Code of Conduct

General rules

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Membership philosophy

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We welcome everyone - regardless of background, identity, belief, or lifestyle. The hackerspace is a shared environment built around curiosity, collaboration, and making things. To keep it that way for everyone, we ask all members to understand the difference between existing here and imposing here.

Who we’re looking for

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Membership here isn’t a contract with loopholes. We’re not interested in building an exhaustive list of forbidden behaviours, and we’re not interested in members who treat the absence of a specific rule as permission.

What we’re looking for is simple: people who are here in good faith. People who want to build things, share knowledge, and contribute to a space that’s worth coming back to. People who, when they encounter a situation the rules don’t explicitly cover, ask themselves “is this good for the space?” rather than “can I get away with this?”

The rules on this page describe the spirit we expect members to operate in. They are illustrations, not an exhaustive list. If you find yourself arguing that what you did was technically allowed, you are probably already the wrong fit for this community.

You are welcome as you are

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Your identity, beliefs, relationships, and values are yours to bring through the door. A member who is trans, religious, queer, atheist, polyamorous, or anything else is welcome here without question. Personal expression - stickers, pronouns, religious dress, whatever reflects who you are - is entirely fine.

What is not fine is using the space, its channels, or its community as a platform to recruit, preach, campaign, or advocate. This includes:

• Pushing political or ideological causes on other members
• Attempting to convert others to your religion or worldview
• Rallying members around personal disputes or relationship conflicts
• Pestering others with views they haven’t asked to engage with

If you want to do any of those things, there are better venues for them. This isn’t one.

Your existence shouldn’t limit someone else’s

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The line we ask everyone to respect is simple: exist freely, but don’t use your existence as a tool against others.

A few examples of where that line sits:

Identity - You’re a gay trans furry and you want to join. Great, you’re welcome. Displaying who you are is not a problem. What is a problem is invoking your identity as a rhetorical device in every conversation, or using it to pressure or provoke other members. The same applies in reverse: a member whose religion leads them to disagree with your identity may hold that belief privately, but the moment they start directing it at you or attempting to influence others, they’ve crossed the line and will be asked to leave.

Relationships - Members date each other sometimes. If things go south, we ask both parties to handle it outside the space. Recruiting people to your side of a breakup, or badmouthing an ex to other members, is not something we’ll host. Unless someone has committed a crime against you, their membership is not affected by the relationship ending.

Beliefs - Holding a worldview - religious, political, philosophical - is not grounds for exclusion. Acting on it in ways that make other members feel unwelcome is.

The missing stair

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A “missing stair” is a term for someone in a community who is a known problem - but instead of being addressed, people quietly learn to work around them. New members aren’t warned. Regulars adjust their behaviour. The stair stays broken, and the cost is distributed silently across everyone else.

We don’t do that here.

If members are privately warning each other about you, if people are avoiding the space on days you’re around, if your presence consistently requires others to manage their behaviour around yours - that is a membership issue, and we will treat it as one.

This applies even when nothing you’ve done is dramatic enough to point at directly. A pattern of low-level behaviour that degrades the experience of the space - making people uncomfortable, monopolising shared resources, creating social friction that others absorb - is grounds for termination. It doesn’t require a single incident serious enough to justify it on its own.

We’d rather have a hard conversation and lose a member than let the space slowly become somewhere people don’t want to be.

The hard limit

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There is one exception to the general principle of tolerating all viewpoints. If your ideology is defined by the exclusion or oppression of others, and you make that visible in the space - through materials, language, or behaviour directed at other members - you will be asked to leave. We are not in the business of ideological gatekeeping, but we are in the business of keeping the space functional and safe for everyone who walks in.

The short version: come as you are, let others do the same.

Expected behavior

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• Be respectful and inclusive
• Respect boundaries
• Welcome newcomers
• Give constructive feedback
• Respect your fellow hackers - their time, work, and projects
• Don’t be an asshole
• Follow safety guidelines

Unacceptable behavior

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• Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination
• Illegal activity
• Disruptive behavior
• Theft or destruction of property
• Ignoring safety protocols
• Alcohol or other substances - we have dangerous equipment, and drunk people shouldn’t be using it
• Using equipment without proper training

If you behave in a way that goes against the good of the hackerspace, expect to be removed from it. For our space to survive, it needs to stay friendly, welcoming, and inclusive. Violations will result in membership review and potential termination.

Materials & supplies

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Donations - we love them, with conditions

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We welcome useful equipment and materials from the community, but we’re a workspace, not a storage facility. To keep our space functional and clutter-free, all donations are subject to the following rules.

Before you donate

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• Ask first. All donations must be approved by an organizing member before being brought in. Unapproved items left at the space will be disposed of.
• Be honest about condition. Describe the item accurately, including any known faults. Dumping broken, incomplete, or unusable items on us wastes everyone’s time and isn’t a donation - it’s littering.
• We reserve the right to decline anything. No explanation is owed. If we say no, please don’t bring it anyway.

What happens to your donation

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Accepted donations follow this process:

1. The space gets first claim. Stewards assess whether the item has a place in the shared workspace - on a shelf, in a tool library, as communal equipment, etc.
2. If the space has no need for it, the item is made available to members to claim for personal use, free of charge, first-come-first-served.
3. If no member claims it within a reasonable period, the item will be sold, recycled, or discarded at the stewards’ discretion.

There are no guarantees about how long this process takes or which stage an item ends up at.

Once you donate

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Ownership transfers immediately. When a donation is accepted, it belongs to the hackerspace. You have no claim over it going forward. No take-backs - do not donate anything you may want back. We cannot hold items for retrieval.

Monetary donations

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Cash and online donations are always welcome and have no strings attached - see ways to donate. If you’d like to fund a specific purchase, talk to the board and we’re happy to coordinate. Donations aren’t tax-deductible; all of it goes straight into space operations.

These rules exist to protect our environment. We appreciate every genuine contribution to the space.

Governance

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How the space actually runs, in three principles.

Excellence

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Be excellent to each other. This is the guiding principle behind everything else on this page — every other rule here is a special case of it. If you’re ever unsure whether something is excellent, ask someone.

Do-ocracy

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Doing excellent stuff at Stockholm Hackerspace doesn’t require permission or an official consensus decision. If you want to build something, fix something, or run an event — just do it. If you’re uncertain, ask someone what they think first.

Consensus

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Official decisions are made by consensus: the willing consent of all members. Decisions happen at our weekly meetings or in Discord, and anything proposed for consensus is announced at least a week in advance so everyone has time to weigh in. Members who can’t attend — or who’d rather block anonymously — can do so by proxy.

Disputes

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• Try to resolve it directly first
• Contact a board member if that doesn’t work
• Formal mediation is available
• The board’s decision is final

Membership

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See the Membership page for tiers, dues, and payment, and Join to apply. Voting rights and responsibilities scale with your membership.

Violations

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• First offense: warning
• Second offense: suspension review
• Serious violations: immediate suspension
• An appeals process is available

Emergency procedures

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Insurance & liability

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• Members must sign a waiver
• Equipment is used at your own risk
• Space liability coverage: TBD
• Report all incidents, no matter how small

Amendments

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These rules may be amended as the space grows. Members will be notified of any changes.