Open Mainframe Project Community Code of Conduct

All participants in the Open Mainframe Project (OMP) community pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to a safe, respectful, inclusive, and healthy community.

Scope

This community code of conduct (“CoC”) applies:

  • Within OMP project and community spaces,
  • In other spaces, when a community participant’s words or actions are directed at or take place in the context of any OMP activity.

Events Code of Conduct

OMP events produced by the Linux Foundation with professional event staff are also governed by the Linux Foundation Events Code of Conduct, available at http://events.linuxfoundation.org/code-of-conduct. This community CoC is designed to be used in conjunction with the LF Events Code of Conduct.

Project Codes of Conduct

Some hosted projects of OMP have their own code of conduct, which, if so, would be specified in a CODE_OF_CONDUCT file in the project’s code repository or the Technical Charter for the project. Conduct occurring entirely within a single project will be subject to both this community CoC and the project’s code of conduct. Conduct that impacts multiple projects or that is project-agnostic will be subject to this community CoC, and not the code of conduct of any individual project.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contribute to a positive environment for our community include:

  • Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
  • Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
  • Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
  • Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
  • Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

  • The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
  • Trolling, insulting, or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
  • Public or private harassment
  • Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
  • Using OMP projects or community spaces for political campaigning or promotion of political causes that are unrelated to advancing the deployment and use of Linux and Open Source in mainframe computing environments. To clarify, this policy does not restrict individuals’ personal attire, including attire that expresses personal beliefs or aspects of identity.
  • Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

The following behaviors are also prohibited:

  • Providing knowingly false or misleading information in connection with a Code of Conduct investigation or otherwise intentionally tampering with an investigation.
  • Retaliating against a person because they reported an incident or provided information about an incident as a witness.

How to Report a Violation

Please send an email to conduct@openmainframeproject.org or contact a member of the Technical Advisory Council.

Violation Review Process

Upon receiving a violation claim, staff members will review violations confidentially. The claim(s) will be investigated within three business days. After the investigation, a private session with the Technical Advisory Council will be held to review the violation and to determine the appropriate course of action.

Enforcement

Community and project leaders may remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned with this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

Factors for Determining Consequences

If the Technical Advisory Council determines that a violation has occurred, the council will consider the following factors when determining what remediation steps to take:

  • Is the violation an isolated incident or a pattern of repeated behavior?
  • How severe is the violation?
  • How does the violation impact the community and its participants?
  • Is the accused person willing to acknowledge why their behavior was harmful and improve their behavior?
  • What remedies are needed to protect the community and involved individuals from further harm?

Examples of Remedies

The following are examples of remedies the Technical Advisory Council may consider. The following list is non-exhaustive:

  • Issuing a warning
  • Removing harmful content from community or project spaces
  • Asking the reported party to provide a public or private apology
  • Temporary suspension or permanent ban from the community or project
  • Temporary or permanent removal from a leadership role
  • Education, mentoring, or coaching to help the accused improve their behavior
  • Recommending or implementing policy changes to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future

Acknowledgements

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant (http://contributor-covenant.org), version 2.0, available at http://contributor-covenant.org/version/2/0/code_of_conduct/

Transparency Report

This report summarizes Code of Conduct incidents reported to or resolved by the TAC. Code of Conduct incidents occurring in the Open Mainframe Project community reported to and resolved by the Linux Foundation Events team (LF Events), or project-level Code of Conduct responders are not addressed in this report. LF Events publishes its own separate transparency report, available here.

This report aims to provide a balance between transparency and protecting the privacy of victims and reporters to ensure a safe space for reporting. To ensure we are honoring our commitment to protect victims’ and reporters’ privacy, this transparency report does not provide personally identifying information about victims or reporters and provides only summary information rather than details of each incident.

All incidents resolved by the TAC have been handled in accordance with the Open Mainframe Project Code of Conduct policy and guidelines.

Incidents Reported in 2025

Incident 2025-1

A report was received regarding a community member who made comments via email accusing a committee of racial bias, and in further email communications, made reference to challenging an individual to a “duel”. The TAC met and reviewed the comments. The TAC decided to issue a warning to the community member based on the enforcement guidelines in the Open Mainframe Project Code of Conduct.

Incident 2025-2

A report was made regarding continued disparaging and hostile statements about the Open Mainframe Project community on social media and Open Mainframe Project communication channels, connected to Incident 2025-1. The TAC met and reviewed the comments. The TAC decided to issue a warning to the community member based on the enforcement guidelines in the Open Mainframe Project Code of Conduct.