iBOL Europe is a community that champions openness and sharing. We are committed to ensuring a safe, inclusive, respectful, and harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of age, ability, neurodiversity, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

We pledge to act in ways that contribute to a welcoming, diverse, and healthy community across our activities, whether online or in person, formal or informal.

This Code applies to all iBOL Europe’s spaces, including (but not limited to) online and offline events, mailing lists, chats, GitHub, and social media.

Guiding Principles

Be Accountable 

Take ownership and responsibility for the outcomes and consequences of your actions and contributions.

Be Respectful

Disagreements and different perspectives are normal and healthy. Disagreement is no excuse for disrespectful behaviour. Express disagreements with curiosity and empathy, not hostility. Personal attacks, name-calling, or any form of harassment will not be tolerated.

Be Welcoming

iBOL Europe is a diverse and multilingual network. All its members should make an extra effort to welcome new participants.

Be Inclusive and Considerate

Consider the broader community in your communication, collaboration, and decision-making. Please be mindful that English is not the first language for many community members, and we come from diverse educational backgrounds and levels of expertise. Always try to express the idea you are trying to share in the simplest way, considering that there might be language, educational, and cultural barriers.

Unacceptable Behavior

Unacceptable behaviours include (but are not limited to):

  • Harassment, bullying, or intimidation in any form.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory language or behaviour.
  • Sexual language, imagery, or attention, including unwelcome advances.
  • Deliberate misgendering or use of deadnames.
  • Violent threats or incitement.
  • Doxing (publishing others’ private information without consent).
  • Sustained disruption of events or communications.
  • Trolling, insults, or inflammatory comments.
  • Self-promotion unrelated to the topic or community space.

Reporting Incidents

If you witness or experience behaviour that violates this Code, or have other concerns, please report it promptly. You can contact the Secretariat at info@iboleurope.org or the designated ombudsperson. We will handle it fairly and confidentially. 

Reports should include (as appropriate):

  • Your contact information (kept confidential).
  • Names of individuals involved and any witnesses.
  • A description of what occurred.
  • Links to relevant public records (if applicable).

All reports will be handled promptly, fairly, and confidentially by designated staff or governance bodies. Reporters will receive updates about next steps and resolution.

Enforcement & Consequences

iBOL Europe reserves the right to take any action deemed appropriate in response to a Code of Conduct violation, including but not limited to:

  • Verbal or written warnings.
  • Temporary or permanent removal from iBOL Europe’s spaces.
  • Removal from coordination or facilitation roles.

Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behaviour is expected to comply immediately.

Appeals or questions about the enforcement can be asked at info@iboleurope.org.

Attribution

This Code is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

It is inspired by different community-driven codes of conduct, including: the Contributor Covenant v3.0; Creative Commons’ Code of Conduct; Wikimedia Foundation’s Code of Conduct; Mozilla’s enforcement ladder.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash