Code of Conduct

Community Guidelines: Online

Follow, fund and support what you like, don't worry about what you don't! (Unless it's offensive or discriminatory, see more about that below.)

Be cool!

Our goal is to build a truly independent film community. That means the actions of one reflect on us all. You've come here to support movies and independent creators. So, be supportive! Don't use obscene, hateful or harassing language. This community is a safe space for everyone regardless of any status, race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation or military/veteran status.

Use your real name.

Your account should be built using your real name — whatever name you use to operate in the world should be the name you use to send and receive messages on Seed&Spark.

Healthy debate only.

We are open to healthy debate, but this place is for making movies and expanding the imagination, so there shouldn't be any reason for it to get nasty. Debate the relative merits of a shot or methods for effectively increasing representation and inclusion. We're not debating if lack of representation is because "that's not what people want to buy." Cool?

Do no harm.

Creators in particular are expected to do the research required to ensure their projects and presence on the site are not perpetuating harm to any segment of the community. (Especially if you're telling a story that is not your own.) We may decline to host a project or block a user's profile if we believe their presence may cause harm.

Don't spam.

Please don't SPAM — not for your project or anyone else's. You know when you're spamming versus sending thoughtful messages to connect with people who are likely to share your interest. Nobody likes spam. (Except as musubi or french fries, let's be honest.)

If someone sends you a spammy or abusive message, you can flag them, which will immediately stop their messages from appearing in your inbox. If you notice any behavior on the site that you think we need to know about, please contact us with details.

Don't steal.

Messaging within Seed&Spark is meant to be just that — in-site messaging. Posting messages from Seed&Spark on other platforms for the purposes of mocking or making fun will result in losing your account privileges. If you'd like to post or quote, check with the person who sent you the message!

Community Guidelines: In-Person Events

Seed&Spark is committed to providing a welcoming and harassment-free environment for participants of all races, gender and trans statuses, sexual orientations, physical abilities, physical appearances, beliefs, and beyond. Our goal is to cultivate respectful and equitable community spaces — wherever we gather.

This isn't an exhaustive list of everything you can and can't do — rather, it's a set of guidelines to promote the sort of behavior that will make Seed&Spark events a safe and enriching experience for all participants.

If you are attending a Seed&Spark event, even if it's hosted by another organization, you agree to:

Be considerate and kind in speech and actions, and actively seek to acknowledge and respect the boundaries of other attendees. Everyone is the expert of their own experience!

Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech. These include, but are not limited to: deliberate intimidation; stalking; unwanted photography or recording; sustained or willful disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; unwelcome sexual attention; and use of sexual or discriminatory imagery, comments, or jokes. As such, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, and other discriminatory language or actions will not be tolerated. If you feel that someone has harassed you or otherwise treated you inappropriately, please alert any member of the conference team.

Take care of each other. Alert a member of the conference team if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this code of conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

If any attendee engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any lawful action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to warning the offender or asking the offender to leave the conference. (If you feel you have been unfairly accused of violating this code of conduct, you should contact the conference team with a concise description of your grievance; any grievances filed will be considered by appropriate members of the Seed&Spark team.)

We welcome your feedback on this, and we thank you for working with us to make it a safe, enjoyable, and friendly experience for everyone who participates.

All due credit to PWL Camp, ORD Camp and the Django Project, upon whose codes of conduct this is very much based. By extension, credit to SRCCON's Code of Conduct, Citizen Code of Conduct, and Theorizing the Web code of conduct "from which [ORD Camp has] extensively borrowed." General thanks to the Ada Initiative's "how to design a code of conduct for your community."

ORD Camp's version of the above text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

AI Policies

This document is a set of guidelines for use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-related tools on Seed&Spark's crowdfunding platform and also for Seed&Spark's internal team. Both our internal and external policies about AI are designed to create transparency, good governance and risk management around an emerging field of technology already creating massive impact across creative businesses and the world. We publish our internal policy to the public so that our community can see that we hold ourselves accountable to the same policies and standards internally that we ask for on our platform.

