Hackathon Code of Conduct

1. Who it applies to

This code applies to everyone involved in an event, in any role:

• Participants and their teams
• Organizers, volunteers and staff
• Judges, mentors and speakers
• Sponsors, recruiters and their representatives
• Guests, press and anyone else present

It applies in every space the event uses:

• The venue, including hallways, sleeping areas, meals and transport the event provides
• Online spaces such as Discord, Slack, video calls, live streams and shared documents
• Social media and messages, when they concern the event or people at it
• Project submissions, demos, pitches and anything else published as part of the event
• Social events connected to the hackathon, before, during and after the main dates

2. What we expect

• Be welcoming. Many people are at their first hackathon. Make room for them.
• Be respectful. Disagree with ideas, not with people. Keep criticism specific and kind.
• Assume good intent, and accept that impact matters more than intent when something lands badly.
• Respect people’s boundaries, time, belongings and work. Ask before touching, photographing or recording someone.
• Use the names and pronouns people give you.
• Look after yourself and each other. Eat, sleep and drink water. Say something if someone looks unwell.
• Follow the event’s rules and the instructions of its organizers and venue staff.
• Represent your work honestly: what you built, when you built it, and who built it with you.

3. What is not acceptable

Harassment of any kind is not tolerated. Harassment includes, and is not limited to:

• Offensive or demeaning comments related to gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, caste, pregnancy or parental status, socioeconomic status, or level of experience
• Sexual language, imagery or jokes in any event space, including in slides, demos and project content
• Unwelcome sexual attention, advances or physical contact, and simulated physical contact without consent
• Deliberate intimidation, threats of violence, or incitement of violence against anyone
• Stalking or following someone, in person or online
• Photographing or recording someone after they have asked you not to
• Sustained disruption of talks, judging, demos or other event activity
• Publishing someone’s private information, such as a physical address or a non-public email, without their permission
• Repeated one-on-one contact after a request to stop
• Deliberately misgendering or using a name someone has asked you not to use
• Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above

Beyond harassment, the following are also breaches of this code:

• Discrimination in who gets help, feedback, mentoring, resources or prizes
• Theft, vandalism or tampering with the venue, equipment, networks or other people’s work
• Spam, scams, unsolicited recruiting or advertising in event spaces, unless the organizer has agreed to it
• Cheating in the competition, including passing off work started before the event as built during it, or submitting work that is not your team’s, in breach of the event’s rules
• Retaliating against anyone for reporting a concern, or for helping with an investigation

Sponsors, recruiters and exhibitors are held to this code too. Booth staff and representatives must not use sexualised images, clothing or material, or create a sexualised environment.

4. Online spaces

The same standard applies in chat, video and shared documents as in person. In addition:

• Keep channels on topic and do not flood them. Use the channels the organizer sets up for help, teams and announcements.
• Do not share screenshots, recordings or messages from private channels or direct messages without consent.
• Do not organize or take part in brigading, mass reporting or pile-ons, inside or outside the event’s spaces.
• Treat the event’s online spaces as public: assume anything you post can be seen by everyone taking part.

5. If you are asked to stop

If someone asks you to stop a behaviour, stop immediately. You do not have to agree that it was a problem. If an organizer asks you to leave a space, do so without argument. You can raise your side with the organizers afterwards.

6. Reporting a problem

If you experience or witness behaviour that breaks this code, or you have any other safety concern, tell the organizers as soon as you can. You can report something that happened to you or to someone else, and you can report after the event has ended.

Every event hosted on HackathonRadar shows an organizer contact on its event page. In person, look for anyone identified as an organizer or volunteer. Online, message an organizer directly rather than posting in a public channel.

When you report, it helps to include:

• What happened, where and when
• Who was involved, as far as you know, and whether anyone else saw it
• Whether the behaviour is ongoing
• What you would like to happen next, if you know

You will not be asked to confront the person, and you will not be penalised for reporting in good faith.

If you cannot safely report to the event’s organizers, for example because the concern is about an organizer, or you have reported and heard nothing back, you can contact HackathonRadar. We will treat what you tell us in confidence and take it up with the organizer, or act ourselves where it concerns our platform.

If anyone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services first.

7. What organizers will do

By linking this code of conduct, an event’s organizers commit to:

• Reading it themselves, and making sure volunteers, judges and sponsors know it applies to them
• Keeping a working contact that is checked throughout the event
• Listening to every report in private, taking it seriously, and keeping the reporter’s identity confidential as far as possible
• Acting proportionately and promptly, and telling the reporter what they decided
• Never retaliating against someone for reporting, and acting if anyone else does
• Prioritising the safety of the person affected over the convenience of the event

8. Consequences

Organizers decide the response to a breach, based on what happened and how serious it is. Responses include:

• A private warning and a request to change the behaviour
• Being asked to leave a session, channel or space
• Removal from the event for its remainder, including online access
• Disqualification of a project or team, and forfeiture of any prize
• Exclusion from the organizer’s future events
• Reporting to the venue, an employer or sponsor, or the police, where appropriate

Organizers can act on their own judgement without a formal report, and can act on behaviour that happened outside the event where it affects people’s safety at it.

HackathonRadar may remove an event from the platform, close an organizer’s account, or exclude a person from events on the platform when this code, or our terms of service, are seriously or repeatedly broken.

9. Using this code at your own event

Organizers creating a hackathon on HackathonRadar get this code of conduct linked automatically, at the version current when the event was created. Participants agree to it when they register, and the event page shows which version applies.

You may link your own code of conduct instead. Replace the link in your event’s People settings, and the event’s code of conduct version moves on so that people who already registered can be asked to agree again.

This document is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You can copy, adapt and host it yourself, with credit to HackathonRadar. It draws on the shared practice of many community codes of conduct, including those of open source projects and technology conferences, and we are grateful to everyone who did that work first.

10. Changes

We will update this code when we learn something that makes it clearer or fairer. Each change gets a new version number and date at the top of this page. Events keep the version they linked until their organizer saves the link again.

• Version 1.0, 24 October 2026: first published.

Questions or suggestions about this code are welcome through our contact page.