Version: 4.0 (Proposed) Last Updated: 3 October 2025 Owner: Mac Admins Foundation Review Cycle: Annually
- 1. Purpose
- 2. Scope
- 3. Our Commitment
- 4. Expected Behavior
- 5. Unacceptable Behavior
- 6. Reporting
- 7. Enforcement
- 8. Appeals
- 9. Admin Responsibilities
- 10. Scope of Admin Authority
- 11. Privacy and Data Retention
- 12. Additional Policies
- 13. Modifications
- 14. Attribution
- 15. License
- 16. Contact
- 17. Acknowledgment
- 18. Revision History
The Mac Admins Slack is a global community for professionals managing Apple devices. For more than ten years, it has provided a common space for people throughout the globe to connect with each other, solve problems, and learn new technologies. This place has provided common ground for Mac Admins, vendors, Apple, and other interested parties to work on problems, devise solutions, talk through challenges, and build new workflows.
The coordination of this place has long depended on the community's openness to each other, professional respect for each other, and dedication to the larger mission.
This Code of Conduct ensures our workspace remains welcoming, professional, and productive for all members.
The scope of this agreement is very broad, because this community is very broad. This Code of Conduct document is intended to be clear for all the people reading and all who are part of this community.
This Code of Conduct applies to:
- All public channels
- All private channels
- Direct messages between members
- Any workspace communication or interaction
The Mac Admins Foundation has a clear obligation to keep the Mac Admins Slack a safe and open community. This is designed to welcome new members, encourage collaboration in our global community, and provide psychological safety for our members.
We are committed to providing a harassment-free, professional environment for everyone, regardless of:
- Gender identity and expression
- Sexual orientation
- Age
- Disability (visible or invisible)
- Physical appearance
- Race and ethnicity
- Nationality
- Language skills and proficiency
- Religion or lack thereof
- Political affiliation
- Professional experience level
- Educational background
All community members are expected to:
- Be respectful and professional in all interactions
- Welcome and support new members
- Be patient with language barriers and varying English proficiency
- Give and receive constructive feedback gracefully
- Focus on what is best for the community
- Show empathy toward other community members
- Credit others' work and ideas appropriately
The following behaviors are not tolerated:
- Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination of any kind
- Offensive comments related to protected characteristics
- Unwelcome sexual attention or advances
- Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, or personal attacks
- Publishing others' private information (doxxing)
- Threats of violence or violent language
- Sustained disruption of discussions
- Spam or unsolicited commercial messages (see Vendor Policy)
- Sharing of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) or other illegal content
- Accessing the workspace through unauthorized programmatic methods (not the official Slack application, an approved installed app/integration or via a web browser)
- Scraping, harvesting, or collecting member data without authorization (including email addresses, usernames, profiles, or workspace metadata)
- Any conduct that creates a hostile, intimidating, or exclusionary environment for community members (including sustained patterns of behavior that may individually seem minor but collectively undermine community safety)
If you experience or witness unacceptable behavior:
-
Contact an Admin directly via direct message
- Current Admins are announced monthly in #announcements
- Any Admin can help, or will connect you with the right person
-
Use the @admins mention in public channels (for urgent matters)
- This notifies all Admins immediately
- Use this for urgent safety concerns or ongoing harassment
- Note: If you're in a private channel, please DM an Admin directly instead
-
Email: admin@macadmins.org (if you prefer not to use Slack)
When reporting, please provide:
- Your contact information
- Description of the incident
- Date, time, and location (channel or DM)
- Usernames of those involved
- Links to messages (if applicable)
- Whether the situation is ongoing
- Any other relevant context
- Acknowledgment: Within 24 hours (sooner for urgent matters)
- Confidentiality: Reports are handled privately by the Admin team
- No retaliation: Reporting in good faith will not result in negative consequences
- Updates: You'll be informed of the outcome when appropriate
Violations are categorized by severity:
Examples: Off-topic discussions, mild unprofessional language, first-time minor spam
Response:
- Private warning from Admin
- Explanation of the issue
- Guidance on expected behavior
Examples: Repeated Level 1 violations, disrespectful behavior, promotional content after warning, disruptive behavior
Response:
- Formal written warning
- Required acknowledgment of violation
- Content removal
- Incident documented in admin log
- Potential temporary channel restrictions where possible
Examples: Harassment, discriminatory behavior, repeated Level 2 violations, doxxing, threats, impersonation (including vendor impersonation or astroturfing), creating a new account while suspended in order to regain access
Response:
- Temporary suspension (1-30 days)
- Formal documentation
- All members required to acknowledge and commit to following CoC
- Demonstration of understanding before reinstatement
- May include permanent channel restrictions where possible
Examples: Threats of violence, CSAM, severe harassment, coordinated attacks, repeated Level 3 violations
Response:
- Immediate permanent ban
- No appeal possible (or very limited circumstances)
- Law enforcement contacted if appropriate
- Other communities notified if relevant
For repeated violations:
- First offense: Level-appropriate response
- Second offense: Escalate one level
- Third offense: Temporary or permanent ban
Note: Severe violations skip progressive discipline and result in immediate permanent ban.
