Spirit of the Competition

Remember that hackathons are like marathons. Some people go to compete, but most people take part to better themselves and have fun. Regardless of why you're at a hackathon, ensure you're upholding the hacker spirit and Community Values by collaborating with other teams, helping beginners, and having fun.

Hackathon Rules

  1. All participants agree to uphold the MLH Code of Conduct to keep hackathons safe, welcoming spaces for everyone.
  2. MLH Hackathons are primarily for students, but may also include professionals. MLH chooses to define students broadly. Anyone who attends a traditional school, college, or university, and those in bootcamps and similar programs are students. Those who graduated within the last 12 months are also considered students.
  3. Organizers, volunteers, judges, sponsors, or anyone in any other privileged position at the event should not participate as a hacker.
  4. All team members should actively participate in the event.
  5. Teams should leverage advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and each other.
  6. All work on a project should be done during the period of the hackathon.
  7. Teams can use an idea they had before the event.
  8. Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be “innovative”. If somebody wants to work on a common idea, they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their hack. These days it’s hard to find something that’s fully original and teams might not know an idea has been done before anyway.
  9. Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code or other project materials). 10.Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
  10. Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up. e.g. If during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.
  11. Your code must be available publicly (ideally in a git repository).
  12. Your code must remain public post event to be eligible for prizes. If your repo and video are not public, new winners may be selected.
  13. Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers' discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, breaking the Code of Conduct, or other unsporting behaviour.

Code of Conduct

TL;DR. Be respectful. Harassment and abuse are never tolerated. If you are in a situation that makes you uncomfortable at an MLH Member Event, if the event itself creates an unsafe or inappropriate environment, or if interacting with an MLH representative or event organizer makes you uncomfortable, please report it using the procedures included in this document.

Major League Hacking (MLH) stands for inclusivity. We believe that every single person has the right to hack in a safe and welcoming environment.

Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, social class, economic status, and veteran status. Additional cases of harassment include but are not limited to sharing sexual images, violent depictions, vulgar language, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, brigading, doxxing, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

In particular, attendees should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material both in their hacks and during the event. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

If what you’re doing is making someone feel uncomfortable, that counts as harassment and is enough reason to stop doing it. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

Sponsors, judges, mentors, volunteers, organizers, MLH staff, and anyone else participating in the event are also subject to the anti-harassment policy.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, MLH may take any action it deems appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no eligibility for reimbursement or refund of any type.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact MLH using the reporting procedures defined below.

MLH representatives can help participants contact campus security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event. We value your attendance.

We expect participants to follow these rules at all hackathon venues, hackathon-related social events, hackathon-supplied transportation, and online interactions related to the event.

Reporting Procedures

If you feel uncomfortable or think there may be a potential violation of the code of conduct, please report it immediately using one of the following methods. All reporters have the right to remain anonymous.

By sending information to the general reporting line, your report will go to our incident response team members.

Special Incidents

If you are uncomfortable reporting your situation to one or more of these people or need to contact any of them directly in case of emergency, direct contact details are listed below.

Google Developer Group on Campus GCECT Team

  • Arkapravo Roy, Organizer, GDGoC GCECT
  • Sourin Kar, Deputy Organizer, GDGoC GCECT
  • Sayan Biswas, Technical Head, GDGoC GCECT
  • Samman Das, Lead Organizer, MLH Hack Days at GCECT

MLH Team

MLH reserves the right to revise, make exceptions to, or otherwise amend these policies in whole or in part. If you have any questions regarding these policies, please contact MLH by e-mail at incidents@mlh.io.