IRC guidelines

IRC in the Mer project
We use IRC for a variety of real-time conversations:
 * Meetings
 * Discussion
 * Troubleshooting
 * Collaboration
 * Chatting with other contributors

General Guidelines

 * The most important: Ask smart questions: Eric Raymond wrote a good text on how best to ask questions - http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html and reading this text and understanding it will help you to get the optimal experience out of the communication within the Mer project and the best answers to help your work
 * Pick the right channel: if you aren't sure, you should start in our main #mer channel and you may be redirected to the right place
 * Keep it clean: many of us participate from work, so keep the language clean.
 * Don't be a jerk: treat people with respect and consideration - no regional, racial, gender or other abuse will be tolerated
 * Be helpful: be patient with new people and be willing to jump in to answer questions.
 * Stay calm: the written word is always subject to interpretation, so give people the benefit of the doubt and try not to let emotions get out of control.
 * Don't post chunks: avoid posting big chunks of text - use a pastebin or a similar service to shorten it to a link.
 * Be Patient: Folks might not be around when you ask a question so wait a while for someone to speak before leaving.
 * Don't Private Message: Ask permission before you send someone a private message (PM) as not everyone likes them. Also by keeping it in public others with similar issues can see the solution you were given.
 * More information: this IRC primer for new users and the general IRC guidelines from freenode are also useful resources.

Guideline Violations
Guideline Violations - 3 Strikes Method

The point of this section is not to find opportunities to punish people, but we do need a fair way to deal with people who are making our community an unpleasant place.

First occurrence: Public reminder that the behavior is inappropriate according to our guidelines.

Second occurrence: Private message warning the user that any additional violations will result in removal from the community.

Third occurrence: Depending on the violation, may include account deletion or banning. Notes:

Obvious spammers are banned on first occurrence. This is necessary to keep the community free of spam.

Violations are forgiven after 6 months of good behavior.

Minor formatting / style infractions will be dealt with through education, not the 3 strikes process.

Extreme violations of a threatening, abusive, destructive or illegal nature will be addressed immediately and are not subject to 3 strikes.

Contact the mailing list with a Advisory board agenda item to report abuse or appeal violations (mistakes happen & will be corrected).