If you believe an enforcement action was made in error:
- Contact: admin@macadmins.org
- Include:
- Your username
- Date of enforcement action
- Why you believe it was in error
- Any supporting evidence
- Timeline: Appeals reviewed within 7 days
- Decision: MAF Board makes final decision on appeals
Appeals are only available for Level 2-3 violations. Level 4 (severe) violations have no appeal except in extraordinary circumstances.
If you believe an Admin has violated this Code of Conduct or abused their position:
- Contact: board@macadmins.org (bypasses the admin team)
- Include:
- Admin username
- Description of the misconduct
- Date, time, and context
- Any supporting evidence
- How the admin's actions violated the CoC or accountability standards
- Timeline: MAF Board reviews within 7 days
- Process:
- The admin in question will not participate in the review
- Board may consult other admins or community members
- Board has authority to remove admins or implement corrective action
- You will be notified of the outcome when appropriate
Community members may also petition the MAF Board for admin removal by emailing board@macadmins.org with supporting evidence and community feedback.
Admins are responsible for:
- Clarifying standards of acceptable behavior
- Taking appropriate and fair corrective action
- Removing, editing, or rejecting content that violates this CoC
- Temporarily or permanently banning any member for behaviors they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful
- Handling all reports with confidentiality and respect
- Following Admin Runbooks for consistent enforcement
Admins must maintain the trust of the community and are expected to:
- Avoid conflicts of interest: Admins must not use their position for commercial advantage, to silence criticism of their products/services, to provide preferential treatment for their company, or to advance personal interests
- Recuse when appropriate: Admins should recuse themselves from enforcement decisions involving their employer, competitors, or situations where they have a personal conflict of interest
- Act impartially: All enforcement decisions must be made objectively and consistently, regardless of the admin's personal or commercial relationships
- Be transparent: Admins should disclose relevant affiliations when participating in discussions related to their employer or products
Admins who do not follow or enforce this Code of Conduct, or who abuse their position, may face:
- Temporary or permanent removal from the Admin team
- Temporary or permanent suspension from the Slack workspace
- Other corrective action determined by the MAF Board
The MAF Board has authority to determine appropriate consequences based on the severity and nature of the misconduct.
Admins have the authority to:
- Remove messages or content
- Temporarily or permanently restrict channel access
- Temporarily or permanently suspend or ban members
- Make decisions about workspace settings and policies
Admin decisions can be appealed to MAF leadership through the appeals process.
Important: Members should be aware of the following data practices:
- The Mac Admins Slack operates on a Business+ plan with full message and file retention
- All messages, files, and content are retained permanently in Slack's systems
- Users may request deletion of individual messages, but bulk data deletion or "right to be forgotten" is not available
- Admins can access all channels and DMs if needed for Code of Conduct investigations
- Admin access is logged, auditable, and subject to strict confidentiality policies
- Do not post sensitive information (passwords, credentials, personal data, etc.)
- Assume any content posted may become public
Unauthorized Programmatic Access
Accessing the workspace through automated, non-human methods (i.e. not from the Slack application or a web browser) violates our community's privacy expectations and is strictly prohibited. Examples include but are not limited to:
- Using SDK-based clients to programmatically interact with the workspace
- Employing custom scripts or bots to retrieve messages, files, or member data
- Using third-party applications or tools not officially approved as installed Slack apps
Only approved, officially installed Slack apps with explicit MAF authorization may programmatically interact with the workspace.
For more details, see Section 10: Data and Privacy in the Community Guidelines.
This Code of Conduct is supplemented by:
- Community Guidelines - Detailed expectations and best practices
- Vendor Policy - Rules for vendor participation and promotional content
This Code of Conduct may be updated at any time. Changes will be:
- Announced in the #announcements channel
- Effective 7 days after announcement (for minor changes)
- Effective 30 days after announcement (for major changes)
- Archived versions available for reference
This Code of Conduct is adapted from:
- The Contributor Covenant, version 2.1
- The Django Code of Conduct
- Previous Mac Admins Slack Code of Conduct (v1.0)
This Code of Conduct is released under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0.
- Admin Team: admin@macadmins.org or @admins in Slack
- MAF Board: board@macadmins.org
- Website: https://www.macadmins.org
By participating in The Mac Admins Slack, you agree to abide by this Code of Conduct.
Thank you for helping make The Mac Admins Slack a welcoming, respectful, and professional community.
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | [Previous] | Original Code of Conduct |
| 2.0 | 2025-10-03 | Major revision: Added enforcement levels, reporting procedures, appeals process, admin responsibilities, and supplementary policy links |
| 2.1 | 2025-10-10 | Minor revision: Included more narrative language |
| 3.0 | 2025-11-26 | Added section numbering for easy reference |
| 3.1 | 2025-11-26 | Added clickable section links for cross-references |
| 3.2 | 2025-11-26 | Made section headings clickable for easy link sharing |