This Terms of Use is an effort to maintain a respectful space on the Data Schools Forum for everyone, and to ensure best and most appropriate Forum behaviour.
The Data Schools Forum is a community working to build core data science skills and introduce open tools and resources for researchers through increasing research capacity, as it relates to date in Low and Middle Income Countries.
The Data Schools Forum is open to everybody, regardless of scholarly or professional background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, economic background, country of origin or employment, religion, and other differences. Because we come from different backgrounds, it is important to be intentional about providing a respectful and equitable online space for our community to come together and engage in constructive, respectful discourse.
Respectful and self-aware online conduct on the Forum is important. If the guidelines are violated, someone from the Moderators group will place them into moderation by changing that person’s posting permission on the Forum.
Guidelines for Forum Etiquette
| Do | Don’t |
| Stay on topic to make long threads easier to follow. | Do not send unnecessary one-line responses that effectively “spam” hundreds of people and lower the overall content quality of a conversation. (Exception: expressions of appreciation and encouragement!) |
| Start a new thread to help others follow along. Important if your response starts to significantly diverge from the original topic. | Do not respond with off-topic information, making it hard for the large group of readers to follow along. |
| Write short and literal subject lines to help the readers of the list manage the volume of communication. | Humour and euphemisms in subject lines are easily misunderstood, although enthusiasm is welcome! |
| Mind your tone. Forum discussions are not in person, so it is all the more important to maintain a tone of respect. | Do not write in an aggressive, disrespectful or mocking tone. Note: writing in all caps is regarded as shouting. |