For Creators and Platform Users

1. We deeply support uses of technology to expand accessibility and inclusion, and follow the lead of organizations like the American Foundation for the Blind and their Guiding Principles for More Disability-Inclusive AI.
2. On our platform, humans are always accountable for the accuracy, fairness and risk management of their work output, including when that work has been made in part or entirely by AI.
3. AI systems used for any work output shared on Seed&Spark's platform should be reliable and safe, with clear precautions taken to protect all participants and contributors, any associated IP, the identity of team members and backers and all other data we are collectively bound to keep secure by our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Special attention should be paid to the SAG-AFTRA regulations on AI when working with actors.
4. All use of AI for work products (any part of a crowdfunding campaign text or video) should be disclosed. If you are asking the community to support your creative project, they should know if/how/how much AI was used to generate that work product. For example, "For this campaign, AI was used to generate x copy and y images, for the following reasons:..." This is intended to allow the reader/receiver of materials to assess the text and images with full context. See the Mr Jesus case study as an example.
5. We strongly recommend that all AI-produced materials must be reviewed and/or tested line-by-line by a human expert before put into use or production.
6. If you are evaluating an AI product to use for any output posted on Seed&Spark, we strongly recommend considering the environmental impact, the social impact and the IP rights of the training material in your evaluation. Ultimately the decision (and the accountability) must be made by the project owner. Since the use of AI in copyrighted materials is an evolving legal landscape, we recommend that all decision-making around the use of AI should be clearly documented.
7. Seed&Spark's promise to our broader community is to be a force for human creativity and creator sustainability. As such, we recommend that AI should only be considered when improving outcomes, double checking work, as a text editing tool, and where appropriate to be used for accelerating timelines or increasing capacity. It may augment but should not replace human inputs on creative outputs, customer service or creator success.
8. We will regularly review our AI uses and policy to reflect technological advancements, evolving legal landscapes, and new ethical considerations.

For Seed&Spark Team and Contractors

1. The use of AI for work products will not be compelled or required at any time.
2. Humans are always accountable for the accuracy, fairness and risk management of their work output, including when that work has been made in part or entirely by AI.
3. AI systems we use should be reliable and safe, with clear precautions taken to protect our internal stakeholders, our IP, the identity of our team and customers and all other data we are bound to keep secure by our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
4. All use of AI for work products (presentations, documents) should be disclosed to other stakeholders in the company. If someone is being asked to review a work product, they should know if/how/how much AI was used to generate that work product. For example, "For this presentation, AI was used to generate x copy and y images, for the following reasons:..." This is intended to allow the reader/receiver of materials to assess the text and images with full context.
5. AI-produced materials must be reviewed and/or tested line-by-line by a human expert before put into use or production. This applies to code, documentation, decks and any other work products we use internally or that we produce for our customers.
6. If we are evaluating an AI product to use for any of our work at Seed&Spark, we should always consider the environmental impact, the social impact and the IP rights of the training material in our evaluation. Ultimately the decision must be made by the manager who has oversight over the work product but with meaningful consultation of the internal stakeholders. All decision-making around the use of AI should be clearly documented and available to all impacted stakeholders. That documentation should include: the use case, why AI was selected as the solution, an assessment of risk to the business (low, medium, high), and how it will be audited regularly for efficacy/risk.
7. AI should only be considered when improving outcomes, expanding accessibility, double checking work, as an editing tool, and where appropriate to be used for accelerating timelines or increasing our capacity. It may augment but should not replace human inputs on creative outputs, customer service or creator success.
8. AI will never make decisions about HR in our workplace - hiring, firing, advancing candidates through onboarding etc. We adhere to our employee handbook and our hiring and off-boarding practices. Human leaders must make all HR related decisions.
9. If we decide to adopt AI for certain work products, the relevant stakeholders will be provided appropriate training to ensure careful use and deployment.
10. We will regularly review our AI uses and policy to reflect technological advancements, evolving legal landscapes, and new ethical considerations.