Code of conduct
This is a place where people ask about analysing brain recordings. Most of them are stuck, and some of them are asking a question they think is stupid. The rules below exist so that both feel safe here.
What is expected
- Assume the question is honest. Someone asking how to high-pass filter is not wasting your time; they are at a different point on the same path you walked.
- Answer the question that was asked. If you think the approach is wrong, say so, but answer first. "Why are you doing that?" as a complete reply is not help.
- Show your work. An answer with the parameters, the version and the reasoning is worth ten that say "just use CAR".
- Say when you are unsure. Confident wrong answers cost people days. "I think, but check it" is a complete and respectable sentence.
- Correct yourself in public. If you gave bad advice, say so on the thread. Someone will read it later.
What is not acceptable
- Harassment, insults, or comments about someone's background rather than their argument. This covers gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sexuality and age.
- Condescension towards beginners. "Read the manual" without saying which part is a way of feeling superior, not of helping.
- Posting someone's private information, or private clinical data. This one is not merely rude: recordings from patients do not belong on a public forum, ever, under any de-identification you believe you applied.
- Spam, undisclosed promotion, and publishing extensions that do something other than what they say.
- Deliberately bad advice, or advice you know to be unsafe for clinical work.
On clinical data
Do not attach recordings from patients. Not a trace, not a screenshot with channel labels, not "just one epoch to show the artefact". If you need to show a problem, reproduce it on one of the public example datasets or describe it.
This is stated separately because it is the rule most often broken with good intentions, by people trying to give enough detail to be helped.
What happens
Moderation is done by hand, by people, and it is not a court. In rough order:
| First | A reply on the thread asking you to change something. Most things end here. |
|---|---|
| Then | The post is hidden, with a reason sent to you. |
| Then | A temporary suspension, typically a week. |
| Finally | A permanent one. Rare, and only for harassment, posting private data, or repeated bad faith. |
Posting patient data skips straight to removal of the post, immediately, without waiting for a discussion about whether it was really identifiable.
Reporting something
Every thread and every marketplace entry has a report action. It goes to the moderation queue with your name attached, so that reports themselves can be accountable. If you would rather not report publicly, write on the forum to a moderator directly.
If a moderator is the problem, say so publicly. A small project has no appeals committee, and the only real check is that it happens in the open.
Where this applies
The forum, the marketplace including descriptions and reviews, and any Signal Studio space elsewhere. It does not extend to what you do in unrelated places, unless it is directed at someone here.
Who wrote this
NeuraCrypt, for a project that is small enough that the rules can still be short. If something here reads as unfair or as missing, say so on the forum. It is a document, not a monument.