The following is a guide of actions to be taken in the case of cheating at a hackathon.
You should have an MLHer on-site at your Member Event Hackathon. They are responsible for addressing accusations of cheating and following MLH's procedures. If someone comes to you with a concern, you politely connect them with your MLHer for further resolution.
Below are the rough steps that MLHers will go through.
Prepare an initial report of the situation. Please follow these guidelines:
- Offer the victim a private place to sit.
- Ask "is there a friend or trusted person who you would like to be with you?" (if so, arrange for someone to fetch this person).
Try to get as much of the accusation in written form by the reporter. If you cannot, transcribe it yourself as it was told to you. The important information to gather include the following:
- Identifying information (name, etc.) of the participant doing the harassing
- The behavior that was in violation
- The approximate time of the behavior (if different than the time the report was made)
- The circumstances surrounding the violation
- Other people involved in the violation
- Other people who know of the violation
Your MLHer will review the project in question themselves to evaluate it's authencity. They have additional resources from MLH they may choose to use if needed (like their On Call staff).
Your MLHer will make a decision and work with your team to ensure everyone is in agreement about it. They may then choose to hide the project from the submission platform or remove the project from judging. Regardless of their immediate resolution, they will centralize their response by notifying our team at [email protected].
Hackers who repeatedly cheat or attempt to do so are permanently banned from participation in MLH hackathons.
Last Revised: 2022-05-11