Tone and good-nature culture

• Accept that many programming decisions are opinions. Discuss tradeoffs, which you prefer, and reach a resolution quickly.
• Ask questions; don't make demands. ("What do you think about naming this :user_id?")
• Ask for clarification. ("I didn't understand. Can you clarify?")
• Avoid selective ownership of code. ("mine", "not mine", "yours")
• Avoid using terms that could be seen as referring to personal traits. ("dumb", "stupid"). Assume everyone is attractive, intelligent, and well-meaning.
• Be explicit. Remember people don't always understand your intentions online.
• Be humble. ("I'm not sure - let's look it up.")
• Don't use hyperbole. ("always", "never", "endlessly", "nothing")
• Be careful about the use of sarcasm. Everything we do is public; what seems like good-natured ribbing to you and a long-time colleague might come off as mean and unwelcoming to a person new to the project.
• Consider one-on-one chats or video calls if there are too many "I didn't understand" or "Alternative solution:" comments. Post a follow-up comment summarizing one-on-one discussion.
• If you ask a question to a specific person, always start the comment by mentioning them; this will ensure they see it if their notification level is set to "mentioned" and other people will understand they don't have to respond.

Reviewee

Please keep in mind that code review is a process that can take multiple iterations, and reviewers may spot things later that they may not have seen the first time.

• The first reviewer of your code is you. Before you perform that first push of your shiny new branch, read through the entire diff. Does it make sense? Did you include something unrelated to the overall purpose of the changes? Did you forget to remove any debugging code?
• Be grateful for the reviewer's suggestions. ("Good call. I'll make that change.")
• Don't take it personally. The review is of the code, not of you.
• Explain why the code exists. ("It's like that because of these reasons. Would it be more clear if I rename this class/file/method/variable?")
• Extract unrelated changes and refactorings into future merge requests/issues.
• Seek to understand the reviewer's perspective.