Adafruit’s “Be Excellent” Policy – How, why, and when we’ll ask a customer to seek another supplier for their needs

Our community is important to all of us at Adafruit. Our “Be Excellent” policy applies to all members: This includes employees, customers, educators, makers, content creators, and more. It applies to all interactions that affect the community we have all built together: commenting on our web pages, posting in forums, and treatment of our support staff. Together, we love celebrating the awesome work the community does, and we appreciate the kind words and support we give to each other!

We hold ourselves and our community members to a high standard of excellence. Each member is valuable to us and we are dedicated to maintaining a positive space where people can engage, learn, and share their work. Overwhelmingly, our members are respectful and awesome; their kindness and coolness is precious and inspiring. And — it’s worth protecting.

Once in a while, we do encounter someone who has decided to cause problems, is not reasonable, or chooses not to be solutions-oriented. If a customer curses, uses abusive language, refuses to work with our engineers in the forums, cannot work together positively with other members, or otherwise ignores the “Be Excellent” code of conduct, we will suggest the customer seek another supplier for future purchases. When appropriate, we may choose to ban the former customer from making future purchases or engaging with our community. If a user continues to behave in violation of this policy, especially after warning them, we may choose to block that user on our site or any social media property we manage.We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable. These cases are rare, but we believe this is an important step to take to ensure the safety of our employees, other customers, and all other wonderful members of our community.

Adafruit wouldn’t be Adafruit without our community. This is why we are committed to keeping it a positive and respectful space, devoid of profane, harassing, offensive, or inappropriate language (or actions) and negativity in general. We invite you to use our commenting platform(s) to engage in insightful and inspiring conversations.We want to make sure we’re focusing on the excellent users who make the Adafruit Community such a positive space on the web.

What we expect of our community members:

• Be inclusive: We are committed to a strong and diverse community and will not tolerate exclusion, discrimination, or intolerance. Any conduct or speech that might be considered sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory will not be tolerated. Do not intimidate or harass others.
• Be respectful: You may not always agree with us or other community members, but that is no excuse for disrespectful behavior. Please channel disagreement and frustration into creating positive results and refrain from personal attacks. Respect differences of opinion.
• Be patient: Not everyone in our community has the same experience or knowledge. Be understanding of where other members are at and be patient with the learning approaches of others.
• Communicate carefully: Not everyone in our community starts from the same language experiences. Effective communication will help avoid misunderstandings. Ask questions and don’t make assumptions about others.

If you have any questions about this policy or what we expect of community members, or any feedback on how we might make it better, please contact us at [email protected].