Welcome to AOSC!§

Hi there, welcome to the Anthon Open Source Community - our community since late 2011!

"All the people who live in a particular area, or a group of people who are considered as a unit because of their shared interests or background."

— Community (n.), definition from the Cambridge English Dictionary

At AOSC, we consider our common interest in the discovery of fun in computing - in particular, we focus on the advancement of open source software and their localisation in our day-to-day computing. Over the years, AOSC has focused most of its development effort on the AOSC OS project, with various other projects spun out from community interests. For instance, in early 2019, we have created the AOSC Retro Computing group, where vintage computing enthusiasts find their common topics in finding and buying them, restoring and playing with them, and porting a specially configured AOSC OS distribution on them.

Rationale: Why a Guideline?§

As suggested by its dictionary meaning, AOSC is a community of people, and its functions are carried out through years of inter-personal interactions. These inter-personal interactions, successful or not, has defined our sense of community, "a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together." (McMillan & Chavis, 1986).

Given this, it is necessary to explain our community's values and common understandings. Before we list all the specific guidelines, the "Principles" lists unquestionable rules that applies to all community members.

In general, however, we are not in interest of limiting or implying penalty upon any actions not in accordance to these values and understandings.

The Principles§

This section describes unquestionable foundational principles on which our community is built.

• AOSC will remain as an independent community of hobbists and enthusiasts.
• AOSC will not reward any contributors with monetary or material goods.
• AOSC will not tolerate any form of plagiarism.

The Guidelines§

As most of our community activities are organised and communicated across multiple Telegram channels/groups (and their respective Discord and IRC channels/groups), the guidelines below will be organised into "community-wide" and "scenario-specific" chapters. We do not, and have no right to limit, regulate, or manage individual member's behaviour outside of the community scope: all AOSC Telegram Groups, the GitHub Organisation, the AOSC Wiki, and the Community Portal.

The guidelines are further grouped into "Hard Rules" and "Soft Rules":

• Hard Rules are specified that all members of the community must comply, and failure to comply will result in penalties (specified under each categories).
  • Admins who fails to comply will be stripped of their title immediately, and (at the same time) penalised with the same severity.
• Soft Rules are specified as guidelines, and are only suggestions with the hope to maintain civilised, productive, and fun conversations. Failure to adhere to these Soft Rules will only make you increasingly unwelcomed, so keep that in mind.
• Group administrators reserve all rights to the final interpretation of the rules outlined below.

Community Wide§

The rules specified below applies to all AOSC Telegram channels/groups (and their respective Discord and IRC channels/groups), the GitHub Organisation, the AOSC Wiki, and the Community Portal.

Hard Rules§

1. Discussions of political, religious, and sexual topics are banned community-wide with one exception - the Tuosai (托腮) offtopic channel.
   • Offenders (including those participating in the topic) will be asked to stop. Repeated offenses will result in a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).
2. Discussion and instigation of physical harm upon any person are banned community-wide with no exception.
   • Offenders (including those participating in the topic) will be immediately subjected to a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).
3. Aggravated verbal abuse and humiliation of the members or their implied relatives are banned community-wide with no exception.
   • This does not include occasionally used profanities, or those used jokingly or to strengthen the tone - however, if anyone were to be annoyed, stop.
   • Offenders (including those participating in the topic) will be asked to stop. Repeated offenses will result in a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).
4. Humiliation and discrimination of any person, religion, ideology, location, ... are banned community-wide with no exception.
   • Offenders (including those participating in the topic) will be asked to stop. Repeated offenses will result in a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).
5. Overly long messages that should have been posted to the AOSC Pastebin or alternatives are banned community-wide with no exception.
   • Offenders will be asked to stop. Repeated offenses will result in a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).
6. Bot spamming are banned community-wide with no exception.
   • Offenders will be immediately subjected to a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).

