The Composr CMS Constitution

(WORK IN PROGRESS)

We, the members of the Composr CMS community, in order to establish the rights, responsibilities, and governance of Composr CMS, its Board members, its core developers, and its community, hereby ordain and establish this Constitution for Composr CMS.

Article I - Rights and Privileges

Section I

All members of the Composr CMS community shall be granted these rights:

• the right to download and use the Composr CMS software free of charge, subject to the license agreement of Composr CMS;
• the right to view and modify the full source code of Composr CMS, subject to the license agreement of Composr CMS; and
• the right to fork the Composr CMS project, subject to the license agreement of Composr CMS.

These rights shall not be infringed.

Section II

All members of the Composr CMS community shall be granted these privileges, which may be revoked if abused:

• the privilege to collaborate on the official Composr CMS website (composr.app), including but not limited to receiving support from others, discussing ideas, voting on decisions for the community, sharing personal customizations / addons / themes, improving documentation, and offering professional development services which directly relate to Composr CMS; this is subject to following the rules of the site;
• the privilege to report bugs, features, and suggestions to the official tracker (https://composr.app/tracker/);
• the privilege to submit merge requests to the official Composr CMS GitLab (https://gitlab.com/composr-foundation/composr) implementing new features or fixing bugs which have been reported on the official tracker (https://composr.app/tracker/); the merge requests are subject to Composr's Coding Standards as documented in the tutorials; and
• the privilege to vote on changes to Composr legislation and direction as explained in Article III.

Article II - Responsibilities

Section I

All members of the Composr CMS community, including members of the Board, shall acknowledge and adhere to their responsibility...

• to contribute to the Composr ecosystem, if they can, in any way(s) they can, when using the software;
• to refrain from using profanity and derogatory language;
• to refrain from violent, sexual, bigoted, and prejudiced content;
• to acknowledge that the right to free speech does not apply to the Composr community;
• to respect everyone and refrain from intimidation or spoiling the enjoyment of others;
• to refrain from double-posting (and to instead edit their most recent post to include any information they may have missed);
• to refrain from 'bumping' a topic unless a reply has not been posted for 7 or more days;
• to refrain from posting spam;
• to only advertise, in moderation, products or services directly relating to Composr CMS;
• to keep all topics on-point and to post in the relevant locations;
• to communicate in their native, fluent language;
• to act genuine and to refrain from impersonating someone they are not;
• to refrain from uploading any viruses, malware, spyware, trojans, ransomware, rootkits, or anything which could jeopardise the security or integrity of the platform;
• to refrain from (including attempts to) hacking or otherwise jeopardising the security, stability, or availability of the Composr platform;
• to refrain from sharing any personally identifiable information about others;
• to act lawfully and refrain from (including encouraging) criminal activity in accordance with U.S. Law and the Laws of the State of Virginia;
• to acknowledge that the Composr software is free to download as-is and without warranty, and that no one is entitled to free support;
• to scan their own content for viruses before uploading anything to the Composr platform; and
• to hold themselves personally liable for any violations of copyright or intellectual property laws.

Section II

The members of the Board and the moderators acknowledge their responsibility to enforce the Constitution in the Composr community within reason. They acknowledge their responsibility to uphold the safety, security, integrity, and enjoyment of the Composr platform while avoiding unnecessary use of discipline where mediation would have likely sufficed.

The members of the Board and the moderators acknowledge their responsibility to use the moderation and/or administrative tools available to them responsibly. They shall not use these tools with malicious intent and shall only use these tools for the purpose of fulfilling their duties (e.g. taking action on a likely violation of the Constitution).

The members of the Board, the moderators, and the core developers acknowledge their responsibility to foster community support by limiting the amount of free support they offer themselves and encouraging others to contribute towards one's questions and concerns. They acknowledge that, despite Composr being free and open source, no one has a right to free support and especially to free work. When a member's inquiry would require substantial intervention or time by a Board member / core developer, it is encouraged to direct them to an appropriate person-for-hire or to offer their own paid service.

