  2. Ask clarifying questions of the reporter because every incident is different.
  3. Work with publicly available content to confirm the report.
  4. If necessary, request supporting evidence from private channels.
  5. Talk with their fellow administrators to gather perspective. Talk to the accused member(s) for additional perspective if necessary.

With this information in hand, the Administrator will determine a consequence. Consequences include but are not limited to:

  1. A Strike
    • RLS operates on a three-strike system whereby non-suspending CoC violations can result in one or more strikes. Administrators will use their judgment and historical precedent in determining what constitutes a strike. When a member receives three strikes, they will be suspended from RLS for a period of time or permanently, depending on the violation. Multiple strikes can be assessed depending on the violation.
    • We do not define what does and does not constitute a strike. However, as of November 2019, we are keeping a record of all administrative activity to help calibrate strikes.
    • Strikes do not expire, but the period between strikes will be considered as part of future administration action.
  2. Do Not Contact
    • A member may not contact (in any fashion, messages, or emoji) either publicly or privately one or more other members of Slack for a predetermined period.
  3. Temporary suspension
    • A member is suspended from RLS for a predetermined period determined by the adminstrators.
  4. Permanent suspension
    • A member is permanently banned from RLS.

The Admins (not including @rands) will conduct a private vote based on the incident for any suspension. Majority wins. In the event of a tie due to abstention, @rands will cast the deciding vote.

With the defined incident and consequence in hand, the Administrator will present the following to the accused member:

  • This is what occurred.
  • This incident is confidential.
  • This is how I confirmed what occurred.
  • This is what I decided in terms of consequence. In the case of a non-ban action, explain the terms of Do Not Contact, Strikes, Etc.
    • For strikes, members will be alerted to the strike policy and the number of current strikes.
    • For Do Not Contact, members will receive the period when they can not contact member(s).
    • For Temporary Suspension, members will have their account deactivated. After the suspension period, members can reapply for membership. Their applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
    • Members will receive the content above for Permanent Suspension and then be permanently removed from RLS.

When the conversation with the accused member is complete, the Administrator will share the following with the reporting member:

  • The incident is resolved.
  • The consequence is determined by the administrators. In the case of a “Do Not Contact” scenario, the period the member may not contact the other member.

The Administrators are committed to resolving incidents within five working days.

Privacy

Incidents and their results are confidential to RLS Administrators and those involved in the incident.

Maintainer

@rands is the maintainer of this document. DM @rands in Slack if you have questions.

Administrators

The current roster of Administrators is maintained in the primary Code of Conduct document.