Community

Code of Conduct

This applies to every participant, mentor, judge and organiser, everywhere the event happens — the platform, chat channels, calls and social media.

The short version

A large share of people here have never been to a hackathon and are worried about looking stupid. Everything below follows from one rule: do not be the reason someone quits.

Expected

  • Treat beginner questions as normal, because here they are
  • Give credit for code, designs and ideas you did not create
  • Assume good intent and ask before escalating
  • Respect people's time — mentors are shared across many teams
  • Keep discussion in the language the channel is using, so nobody is excluded

Not tolerated

  • Harassment, threats or sexual attention of any kind
  • Discrimination on caste, religion, gender, sexuality, region, language or disability
  • Mocking someone's skill level, accent, college or English
  • Plagiarism or passing off others' work as your own
  • Sharing someone's personal information without consent
  • Deliberately disrupting other teams or the platform

Reporting something

Email support@firsthack.in with the subject line starting “Conduct”. During the event, messaging any organiser in the help channel also works and is usually faster.

Tell us what happened, roughly when, and who was involved. Screenshots help but are not required — we will not dismiss a report because you did not think to take one.

Reports are handled privately. We do not share your identity with the person you reported without asking you first, and we do not publish details of individual cases.

What happens after a report

  1. Acknowledged within 24 hours — you will know a human has it.
  2. Reviewed by two organisers, never by one person alone, and never by anyone involved in the incident.
  3. Outcome communicated to you. Depending on severity that ranges from a private warning, to removal from a channel, to disqualification and removal from the event without refund.

Serious cases — threats, or anything involving a minor — are escalated to the appropriate authorities regardless of what the reporter prefers.

A note on retaliation

Retaliating against someone for making a good-faith report is treated as seriously as the original conduct. If you report something and then find yourself excluded, pressured or targeted, tell us — that is a separate violation and we will act on it.

Adapted for FirstHack 2026 along the lines of widely used open-source community codes of conduct.