If you believe someone is violating the code of conduct we ask that you report it to the CoC committee by emailing conduct@gcc.gnu.org. All reports will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by applicable law. In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that's the case, the identities of all reporters will remain confidential unless they instruct us otherwise.
If you are unsure whether the incident is a violation, or whether the space where it happened is covered by this Code of Conduct, we encourage you to still report it. We would much rather have a few extra reports where we decide to take no action, rather than miss a report of an actual violation. We do not look negatively on you for a report made in good faith if we find the incident is not a violation. And knowing about incidents that are not violations, or happen outside our spaces, can also help us to improve the Code of Conduct or the processes surrounding it.
In your report please include:
You will receive an email from the Code of Conduct Committee acknowledging receipt. We aim to acknowledge receipt within 24 hours (and ideally much sooner than that).
The committee will then meet to review the report, and gather all available information about the incident from the individuals involved and any electronic records.
If this is determined to be an ongoing incident or a threat to physical safety, the committee's immediate priority will be to protect everyone involved. This means we may delay an "official" response until we believe that the situation has ended and that everyone is physically safe.
Once the committee has a complete account of the events they will make a decision as to how to respond. Responses may include:
We'll respond within one week to the person who filed the report with either a resolution or an explanation of why the situation is not yet resolved.
Once we've determined our final action, we'll contact the original reporter to let them know what action (or no action) we'll be taking. We'll take into account feedback from the reporter on the appropriateness of our response, but we don't guarantee we'll act on it.
Finally, the committee will make a report on the situation to the Steering Committee, who may choose to make a public report of the incident.
For more detail, see the Response Guide.
If your report concerns a current member of the Code of Conduct committee, you may not feel comfortable sending your report to the committee, as all members will see the report.
In that case, you can make a report directly to the current chair of the Code of Conduct committee. Their email address is listed on the Code of Conduct Committee page. The chair will follow the usual enforcement process with the other members, but will exclude the member(s) that the report concerns from any discussion or decision making.
If your report concerns the chair of the committee, please send your report directly to another member, or to a member of the Steering Committee.
Any of the parties directly involved or affected can request reconsideration of the committee's decision. To make such a request, contact a member of the Steering Committee with your request and motivation.
Text derived from the Django project Code of Conduct Reporting Guidelines, used under the Creative Commons Attribution license.