Code of Conduct?

[Sabah Ul-Hasan]

Dear all,

I hope you're each doing very well.

I was initially very excited to discover this group. I have relatives I care for who are high-risk, and the opportunity of positively improving our overall circumstance through such an event as this biohackathon is uplifting. It's been additionally nice to "see" some familiar friendly faces.

Unfortunately, I've been a bit disappointed by the mannerisms observed in some of these threads. At first I thought perhaps it was just me. Then, a colleague reached out to me with similar concerns. Negative tones and behaviors are counterproductive, especially during such an already stressful time. I unfortunately have too limited of a bandwidth to tolerate such behaviors and am kindly removing myself from the group. A devised formal Code of Conduct may be an appropriate solution.

Wishing the very best to each of us, and that we remember now is and especially important time to be considerate of each other.

- Sabah

[Rutger Vos]

I think we are all very sorry to hear this, or at least we should be. If I have in any way contributed to an unwelcoming atmosphere then I am deeply sorry. I am very much in favour of adding a CoC to the project and of us all acquainting ourselves with it, endorsing it, and living up to it. As far as I know there are decent templates for this.

All the best,

Rutger

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/89585f4a-9992-4f31-9540-5d98a4a2804d%40googlegroups.com.

--

Met vriendelijke groet,

Dr. Rutger A. Vos

Researcher / Bioinformatician

_{+31717519600 - +31627085806}

_{rutge...@naturalis.nl - www.naturalis.nl}

_{Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden}

_{Postbus 9517, 2300 RA Leiden}

[Rutger Vos]

Perhaps this might be a jumping off point? https://hackcodeofconduct.org/

[Fotis Psomopoulos]

I'm really sorry about this as well - this effort should be open, inclusive and positive, especially given all the negative feelings that the current world-situation is bringing forward.

I think that there is a mention of a CoC here, but I agree it should be more clearly stated and enforced. I took the liberty of adding the extra section on the main wiki page with the CoC (as currently stated), but we should definitely add (or link to) a more complete/formal one.

-F

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/CAATi6nmje%3Da0zN2itDhc4ubCbUAoVw1QMYNSuu_7nQDg7-D73w%40mail.gmail.com.

--

Fotis E. Psomopoulos

Assistant Research Professor

INAB - Institute of Applied Biosciences

CERTH - Center for Research and Technology Hellas

Thermi 57001, Greece

Phone: +30 2310 498 478

Fax  : +30 2310 498 270

Email: fp...@certh.gr

Site : https://fpsom.github.io

ORCID: 0000-0002-0222-4273

While I may be sending this email outside my normal office hours, I have no expectation to receive a reply outside yours.

[Alexander Garcia Castro]

Dear Sabah, I am really sorry to hear that you and others have felt unwelcome. Adding a CoC is certainly not a problem. @Pjotr Prins should we have this in the wiiki?  https://hackcodeofconduct.org/ seems reasonable. 

Best. 

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 9:04 PM Sabah Ul-Hasan <bysabah...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/89585f4a-9992-4f31-9540-5d98a4a2804d%40googlegroups.com.

--

Alexander Garcia
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander_Garcia
http://www.usefilm.com/photographer/75943.html
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgarciac

[Alexander Garcia Castro]

Dear all, I have added a line pointing to specifics for the CoC, see  https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/wiki

Once more Sabah, I am really sorry if anyone from this community has made you feel unwelcome. Following your recommendation for a CoC we have added a link in https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/wiki, as well as a very clear line indicating that we do not condone improper behaviour. 

If in the future you or anyone in this community feels unwelcome in any way or form please let us know (the organizers). 

Best. 

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 9:04 PM Sabah Ul-Hasan <bysabah...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/89585f4a-9992-4f31-9540-5d98a4a2804d%40googlegroups.com.

[Pjotr Prins]

Dear Sabah,

We have had a code of conduct from the start:

https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/blob/master/README.md

Please contact one of the organizers directly with any bad
experience or concerns. That is what it is for. We do not accept bad
mannerisms and we would like your contribution.

