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Code of Conduct

Our Pledge​

We as contributors and maintainers of the ADL project pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socioeconomic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Standards of Expected Behavior​

We expect all participants to:

  • Be respectful. Treat every person with courtesy and dignity. Disagreement is fine; personal attacks are not.
  • Be inclusive. Use welcoming and inclusive language. Remember that ADL users range from experienced Linux administrators to people who have never opened a terminal.
  • Be constructive. Offer actionable feedback. When pointing out a problem, suggest a solution or offer to help fix it.
  • Be patient. Not everyone communicates the same way or at the same pace. People contribute from different time zones and in different languages.
  • Be collaborative. Work with others rather than against them. Share knowledge, credit contributions, and build on existing work.
  • Accept feedback gracefully. Code review and documentation feedback are about the work, not the person. Receiving constructive criticism is a normal part of open source collaboration.
  • Ask for help when you need it. There are no bad questions. If something is unclear, asking about it often reveals a documentation gap that benefits everyone.
  • Demonstrate empathy and kindness. Consider how your words and actions affect others before posting.

Unacceptable Behavior​

The following behaviors are not tolerated in any project space:

  • Harassment. Includes offensive comments related to personal characteristics, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, unwelcome photography or recording, sustained disruption of discussions, and unwelcome sexual attention.
  • Personal attacks. Criticize ideas, not people. "This approach has a flaw" is constructive. "You clearly don't understand Linux" is not.
  • Trolling. Deliberately inflammatory, off-topic, or provocative comments intended to derail conversations or upset others.
  • Discrimination. Exclusionary language or behavior based on any personal characteristic listed in our pledge.
  • Doxxing. Publishing someone's private information --- such as a physical address, email address, or phone number --- without their explicit permission.
  • Spam. Irrelevant or promotional content in project spaces.
  • Bad faith participation. Deliberately wasting maintainers' time, submitting intentionally broken contributions, or misrepresenting the purpose of changes.

Responsibilities of Maintainers​

Project maintainers are responsible for clarifying and enforcing the standards of acceptable behavior. They have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that do not align with this code of conduct.

Maintainers will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate and will apply enforcement measures fairly and consistently across all participants.

Scope​

This code of conduct applies within all project spaces, including:

  • All GitHub repositories under the ADL project
  • GitHub Issues, Pull Requests, and Discussions
  • Any official communication channels (forums, chat rooms, mailing lists)
  • Project-related events, whether online or in person

It also applies when an individual is officially representing the project in public spaces --- for example, using an official project account, posting from an official social media channel, or acting as an appointed representative at a conference or meetup.

Reporting Process​

If you experience or witness behavior that violates this code of conduct, you can report it through either of the following channels:

  • GitHub Issues. Open an issue in the ADL repository with the label code-of-conduct. Use this for incidents that occurred in public project spaces where transparency is appropriate.
  • Email. For private or sensitive reports, contact the project maintainers at the email address listed in the repository's SECURITY.md file. Use email when the report involves personal safety concerns or when you prefer confidentiality.

When filing a report, include:

  • A description of the behavior
  • Where it occurred (link to the issue, PR, discussion, or other venue)
  • When it occurred
  • Any relevant context or screenshots

All reports will be reviewed promptly and investigated. The identity of the reporter will be kept confidential unless the reporter gives explicit permission to share it.

Enforcement Guidelines​

Responses to violations follow a graduated approach based on severity and pattern:

  1. Correction. A private message to the individual explaining the violation and requesting a change in behavior. A public apology may be requested for public incidents.
  2. Warning. A formal warning with documented consequences for continued behavior. The individual may be asked to avoid interaction with affected parties for a specified period.
  3. Temporary ban. A temporary restriction from participating in project spaces. Duration depends on the severity and whether the individual has prior violations. No public or private interaction with the community is permitted during the ban.
  4. Permanent ban. A permanent removal from all project spaces. Reserved for severe violations, sustained patterns of unacceptable behavior, or harassment of an individual.

Enforcement decisions are made by project maintainers on a case-by-case basis.

Attribution​

This code of conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct/.

Community impact guidelines were inspired by Mozilla's code of conduct enforcement ladder.

For answers to common questions about the Contributor Covenant, see the FAQ.

Constructive Communication​

Open source collaboration involves differing opinions. When disagreements arise, focus on finding the best solution rather than winning an argument:

  • "This command might fail on older Android versions because..." --- specific, technical, and helpful.
  • "Have you considered using proot-distro instead? It handles this case better because..." --- offers an alternative with reasoning.
  • "I tested this on my Pixel 7 and got a different result. Here is what I saw..." --- shares evidence without blame.

When giving feedback on pull requests, focus on the content, not the contributor. Every contributor was a beginner once.

Questions​

If you have questions about this code of conduct or are unsure whether a specific behavior is acceptable, open a GitHub Issue or reach out to the maintainers. We would rather answer a question than deal with a violation.