Dear openSUSE community, We, the openSUSE Board, are issuing the following statement to provide updates around recent discussions and behavior on openSUSE mailing lists that violated openSUSE values and the openSUSE Code of Conduct. In the past few weeks our mailing lists were subjected to heated and unpleasant threads, sparked by attempts to stir up controversy and inflame rhetoric with attacks on a minority group protected by the openSUSE Code of Conduct. These threads quickly took a nasty turn and we, the openSUSE Board, received numerous complaints against several people on both sides of the "debate". After two excruciating weeks of ongoing discussions on the lists, we took action and started issuing sanctions to those in violation of our Code of Conduct. Unfortunately these decisions and actions were slow, shortsighted and needed more reflection. Reflecting upon our decisions, as well as receiving feedback from some of you, we realized we should (a) have taken action much quicker, (b) in a more differentiated manner to account for circumstances, and (c) communicated more clearly. We want to extend our most sincerest apology to our community members for the way the situation was handled; we understand this has caused distress for some of you. Our goal now is to rectify our mistakes and ensure that our actions support and defend openSUSE's core values for an inclusive, open and welcoming community. Therefore, we have decided upon the the following actions: 1) As a collective, the Board will not be "neutral" and actively participate in the protection of community members (especially to support minorities and protected classes) in line with the openSUSE Code of Conduct. This recognizes that the Board remains "impartial" when called to mediate conflicts between participants in the openSUSE Project. 2) Bad-faith actors and instigators that inflamed the discourse in the past few weeks with malice have been sanctioned with a permanent ban from the openSUSE community. 3) Others who were found to have violated the Code of Conduct were put under moderation for periods proportional to the severity and circumstances of their actions. (In particular, we took into account intentions of those coming to the defense of others.) 4) We are considering formal Code of Conduct training for Board members and moderators. 5) We are collaborating on a document with guidelines and best practices for moderators. 6) With regards to mailing lists, it is apparent that moderation is challenging. We are actively engaged in determining the best course of actions to improve the situation. 7) We are formalizing a new complaint process. We hope that the steps above will prove beneficial for openSUSE. We erred in our original handling of the situation and aim to do better going forward. Your feedback is always welcome! Sincerely, Maurizio, sending on behalf of the openSUSE Board