Pj.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send

> an email to [1]virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.

> To view this discussion on the web, visit

> [2]https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/89585f4a-9992
> -4f31-9540-5d98a4a2804d%40googlegroups.com.
>
> References
>
> 1. mailto:virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com
> 2. https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/89585f4a-9992-4f31...@googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer

[Jonathan Pekar]

Hey everyone, 

I hope this email finds you all well. Sabah specified they're leaving the group because of limited bandwidth. This request can be respected by not continuing to email Sabah in this group. The code of conduct is fairly brief and vague. I'm glad we have it, but perhaps this is an example of how and why it needs more attention. I'm happy to discuss this further. 

Thanks,

Jonathan

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/20200326221421.sbw6twwaehdh2m75%40thebird.nl.

[LJ.Garcia]

Dear Jonathan, all,

@Jonathan, would you be interested in contributing to improve the code of conduct? I think this could be done via issues or wiki, any thoughts?

@everybody, it would be useful if any of you who has observed any inappropriate tone, behaviour or mannerism could point us to some of those so we can tackle them.

Kind regards,

Kind regards,

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/CAGJn1eJswpRXk8%2BhXBjis7ms276%3D0QG7%2BcprBwnmFTJMfNEBzw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Malvika Sharan]

Hi All,

It's a very important issue and redirecting to another website for a Code of Conduct through the wiki should not be enough.

There is no reporting guideline or even a dedicated person to handle this.

I have created a PR to add a CoC: https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/pull/3

Also, please read through before adding approval. Having a CoC is not enough if people don't read them or take them seriously.

Best wishes,

Malvika

[Egon Willighagen]

To the core organizers and others,

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 12:59 PM Malvika Sharan <malvik...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's a very important issue and redirecting to another website for a Code of Conduct through the wiki should not be enough.

There is no reporting guideline or even a dedicated person to handle this.

I do not have much experience with it, but it is clear it is an essential part of the organization.

 

I have created a PR to add a CoC: https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/pull/3

Also, please read through before adding approval. Having a CoC is not enough if people don't read them or take them seriously.

I understood having a single contact point is important. That person has the full overview. I can see how just directing to the group of organizers is not going to work.

I think I've seen another paper pass my timelines, but here is some literature on the topic:

- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2016.00103/full

- https://www.pnas.org/content/116/30/14931.short

Apologies if these are well-known. I'm just looking forward to a BioHackathon that is inclusive and works for all.

Egon

--

Hi, do you like citation networks? Already 51% of all citations are available available for innovative new uses. Join me in asking the American Chemical Society to join the Initiative for Open Citations too. SpringerNature, the RSC and many others already did.

-----

E.L. Willighagen
Department of Bioinformatics - BiGCaT
Maastricht University (http://www.bigcat.unimaas.nl/)
Homepage: http://egonw.github.com/
Blog: http://chem-bla-ics.blogspot.com/
PubList: https://www.zotero.org/egonw
ORCID: 0000-0001-7542-0286
ImpactStory: https://impactstory.org/u/egonwillighagen

[Kevin B. Cohen]

It might be useful to know what Sabah's experiences were.

Kevin

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/CAMPqvY9Z3P1RH35us%2BpwdZVtMmGymnbiC-3R6k%2BP8TiuCHWghw%40mail.gmail.com.

--

Kevin Bretonnel Cohen, PhD
Director, Biomedical Text Mining Group
Computational Bioscience Program, U. Colorado School of Medicine

D'Alembert Chair in Natural Language Processing for the Biomedical Domain (Emeritus),

LIMSI, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay

303-916-2417
http://compbio.ucdenver.edu/Hunter_lab/Cohen

[Pjotr Prins]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 11:08:16AM -0700, Kevin B. Cohen wrote:
> It might be useful to know what Sabah's experiences were.
> Kevin

Since she is not willing to communicate we have to let it rest.

Let's close this thread.

Anyone can contact the organisers directly. Whether it is Leyla,
Tazro or me.

