Note: these values and guidelines / code of conduct reflect us as a community. As the community grows and develops, these may evolve alongside us. If you have comments, feel free to post them below
Community Values & Guidelines
Welcome to the Restarters Community, a space for anyone interested in repairing electronics in their community, reducing e-waste and learning more about the devices we use. This forum is run by The Restart Project as part of our work to promote community repair and fix our relationship with electronics.
Anyone is welcome to join, whether you’re experienced in electronics repair, wanting to learn, keen to run repair events in your local area or are just interested in finding out more. When getting involved in our network, we ask everyone to respect our community values by following the code of conduct below.
We are social
Everything starts with people and what we can achieve together. The Restarters community is designed to connect people and spark online conversation and offline activity. Talk about what you care about, share your passions and don’t be afraid to join the conversation.
We are radically open and actively inclusive
We’re a diverse bunch from all walks of life and with different life experiences. We welcome all people willing to be radically open: of all appearances, genders, sexualities, nationalities, abilities, backgrounds and political leanings. We are an actively open community, meaning we need to go the extra mile to help traditionally excluded people feel welcome - this is why we have skillshares for women and non-binary people.
We take time to get to know each other and consider how others may think and feel, and how comments or actions may be perceived in a diverse community. We all make mistakes or assumptions about others, no matter how open we think we are, but please consider the potential impact of your posts on the people around you. When people express discomfort or raise an issue, listen carefully first before reacting.
Even if you disagree with something, take the lead from professional critics: they foster healthy conversation and debate without ever attacking people personally. Think about that when responding to others, and ask yourself the question: would I say it to their face?
We are friendly
Both online and offline community repair spaces are, well…unusual and potentially outside people’s comfort zone. It’s really important that we make people who join our forum or come to Restart Parties feel welcome straight away so that we don’t loss them before they’ve gotten started. You can put people at easy in really simple ways: acknowledging their presence (saying hi), letting them know how it works (what do they need to do next, what can they expect), offering them a ‘way-in’ (a cup of tea, a place to wait, a way to contribute).
We are hands-on
Anyone can become a resilient user of tech with practice. We’re not just an online community, but on the ground too. If you’re keen to learn about your electronics, ask questions and come along to events (or organise your own). If you have repair skills, share them both online and offline; you may be able to answer someone else’s burning question and make the community a richer place in the process. If you have tools or equipment to share, you can offer it out in our offers and requests category.
We do-it-together
Restart Parties are learning events. We follow the ‘teach a person to fish’ mantra. Rather than fixing electronics for people we offer the guidance and help required for them to do it with us. Thus the frustrated owner of a broken device becomes an active participant in the problem-solving and repair. This experience is not only informative on a technical level but can be truly transformative in terms of what they do the next time something breaks. So, as much as possible we put tools in participants own hands. We also explain whats happening every step of the way. Participants need to understand the process and potential outcomes as you go along so they can make decisions about whether/how to proceed - after all it’s their device and they have at the final say.
We have fun
Taking back control of what we own simply feels good and is quite fun. We welcome anything that promotes a spirit of fun, as long as it doesn’t hurt other people. Please, no blonde jokes or any words or images that come at the expense of others. Be sensitive to other users around you, and, in general, don’t post sexual or violent material. Those things kill conversations, just like in real life.
We are system-changing
Our inspirations are global and our impact can be too. Our individual and local efforts all add up and allow us to focus on the big picture stuff. We’re always interested in talking about global issues around electronics and repair, such as the #RightToRepair, obsolescence (planned or otherwise), e-waste and so on. What’s more, we also run community repair events and collect data we can use to take action. Everyone is encouraged to get involved in these events and use this space to organise them.
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