Section III

All members acknowledge that the members of the Board and/or the moderators of the Composr community may enforce these responsibilities and the Constitution as a whole at their discretion with whatever punitive actions they deem reasonable.

All members acknowledge the members of the Board and/or the moderators may intervene at any time when they deem it necessary to maintain a level of quality and enjoyment within the Composr community.

All members acknowledge the members of the Board may read/access private content, including Private Topics, at any time, for the purpose of investigating a likely violation of the Constitution.

Article III - Governance

Section I

All legislation within the Composr community shall follow the core principles of a democracy.

Section II

Legislation shall be guided by the Composr Board, who may draft decisions and guide the direction in which the Composr community shall take. The members of the Board alone may not put into effect any legislation or decision that will consequently alter the Composr Constitution, its Bylaws, or the members of the Board without completing an official vote from the members and satisfying the necessary requirements as defined in section VI for ratifying a motion.

Section III

All members within the Composr community who have established an account on the official website (composr.app) are to be granted voting power. Voting power is defined as the amount of weight the member has on a weighted poll, particularly polls to vote on changes on Composr legislation. A member shall be granted more voting power the more points they have earned since registering a composr.app account (life-time points). A member has a voting power equal to the following formula:

A member's life-time points ^ (1 / 3) [the cube root of a member’s life-time points]

For example, if a member's voting power is 3.5, then their vote on a weighted poll has the influence of 3.5 votes.

Section IV

Where a Board member wishes to introduce a change, addition, or removal in legislation, or where multiple members of the community wish to nominate a member for the Board or remove a member from the Board, a vote on that motion shall be conducted.

Votes shall be conducted as topics with a weighted poll in the (TODO: link) forum. Each topic shall include a weighted poll where members can vote on the measure. The first post in each topic shall clearly and concisely explain the measure on which members are voting. And the poll options shall reflect the measure. All details necessary for the measure are to be included in the first post; anything that was not included shall be deemed not a part of the measure to be voted on. Neither the first post nor the poll options shall express any language that would reasonably suggest bias or persuade members towards any particular option. Members of the Board shall refrain from including any of their own biases in discussing the measure throughout the composr.app site unless explicitly requested by a member, but may respond to questions or concerns posted by members, including requests to disclose potential pros, cons, and risks of each option.

There shall be no more than three distinct poll options and no less than two distinct options. Members should not be allowed to vote on all options, but may be allowed to vote for 2 options on a 3-option poll. Votes and their results shall be kept hidden until voting closes. The ability to forfeit a vote to see the results shall be denied. The ability to change one's vote after having already voted shall be denied. And only website members (not Guests) shall be allowed to vote.

The member of the Board initiating the vote / measure shall abstain from voting on the measure. Additionally, if a measure involves any Board members (such as the removal of a Board member), the involved Board members shall also abstain from voting on the measure. However, other Board members may vote on it barring they refrain from discussing the matter internally (but rather discussing it publicly on the topic) and therefore potentially introducing a Conflict of Interest among Board members.

The initial post and poll shall not be edited in any way, shape, or form, once voting has officially been opened. If an error is later discovered, the vote shall be closed and re-opened in a new topic / measure. Arbitrary errors shall not be 'discovered' with the intent on disrupting the voting process. The voting period shall last exactly 30 days from the time voting has been opened.

The members of the Board shall send out a newsletter to all members informing them of the measure being up for vote within no more than 7 days after the vote has been opened. The measure may be included in an aggregate newsletter with other measures, news, or content, providing it is in a prominent position.

Section V

Once voting has closed, the Board member shall reveal the results publicly to the community by editing the poll and setting its results to public. The measure, or similar measures, shall not be proposed for a re-vote or opened again for at least 3 months following the closing of the votes.

Section VI

A measure must meet all of the following criteria for it to be ratified:

• At least 10% of the active (within the last month) member base on composr.app placed a vote on the poll, or 5 members, whichever is greatest.
• Regardless of the number of options, a simple majority of 51% is needed on one option, except for constitutional amendments (excluding Article II Section I) which require a supermajority (67%) on one option.