Code of Conduct

Our Mission

In order to create a space safe from spam and outside influences, our goal is to make room for a community of freelancers wholly invested in helping merchants on Shopify.

We believe the best way to do that is to allow for freelancers to interact and engage with like-minded individuals looking to build their own businesses by helping others be more successful on Shopify.

We will be a community that supports these entrepreneurs through resources, engagement, support, and knowledge-sharing to bolster the ever-growing and ever-expanding field of web development. We will do this with communication that is encouraging, clear, and unoffensive.

ShopDev Alliance Standards

Expectations for members of our alliance include:

  • Participate. You're here to learn from others, but that doesn't happen if you're not an active participant. The key to healthy relationships and communities is all of us doing our part
  • Be considerate. Choose to think the best of others and try to understand where they are coming from

Behavior that will not be tolerated:

  • Personal attacks on others. Examples of personal attacks on others includes, but is not limited to:
    • Personal and/or private harassment
    • Lewd, sexual, or derogatory remarks
    • Name-calling
  • Threats
  • Unsolicited Direct Messages (DMs)
  • Promotional messaging without prior approval or in approved channels
  • Sharing Slack community posts, photos, or other information shared in our private slack community without consent
  • Contacting a merchant another member has mentioned they are working with without a direct referral or express permission

This list is not comprehensive in regard to positive and/or negative behavior. In general, your behavior should be consistent with what would, or would not, be appropriate in a public workplace setting. If you are concerned your behavior will fall into the unacceptable category, chances are it is. But if you have questions, just ask David (@david) or Taylor (@taylor) directly.

External Partnerships

One of the benefits ShopDev Alliance offers is partnerships with external organizations or providers that may not have been possible, feasible, as a solopreneur. Examples of this are partnerships with other Slack communities for job leads and other collaborative opportunities, as well as exclusive channels with larger organizations looking for private feedback from our experienced and talented community members.

It is understood and enforced that official external partnerships with ShopDev Alliance fall under the same code of conduct practices outlined here. Examples of this include members are not allowed to send unsolicited messages to external partners that have been facilitated through Slack Connect channels and members are not allowed to share information that has been divulged within these exclusive partnerships publicly unless provided express permission.

Failure to adhere to the same guidelines extended to our members will result in penalty outlined in this Code of Conduct. This includes removing from specific channels and/or from our community entirely.

If you ever have concerns about the Code of Conduct and appropriate or inappropriate behavior, please contact David (@david) or Taylor (@taylor) directly.  

Member Profile Requirements

To foster trust, accountability and human connection within our community, all members are required to have a real, current photo of themselves displayed as their Slack Profile photo. No avatars, logos, AI-generated images, or non-personal images will be permitted as the main profile photo.

Having actual pictures of fellow members helps provide context for interactions and allows for richer relationship-building within the alliance. It also reinforces the Code's expectation of authentic, professional conduct.

Members found to be using a non-personal photo will be asked to update their profile accordingly. Continued violation of this requirement after being notified may result in removal from the community.

We understand privacy concerns around publicly sharing one's photo online. However, being a part of this paid community requires a degree of real identity exposure among members. If you are unwilling to share your real photo for this private community, this may not be the right community for you.

A note on Slack's practices on AI training models

It was brought to our attention that there were concerns with Slack's policy on how they could potentially leverage user data in order to train large language models (LLMs) [reference link]. Because of this, Administrators requested that ShopDev Alliance Slack workspace be opted out by email and received confirmation that request was received.

Slack confirmed on Jun 17, 2024 at 5:11 PM PDT that the SDA slack workplace has been successfully opted out. For more information on the Slack AI policy, see their blog post here.

Enforcement of Community Guidelines

Part of the benefit of the ShopDev Alliance is an enforcement of community guidelines through active moderation. David Lindahl (@david) and Taylor Page (@taylor) founded the ShopDev Alliance and also serve as moderators. It is the responsibility of the moderators to enforce community guidelines.

While moderators will participate actively in the community, it's not possible to catch all potential infractions against community guidelines. It is the responsibility of members to report issues directly to moderators.

Reports can be made either directly to moderators via direct message in the Slack or through the workflow pinned in channels. If your channel does not have the Workflow pinned in the Slack, you can use the #sda-general channel. The workflow allows for anonymous reporting. For more information, see process outlined in our Report a Code of Conduct Violation page.

Once reported, moderators will assume the responsibility of gathering information and determining whether or not there should be any actions against the offending member.

Breaking Community Guidelines Actions

In most instances, breaking community guidelines will result in removal. No refunds will be provided in the event of removal from the community due to unacceptable behaviors.

Updated September 21, 2024