The paleorXiv Steering Committee has corresponded this week (November 11 – 15, 2019) to address the banning of Jon Tennant by OpenCon for violations of OpenCon’s Code of Conduct (https://www.opencon2018.org/statement_from_the_opencon_code_of_conduct_committee_regarding_jon_tennant), as well as Jon’s statement in response in which he acknowledged his violation of the OpenCon Code of Condcut (http://fossilsandshit.com/response-to-opencon-statement). Jon was in charge of the day to day operations of paleorXiv and its primary point of contact, as well as a member of paleorXiv’s Steering Committee at the time of the announcement by OpenCon.
Prior to the announcement by OpenCon, the members of the paleorXiv Steering Committee were unaware of the incidents with Jon Tennant and we also had not received any official complaints. However, given that Jon was the primary point of contact, we understand that this may have prevented complaints or official incident reports from being reported to paleorXiv or from reaching us.
PaleorXiv is dedicated to fostering an open and welcoming environment for everyone in our community, and we have developed a Code of Conduct and Diversity Statement explicitly detailing these ideals (see Code of Conduct). We respect the decision made by OpenCon and the actions that they made based on their Code of Conduct.
Based on the statements from OpenCon and from Jon Tennant and the deliberations of the paleorXiv Steering Committee, we have asked Jon Tennant to step down from his role on the paleorXiv Steering Committee and as an active participant in the operations of paleorXiv. Jon has agreed to step down from the Steering Committee and from its daily operations. He will also no longer be the point of contact for paleorXiv and has transferred control and ownership of paleorXiv’s materials and website to the Steering Committee.
The paleorXiv Steering Committee will continue to discuss the future of paleorXiv and our operations, particularly with a focus on managing official communication channels, our websites, and our daily operations. In addition to deliberations within the Steering Committee, we will be reaching out to the community with guidance.
For any feedback and comments on this statement, please contact paleorxiv@paleorxiv.org at any given time. We will treat all communication from and to this account as confidential, unless both sides explicitly agree otherwise.
All current members of the paleorXiv Steering Committee (i.e. excluding Jon Tennant) were involved in developing this statement and signed it. As updates and clarifications are needed, we will provide additional announcements.