Numenta, Inc. Code of Conduct

Numenta is committed to creating a free, unrestricted developer community where participants from around the world can share experiments and HTM-related code, and discuss the technology.

In order to ensure a positive experience for all participants we require that you follow our Code of Conduct. We expect everyone to show common courtesy and respect for all participants. Use of our forums and wiki constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Code of Conduct. Profanity, harassment, insults, spamming or other inappropriate behavior is unacceptable. Posts that violate our Code of Conduct will be removed. We reserve the right to terminate all accounts belonging to you without prior notice for repeated violations of our Code of Conduct. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

Please take the time review additional tips and conduct rules in our various forums and wiki pages and the Numenta Terms of Service.

Help us create a strong, productive developer community. The rules are simple and easy to follow if your intention is to learn about and share ideas on HTM technology.

  1. Create a friendly and collaborative atmosphere
  2. Keep it legal
  3. Respect copyright and fair use
  4. Keep posts and urls relevant
  5. Own your own feedback
  6. Protect privacy
  7. Protect your computer system

Create a friendly collaborative atmosphere.

Help us attract and recognize smart people who can further expand the possibilities of HTM technology. Be welcoming and open to all users. Be thoughtful and accurate in your posts, and be respectful of how other participants may be affected.

Most people take pride in their work and their point of view. Egos can easily get hurt in editing, but forums and pages are not a place for striking back. If someone disagrees with you, try to understand why, and take the time to provide good reasons why you think your way is better.

Regardless of whether you are writing your own wiki page or forum posting, or responding to an existing post, please be polite. Do not use profanity, religious overtones, or be insulting in any way. If you are uncertain as to whether your response is polite or not, please rewrite it and have it checked by an associate. Do not flame, or respond to flames. Don't argue. Don't use ethnic/racial slurs, personal insults, obscenity, harassments, abusive language, etc., and show proper consideration for others' privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory -- such as sexual orientation, politics and religion. Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don't alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.

Remember that written text can be ambiguous, and may often seem ruder than if the same words were spoken. Irony isn't always obvious, so be careful of the words you choose, as your intended meaning might not be what others perceive. Please re-read your text. If it seems remotely rude, write it again.

Don't call others racist, sexist or use terms like poorly written or amateurish. These comments make people defensive and make it difficult to discuss the experiments productively. If you have to criticize something, do so in a polite and constructive manner.

Give praise when due. Everybody likes to feel appreciated, especially in an environment like this, where they often go out on a limb. Recognize and praise work that is detailed, factual, well informed, and well referenced. We all benefit from this kind of work.

Keep It Legal

You are responsible and liable for all your actions while using Numenta's communication tools. We do not allow libelous or slanderous statements on our website. If we feel that a post puts us in a precarious position, we'll remove it.

Do not attempt to distribute or discuss Warez, ROMs, CD keys, CD key generators, cracks or any other illegal software or counterfeit merchandise. This includes the provision of links to source websites and/or file transfer software or download locations for the obtaining of this material.

Respect copyright and fair use laws

For your own protection, you must show proper respect for the laws governing copyright and fair use of copyrighted material owned by others, including your own copyrights and brands.

You should never quote more than short excerpts of someone else's work. And it is good general practice to link to others' work.

Be sure to adequately credit whitepapers, previous research, and websites, in a reference section on your wiki page or forum post. Provide enough information to credit the author, such as:

  1. Author's last name, first name (or name of webmaster, if no author name is available)
  2. Date of document creation (or last update of site if this is not available)
  3. "Title of work"
  4. Title of complete work
  5. Date of message or visit (only for websites)
  6. URL

Example:
Hawkins, Jeff & Blakeslee, Sandra. (2004) "On Intelligence", Times Books. http://www.onintelligence.org.

Remember to give yourself credit. At a minimum, you should sign and date your posts.

Keep Posts and URLs Relevant

Encourage responsible use of the forum and wiki and discourage activities that disrupt our community and reduce the value of our services to our users. Do not post or transmit advertisements or commercial solicitations of any kind. Do spam the forums with information, links, or banter not related to Numenta or HTM-related technologies. This is not the place for personal discussions; we expect people to discuss HTM-related technologies only.

Only include suitable URLs that add value and interest to the subject of your posts. The Numenta web moderator will remove links to websites we consider unsuitable. Unsuitable sites would include those with racist material, pornographic or sexually explicit material, potentially defamatory material, anything that encourages illegal activities, material that infringes copyright, sites that purely plug or promote commercial products or services without containing material that enhances the subject matter, or any sites that may offend our users.

We encourage you to share and discuss new HTM-related technology (trained network, a new plug-in, or other application) that you have developed for the purposes of learning and feedback. Excessive advertising or promotion of your HTM-related solution is not appropriate and will be removed by the moderator.

You own your feedback

Once you've posted an entry, you are the owner of it and of responding to any feedback it may garner. Responses need to follow the same guidelines as any posting does.

Be the first to respond to your own mistakes. If you make an error, be up front about your mistake and correct it quickly. If you choose to modify an earlier post, make it clear that you have done so.

In responding to feedback, be specific and make it clear what you are responding to. Quoting a post is OK, but paraphrasing it or stating how you interpreted it is better. Before respond, take time to really understand the feedback and concede that there might be more than one point of view on the topic.

Protect privacy

We caution you against giving out your personal information (such as full names, phone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers and others) to strangers online, as they may be used for illegal or harmful purposes.

Please respect the privacy of others, even those you know personally. Do not give out their specific contact information.

Protect your computer system

You are responsible for protecting your own computer system. We allow our users to post code onto the site, and although we do our best to ensure that there are no viruses, we recommend you install virus protection software.