Soft Rules§

1. Respect freedom of expression.
   • Arguments happen, don't hope for channel admins to break it up - just use your intelligence to help work it out (and some who are really good at working out arguments are admins in the first place). Mutual respect is the only effective mean to prevent personal attack.
   • Call people whatever you like, as long as they are happy with that and it doesn't confuse the people involved.
   • No one can avoid disagreements over their opinions, resorting to verbal abuse can only harm your argument.
   • Profanities are by no means banned, but do ponder if it helps with expressing your argument - and be aware that it really fucking annoys people if used excessively.
   • Use whatever language you may like, but be aware of others' language proficiency. Quick tip: most members speak and write Chinese and English, so translations may help when needed (and they are generally grateful).
2. Be humourous, as we love memes.
   • Our AOSCC Sticker Packs are made from our own jokes - all from our conversations!
3. Understand that you are unique, but not special.
   • People listen to you because they are interested, and they do not have to do as you say.
4. Coordinate topic changes, and avoid concurrent discussion.
   • Concurrent discussions in a single channel are confusing and unproductive.
   • Control the length of your discussion, even if your discussion have a huge following, do not last it for a whole day - it's just not nice.
5. Stick to the topic - if you are in the Retro Computing channel, don't discuss your brand new MacBook there.

Main Group, and AOSC Workgroups§

The "Main Group (AOSC 社区频道; or referred to as 主群组)" is dedicated for AOSC project-related, and other relevant technological topics - this is the main location for development discussion. There are also other channels strictly used for AOSC-related work, as listed below:

• AOSC Pak Squad
• AOSC infra-wg

Please adhere to all Community Wide rules specified above, and all additional rules specified below:

Hard Rules§

1. The use of Telegram Stickers and GIFs are banned.
   • You may use emoji, emoticon (kaomoji), and character-based expressions instead.
   • Pictures and videos relevant to technical discussions are allowed.
   • Offenders (including those participating in the topic) will be asked to stop. Repeated offenses will result in a one-time community-wide ban (you may re-enter immediately, but take the hint and stop).

Soft Rules§

1. Limit meme-ing and jokes - have fun, but not party.

The Tuosai (托腮) Channel§

Name in Chinese "AOSC 托腮群及招待点". Please note all "Community Wide" rules specified above, and the exception(s) given to this particular channel.

Interest Groups§

AOSC's "Interest Groups" include:

• AOSC Memes (AOSC 梗)
• AOSC Moe-ification
• AOSC Retro Computing
• AOSCC Sticker Squad

Please note all "Community Wide" rules specified above.

Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct?§

Our community is built upon the given sense of community, and fulfilled by our said interests in computing - maintained (or discontinued) and managed upon the will of its members. While good in its intention, the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct is unsuitable and unproductive for our community functions.

We believe that our community members should grow from years of their own work and contribution, and find their recognition through technical understandings and their own characters. The static set of so-called personal "standards," as defined in C.C.C.o.C., diminishes the emphasis on human understanding and attempts to codify them as though they are already found to be universal.

In its "Our Responsibilities" chapter:

"Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, or to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful."

It is a simple condition that our development infrastructures are used as tools for development (as it obviously suggests). Understanding this, any non-development activities should have been banned in the first place, and any forms of abuse should be condemned upon our common understanding. The C.C.C.o.C. uses four overly vague (and not to mention, overlapping) adjectives to describe the so-called unacceptable behaviours, and does not stand in interest of those who could have been wrongly accused. Upholding the exclusivity of development infrastructures for development purposes is an effective method to prevent such abuse (or any form of unnecessary accusations) during our development processes.

Furthermore, the C.C.C.o.C.'s description of the "enforcement" process stands against this understanding and the actual nature of our community:

"Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good faith may face temporary or permanent repercussions as determined by other members of the project’s leadership."

Our community is managed by its contributors, while a founder (and therefore a de facto leader) exists, he (Mingcong Bai) recognises that his power is only shared with the contributors. There is no clear administrative divide from contributors/maintainers/... from the founder - this process stands invalid in the scope of our community.

In conclusion, the C.C.C.o.C. does not recognise the possibility of a non-hierarchical community and assumes much in the meaning of words - it is unsuitable, unproductive, and possibly dangerous to adopt this Code in our community.