Practical AI — Code of Conduct - Damian Galarza | Software Engineering & AI Consulting

Practical AI is a private Slack community for builders putting AI into real work. This Code of Conduct describes how we participate. By joining, you agree to follow it.

The short version

Be a builder. Be respectful. Don’t sell, recruit, or spam. Respect privacy. Resolve disputes peacefully when you can; bring them to an administrator when you can’t.

If you violate this Code of Conduct, you’ll be told. You may be asked to leave.

Respect

This is a small, curated community. Treat every member like a peer.

Respectful behavior includes:

Being considerate, kind, constructive, and helpful.
Avoiding demeaning, discriminatory, harassing, hateful, or threatening behavior, speech, or imagery.
Giving due regard to the feelings, perspectives, and traditions of others.

The community welcomes everyone regardless of gender or gender identity (including transgender status), sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), political affiliation, role, or career path.

If you’re unsure whether something is respectful, ask the source rather than assuming. If you don’t get clarity, DM an administrator.

If you see disrespectful behavior, role-model the response. Don’t just be a bystander. Help keep the room what it’s supposed to be.

Disrespectful behavior outside this community by active members may also be considered a violation of this Code of Conduct.

Privacy and attribution

This community is not a public space, but no one has signed an NDA. Don’t presume anything you say here will stay private. Act accordingly.

We use a modified Chatham House Rule:

You may use information shared in the Slack outside the community.
You may not reveal who said it without their explicit permission.
This applies equally to LLM submission, AI training data, public quotes, blog posts, and social media.

For direct attribution of a member’s specific words, ask first. If they don’t reply promptly, attribute to “a member of Practical AI” or omit the source.

Newsletter attribution opt-in: By joining, you’re OK with Damian referencing posts in the Practical AI newsletter with first-name attribution only (e.g. “Sarah noted that…”). Direct quotes will always be checked with you first. Opt out anytime by DMing Damian.

Sharing content from DMs or private channels without permission is a violation of this Code of Conduct.

Not a marketing channel

This community is hyper-allergic to commercial behavior. If you join to take rather than contribute, the community will notice quickly.

Prohibited:

Recruiting, lead generation, sales, marketing solicitation, market research without explicit permission.
Self-promotional posts that read like ads, clickbait, or LinkedIn brand-builder content.
Cold DMs with commercial intent — to anyone, ever.
Using member contact info gathered here for outreach outside the community.
Aggressive cross-posting or message spamming (cause for automatic removal).

Allowed:

Sharing what you’ve built or shipped — in #show-and-tell, with substance, as part of the conversation.
Linking a blog post or video that’s genuinely useful to the community.
Quietly mentioning a service or product when a member asks for it specifically.

If you’re unsure whether something is commercial, ask before posting. The bar gets stricter as the community grows.

DM etiquette

A DM is a private message. Before sending one to someone you haven’t already talked to, ask:

Is it obvious to them why I’m reaching out privately?
Could this be read as unsolicited?
Have I given them context (e.g. an earlier public post they engaged with)?

Unsolicited DMs — especially with commercial intent — are a Code of Conduct violation.

AI agents and bots

This is a community about applied AI, so it’s worth being explicit:

Envoy (Damian’s agent) is part of the community. She runs rituals, surfaces resources, and reacts in threads. She’s transparent about being an AI.
Misrepresenting an AI as a human is a violation. Don’t sock-puppet, don’t use AI-operated personas to pretend to be you.
AI-generated participation is fine if you’re clearly the human in the loop. Posting an LLM’s response as if it were yours is not.

Read the room

Channels have different purposes. Topics and pinned canvases are there for a reason — read them before posting. If you post something and the room tells you it doesn’t fit, listen.

Specific guidance:

#general — community chat, announcements. Read the pinned Start Here canvas first.
#introductions — your first stop. One paragraph is plenty.
#show-and-tell — process and shipping. Read the pinned canvas. Friday Ship Thread runs here weekly.
#applied-ai, #ai-dev-tools, #local-llm — topic-specific. Stay roughly on-topic.
#resources — links worth sharing, with a one-line take on why.

Cross-posting the same message to multiple channels is spamming. Pick the right channel.

Resolve peacefully

If you see someone violating this Code of Conduct, try to address it directly and respectfully first. Most issues resolve at the peer level when raised honestly.

If you can’t resolve it — or you’re the one being harmed — bring it to an administrator. We’ll listen and act.

If you catch yourself in the wrong: listen, own it, apologize, and move on. Everyone makes mistakes. The point is what you do next.

Don’t be a troll

Don’t post inflammatory or off-topic content to provoke reactions. Don’t normalize tangential drama. If you’re not sure whether you’re trolling, you probably are — pause and reconsider.

Administrators may delete messages that violate this Code of Conduct. Authors will be notified and given a chance to fix the message themselves first, except in cases involving harassment, spam, or content that needs to come down immediately.

Administrators

Practical AI is administered by Damian Galarza along with a small group of trusted members. Administrators are visible in the Slack workspace via Slack’s native admin badge, or you can ask in #general.

Administrators serve at Damian’s invitation. The role exists to enforce this Code of Conduct, support new members, and keep the community healthy — not to set strategic direction.

Enforcement

Administrators respond to reports within a reasonable window, usually 24–48 hours.

When a violation is reported or noticed:

An administrator reviews the situation and contacts the involved members privately.
Where appropriate, the member is asked to modify or delete the message.
Repeat or severe violations may result in removal from the community.

Removal decisions are not negotiated publicly. Outcomes are shared only with the involved members.

Reporting

To report a Code of Conduct concern:

DM any administrator in the Slack workspace. This is the fastest path.
Email [email protected] if you’d rather not use Slack.

Reports are kept confidential. Administrators will not identify the reporter to the subject of the report unless you give explicit permission.

Changes to this document

This Code of Conduct will evolve as the community grows. Material changes will be announced in #general with a summary of what changed and why.

Suggestions are welcome — DM an administrator or post in #general.

Acknowledgments

This Code of Conduct is heavily inspired by the Rands Leadership Slack Code of Conduct, which is itself derived from the IndieWebCamp Code of Conduct. Both are released under CC0.

This document is released under the CC0 public domain license.