Pj.

[Sabah Ul-Hasan]

Hi all,

This is really spiraling (not in a good way). I appreciate colleagues who are looking out for me in passing this along. Please note I am not the only individual who has this impression (then or now). See below correspondence. I have subscribed only to reply to this, and hopefully shed more light on how the code of conduct within this group is clearly in need of greater attention. If that is not clear through the reactions of this thread then it seems kindly removing myself from the group for the reasons originally outlined was indeed the appropriate choice.

Warm regards,

Sabah

Sabah Ul-Hasan <bysabah...@gmail.com>

10:41 AM (4 hours ago)

to Leyla, Alexander, Pjotr

Dear all,

I appreciate this outreach, but it disregards the requests outlined in the original email. This [contacting someone who has specifically removed themselves due to limited bandwidth and a desire to minimize emotional labor] is not an appropriate method on behalf of the organizers to improve or resolve. As all interactions are online and thus are documented, tone and behavior are visible. 

Again, I appreciate the intention and kindly ask respect of these requests.

Wishing the very best to each of you,

Sabah

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 3:08 AM Garcia-Castro, Leyla Jael <ljga...@zbmed.de> wrote:

Dear Sabah, 

Many thanks for sharing your concerns with us, this will help us all to improve as otherwise we would have not known about it.

I am so sorry to hear about your experience. I am sad you have decided to remove yourself from the list but I respect it. As you mentioned, in such stressful times there is no need to add even more stress coming from other sources.

It would be of great help if you could please share with us some more information so we can better monitor and promptly react. Would you mind sharing some examples of the negative tones and behaviour you and your colleague observed?

Kind regards,

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/20200327182720.e2a56bb2lha6xqas%40thebird.nl.

--

Jonathan E. Pekar, M.S.

PhD Student | Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Wertheim Lab

University of California San Diego

Pronouns: he/him/his

[Malvika Sharan]

Hi all,

Despite me opening the PRs twice on the CoC, and explicitly asking not to close it, you have gone ahead and closed both PRs #3 and #4 (screenshots below). 

I gather that you don’t really want to co-create a welcoming space, or accept people’s experience despite them expressing their concerns for themselves and other participants loud and clear the first time. Behaviors like have driven people away in past and will keep driving them away from what is being labeled  as an open space for everyone.

I don’t have the mental capacity to try to contribute to an open project which is clearly not “open”.

I hope you have a nice event!

Malvika 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/20200327182720.e2a56bb2lha6xqas%40thebird.nl.

--

Malvika Sharan about.me/malvikasharan

[Pjotr Prins]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 10:47:09PM +0000, Malvika Sharan wrote:
> Hi all,
> Despite me opening the PRs twice on the CoC, and explicitly asking not
> to close it, you have gone ahead and closed both PRs #3 and #4
> (screenshots below).
> I gather that you don’t really want to co-create a welcoming space, or
> accept people’s experience despite them expressing their concerns for
> themselves and other participants loud and clear the first time.
> Behaviors like have driven people away in past and will keep driving
> them away from what is being labeled as an open space for everyone.
>
> I don’t have the mental capacity to try to contribute to an open
> project which is clearly not “open”.
>
> I hope you have a nice event!
>
> Malvika

Sorry about that Malvika. A pull request is considered a request for
merging. That is what I did: I merged your pull request. If it was a
bad idea we can roll back. That is what git is for. Should we roll
back?

Pj.

[Lisa Bang]

I think it's that she asked for the issue not to be closed yet so that ongoing discussion could happen in GitHub. 

Git is for version control, yes, but the git by GitHub is not the same as vanilla git in many ways as many of us know.  One of the tools that people enjoy about GitHub is the collaborative aspect and being able to comment on pull requests and review them before merging.  I think since she asked them not to be closed this was the issue.

Best,

Lisa

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "virtual biohackathon COVID-19 2020" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-biohacka...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-biohackathon/20200327233200.elthgemzc4muqkwk%40thebird.nl.