Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines

Thanks for stopping by to read these guidelines. We wrote these in order to come together and agree upon a set of community values so that we can grow together as a team, have meaningful discussions about Machine Learning and still allow room for having loads of fun.

These are all things we strongly believe in and hope you do too.

We are a community of learners

• If someone asks for help, teach them to fish. The person should have already watched the video, and Googled a bit, so assume they’ve tried and are stuck. You can start by saying, “tell me what you do understand, and at what part you’re getting stuck.” Then work from there
• Please do not give out code related to projects as this violates Udacity's honor code.
• Please refrain from posting links to resources that have been "cracked" or otherwise altered in a way that allows them to be used outside of their intended purpose, or circumnavigates legal barriers or agreements

Slack Etiquette

• If you have a question, ask! The caveat is that you should have made some effort to research your problem before asking for help.
• Double posting (posting the same question in different channels) is not cool. If you aren't sure which channel to post, you can ask in #to_admin or #general.
• When you want to ask someone a specific question, use the @member method to ask the person a direct question in the appropriate channel. We prefer members to use @member method vs direct messaging because this encourages community participation. Your question will often spark a public conversation that is beneficial to everyone involved.
• Direct Messaging should only be used for private information or purely personal conversation.
• Please keep discussions in the correct channels. This may seem a little strange at first, having two simultaneous conversations with the same people in two separate channels, but the reality is that it helps people’s ideas be heard. The chat moves quickly, if we have multiple topics in one channel, it’s very difficult to discuss anything
• If you are discussing something, and someone suggests you move to one of the other channels, it’s probably a good idea, don't worry most of the time we all follow each other into other channels.
• Please refrain from using any swear or cuss words.

A few things to consider

• Everyone in the MLND comes from different backgrounds, education, family (married, kids, single, student, retired), so please don’t make assumptions about others and be kind and respectful to everyone
• Please keep in mind that our words are not always read the way we intend them to be. example: "It's perfectly obvious that model validation is the most important step" This sentence creates a situation in which your opinion (it is an opinion) is being stated as a fact. A better way to express this, would be: “It is my opinion that model validation is one of the most important parts of any system” This allows for the possibility that you’re wrong, without implying that anyone who disagrees must be ignorant.
• Disagreeing is OK! And in fact it’s encouraged. We want productive discussions so we can all learn and get different perspectives. Just be polite and respectful
• Should you at any time use the term optimize or any of it's variants, be sure to enclose it in asterisks*, so it is bolded. You'll feel like part of the gang in no time!
• Should the need arise (as it so often does) to say something sarcastic, use official sarcasm punctuation ~. for dry sarcasm. ~! for enthusiastic sarcasm. And ~? for sarcastic/rhetorical questions

TL:DR

BE NICE!

Udacity Community Guidelines

Your experience in the Nanodegree program and community should be an engaging, fulfilling, and positive one. As such, we have outlined the following system for reporting behavior that does not live up to Udacity’s standards, so it can quickly be addressed by our staff.

All reports of suspected violations to the Terms of Service (https://www.udacity.com/legal/terms-of-service), Community Code of Conduct or Honor Code (https://www.udacity.com/legal/community-guidelines) should be submitted to [email protected] and will be reviewed. If you witness or are experiencing any violations of our policies please get in touch with us. Below prohibited actions as set forth on our Community Code of Conduct:

• Harassment: Inappropriate, harassing, abusive, discriminatory, derogatory or violent comments or conduct.
• Discrimination: Offensive comments related to gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, disability or disease
• Distributing inappropriate content: Use of sexual, violent, graphic, or derogatory images
• Bullying: Deliberate intimidation, threats of violence or violent language directed against another person
• Sexual harassment: Unwelcome sexual attention
• Defamation: Obscene, fraudulent, indecent, or libelous acts that defame, abuse, harass, discriminate against or threaten others
• Plagiarism: will not cheat on any homework assignment, projects or exams for the Online Courses and, specifically, will not plagiarize materials created by others
• Self-injury or Suicide: We do not encourage community postings in Slack or Forums related to self-injury or suicide. If you or someone you know is exhibiting signs of self-injury or suicide, find help at the Suicide Prevention Lifeline (https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/) in the U.S. and Befrienders.org (https://www.befrienders.org/) globally.

When a potential violation is brought to our attention, we will make every effort to investigate the case thoroughly and make a decision that is fair to all parties.

Thank you, The Udacity Team