The Ecological Design Collective (EDC) is guided by an ethic of emergence and invites its members to participate in that spirit. The basic idea is that interactions should be low-stakes, free flowing, and open-ended enough that community members develop a sense of trust with one another. As Keith Hart once observed, its etymology shows trust to be true like a tree : firm, steadfast, and loyal; not impervious to the evidence of the senses, but founded on a willingness to endure risk and uncertainty. In our experience, this means privileging being kind over being ‘right;’ lessons over failures; and critical connections over critical mass. Generosity and humor go a long way too.
Emergence depends on everyone’s right to a harassment-free experience. This right applies to all EDC zones, including our forum (https://forum.ecodesigncollective.org/), and commons (https://commons.ecodesigncollective.org), as well as speaker series and workshops. Those who degrade it may be sanctioned or uprooted from these spaces at the discretion of the forum moderators and/or EDC Curators.
Harassment includes:
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Wounding comments related to gender, gender identity and expression,sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
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Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
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Deliberate misgendering or deadnaming.
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Threats of violence or incitement to self-harm.
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Intimidation, stalking, or following.
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Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
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Sustained disruption of discussion.
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Unwelcome sexual attention.
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Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
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Deliberate “outing” or doxxing of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
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Posting private communications without consent.
Reporting
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the EDC moderators (moderators@ecodesigncollective.org). If the person who is harassing you is a moderator or Curator, they will recuse themselves from handling your situation. We will respond as promptly as we can.
This ethic applies to EDC spaces, but if you are being harassed by a member of EDC outside our spaces, we still want to know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by EDC members seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. The EDC reserves the right to exclude people from the forum or commons based on past action, including action outside EDC spaces and behavior towards people who are not in EDC.
The EDC also reserve the right to reject any report believed to have been made in bad faith.
We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of EDC members or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.
Consequences
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, Curators may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including uprooting from all EDC spaces, identification of the participant as a harasser to other EDC members or the general public, and, where merited, communication with legal authorities.