Staff Conduct

Official Members of Project Topaz agree to uphold this Code of Conduct. These staff members can be identified by:

• On GitHub: The tag Member is next to their name on Pull Requests, Issues, and comments
• On Discord: They have the Staff role, which also makes their name appear yellow.

If you witness any member of our staff violating this Code of Conduct, please feel free to contact the Project Lead so that they may remedy the situation:

• On GitHub: https://github.com/zircon-tpl
• On Discord: Zircon#4291

0. Purpose

You are an official member of Project Topaz because of your desire to directly influence the project's direction, organize efforts, serve as a representative, and mentor contributors who are working in collaboration with us to meet our common goal. If you had only wanted to occasionally contribute code, you would have done that through Pull Requests, and not sought the extra recognition of being an official member.

As an official member for the project, you possess the benefit of sharing authority over it. Your ideas, words and actions are automatically given more credence than those of others. You always have the ear of the rest of the team, and have a say in whether a given direction should be pursued.

However - your ideas, words and actions are automatically given more credence than those of others. While this can be beneficial, it comes with the added responsibility of properly managing the additional weight you have been granted. Because you are an official member, your words and actions are a direct reflection on the entire project. This reflection is not limited to the quality of code, but includes the rest of our team as people, and the entire private server community as a whole. If one of us looks bad, we all look bad.

Therefore, because you represent more than just yourself, there is a higher standard for you to adhere to than those who do not. So long as you carry the weight that comes with the position, you also carry the burden of ensuring that the image people have of you - and by extension, us - is a positive one.

1. Collaborative Service Official Rules

Any and all Terms of Use, Guidelines, or Codes of Conduct put in place by any service which Project Topaz uses for collaboration are incorporated into our rules. Examples of collaboration services include GitHub and Discord. Do not break the Terms of Use for such services, or violate any community guidelines while using that service.

The official GitHub Terms of Use and Community Guidelines are incorporated into our rules.

Additionally, the official Discord Terms of Service and Community Guidelines are also incorporated into our rules.

Project Topaz will enforce violations against either set of Terms or Guidelines, regardless upon which service the violation occurs.

2. Non-FFXI Topics

There are many places on the internet you can discuss sex, people's appearance, race, religion, cars, politics, and any other number of non-FFXI topics. This is not one of those places. We are not here to talk about what people believe about religion, who they vote for, or anything else that does not have to do specifically with FFXI. There are a million other places on the internet and in the rest of the world to discuss the other things - please go do so elsewhere.

3. Toxic Behavior

Project Topaz wants members of the private server community to feel welcome and valued. Therefore, the following toxic behaviors are unacceptable:

• Disparaging comments about individuals or groups
• "Jokes" involving sex, genitals, or sexual abuse
• Offensive memes or emojis
• Other unprofessional content that belittles, intimidates, or otherwise disrespects our members or contributors

We would rather have the new contributors be comfortable, and create a welcoming environment for everyone, than cater to people, however knowledgeable, who wish to denigrate and belittle others.

4. Welcoming Behavior

To emphasize the above, official members of Project Topaz are expected to always conduct themselves in a manner that encourages contributions by others. This means that you should not:

• Insult people or code. Instead, provide gentle corrections and suggestions.
• Snap at a contributor. Instead, step back to cool off, then later give a professional response.
• Bemoan additional work a contributor "causes". Instead, ask for help.
• Disparage efforts made by others. Instead, provide guidance.
• Disregard a person. Instead, find their value.

5. Community

Project Topaz feels that everyone has a role to play in working towards our shared love of emulating and preserving FFXI. Do not make disparaging comments, even in jest, about servers or other codebases. These only upset people who have worked hard on that server or codebase. You never know when someone from that server you mocked will want to contribute to us, but we will lose them when they see us insulting them behind their backs. Please treat members of other communities like they are one of our own, because one day they might be.

6. Dispute Resolution

Always work towards resolving disputes. Disagreements are to be expected. Behavior which amplifies them is not. While there will be times a dispute can not be resolved satisfactory to both parties, you should still do your best do so.

Remember that everyone in our community is working towards a common goal.

7. Professional Communication

While collaborating on an open source project is not the same as working in a corporate environment, do try to communicate in a manner that would not offend if we were in one. This means:

• Avoid expletives, on both GitHub and Discord. While we do not strictly police this for everyone in the Discord channel, our staff are held to a higher standard.
• Use semiformal grammar and spelling. Occasional misspellings and imperfect grammar are expected, but try to communicate in the way you would with a work client.

8. Hierarchy

Staff are expected to be able to communicate and resolve low-level disputes (like code conflicts) among themselves. If you are unable to do so, you may ask the Project Lead to attempt mediation.

Should a staff member have a higher-level complaint about the general actions or behavior of another staff member, voice the complaint to the Project Lead directly in private. Only the Project Lead may sanction or remove members, and any in-groups or factions among staff - public or private - are expressly forbidden.

While the Project Lead will do their best to make sure consensus is built among staff, the power of final decision rests with the Project Lead, with no mechanism for overruling any such decisions.

Staff are encouraged to voice any complaints about the Project Lead to the Project Lead. However, there is also no mechanism for the removal of the Project Lead. If a dispute can not be resolved, and the behavior of the Project Lead is still considered to be inadequate or unacceptable, staff are encouraged to fork the project and select a new Project Lead.

9. Representation

As an official member you represent the project, even when you are interacting with the community "outside" of any sanctioned servers or other communication services we use. This includes websites we do not have a presence on. You are expected to behave in the same professional manner elsewhere in the community that you would with us.

This applies to all GitHub repositories, Discord servers, or websites related to FFXI which are open to the general public. For example, do not make disparaging comments about a community member in another Discord server for a "private" server, even if that person is not a member of the server. You do not know that person's acquaintances, or if the person will later join that server and see that a Project Topaz member has made disparaging comments about them. Such behavior will discourage them from contributing to us, and reflects negatively on the rest of us to third-party onlookers.

While one-on-one conversation does not have the same reach as conversation in public, remember that you still reflect on us, even when in private. If your general behavior in private leaves people with a negative impression of you, that impression can influence their impression of the rest of us. We obviously can not police behavior of which we are not aware, but please try to be courteous to your fellow team members by not reflecting negatively on them.

10. Commitment

Staff are expected to consistently contribute to the project in some fashion. Absent or distant staff have a negative effect on the efforts made by the rest of the team, and contribution to the project as a whole. No one likes to feel they are pulling all the weight, or that they are putting effort into a dead project.

However, you are not paid, and life happens. There are no hard metrics for what counts as consistent contribution, but try to put in effort you feel is reasonable to merit holding your title.

If you know in advance about a situation that is going to hinder your ability to contribute for an extended period of time, please speak with the Project Lead to let them know.

Not contributing for a time-period of three months, without letting the Project Lead know in advance, will trigger an automatic conversation about your potential resignation or potential revocation of your official status. Should your status be removed for this reason, you will be welcome to come back in the future should you regain time or interest.