Recently I [blogged about some concerns that I have had](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2010/11/05/making-our-world-more-respectful/) about increasing disrespect in the Open Source, Free Software, and Free Culture communities. My blog entry shared some of the work I started on an *OpenRespect Declaration*, but I wasn’t sure if I should publish it.

I did some thinking on this, and reviewed some of the fantastic comments on my blog, and I decided to go ahead and [launch openrespect.org](https://openrespect.org). There I have listed the declaration with a few extra points about:

* the importance of honesty (thanks Jef Spaleta for the suggestion)
* the importance of remembering that people pour their heart and soul into their work

The site is pretty simple, and pretty minimal, so don’t expect a rip-roaring experience there, but it gets over the most important point – the *OpenRespect Declaration*.

In my spare time I plan on adding some additional materials there — tips and suggestions about keeping conversation respectful, and how to deal with disrespectful folks — so if anyone would like to propose some content, just drop me an email.

Before I wrap, I just want to offer a few notes to bear in mind regarding openrespect.org:

* this is not specific to the communities I am part of, but designed to apply to any community.
* this is not a United Nations declaration, it is not necessarily representative of what the entire Open Source and Free Software community, it is representative of what *I* feel is a fair set of guidelines around respect. Don’t like it? No worries, ignore it!
* I don’t plan on turning openrespect.org into a mission; I am too busy and pre-occupied with other things, but I felt I needed to do *something* – this is a start, and I hope can grow the site to be more useful as time goes on.
* this won’t solve all the problems, but it is a start, and if helps *just one* conversation be more respectful, it was was worth the minimal amount of effort that I put into kicking this off. 🙂

If you think openrespect.org is a good idea and would like to help, I would just encourage you to encourage people to read it, encourage your projects to be inspired by it, and otherwise spread the word. I would also like to encourage all of you who think the *OpenRespect Declaration* makes sense to blog it, dent it, tweet it etc to spread awareness.

Thanks, everyone for providing constructive feedback on the idea. 🙂