Hi community. The team has been working on community guidelines. Consider these both effective immediately as well as still work in progress. A feedback thread is located here so this one can maintain its announcement status.
Updated 2023-05-11
Community Code of Conduct and Expectations
The intent of this section is to establish guidelines for the community members.
1. Post and reply in good faith.
1.a
We share an online community and maintain that community by keeping the forum a positive and fun place to be. Excessive negativity and sarcasm distracts from that environment.
1.b
Be aware and mindful of the forum and the podcast’s left-wing politics. It is intentional and the kind of environment that the Insert Credit founders and the forum’s host intend to maintain. If you do not feel you will be a successful contributor in this environment, you are welcome to lurk and just read, or to leave.
2. Assume others are posting in good faith.
2.a
Be welcoming and accepting of others in the forum community.
2.b
Be encouraging and supportive of people who post less frequently. This especially goes for people who are more active participants of the forum. There are many ways that people choose to participate. Some may feel comfortable starting new threads and conversations, some may only feel comfortable replying, others may primarily lurk and post infrequently or hardly ever.
2.c
Being “well read” on the forum is not a prerequisite to participating in the community. Especially when someone posts a new thread on a topic that may have been covered before, consider if they are bringing up something in a new light with a different angle.
3 Do not post unwelcome content.
3.a
The forum rules will never have an exhaustive list of material that is considered hurtful or harmful. Do not post hurtful or harmful content, it is unwelcome. The moderation and admin teams reserve the right to use this clause as a blanket statement for moderating and content we cannot imagine and do not want in our community.
3.b
Content that targets any individual or group for exclusion or harm is unwelcome. This includes but is not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, targeting of religion, caste, socioeconomic status, etc.
3.c
Threatening members, implying violence, harassing members, or inciting self-harm are all unwelcome.
3.d
Shock-posting is unwelcome. This includes but is not limited to explicit violence, graphic sex and nudity, etc.
Posting misinformation or disinformation is unwelcome.
4 Your off-site behavior as it overlaps our forum community may impact your ability to participate in this community.
4.a
We expect that your off-site behavior as it overlaps our forum community to be inline with guidelines here. An example is coordinating harassment of our members off-site. It is unwelcome and will not be tolerated.
Moderation Guidelines and Expectations
The intent of this section is to lay out guidelines for the moderation process.
1 All forum members have the right and responsibility to report content that is unwelcome in the community.
1.a
Report the post by using the “flag” option in the “…” menu at the bottom of each post.
1.b
Flagging posts are preferred to individually sending messages to moderators or admin teams. By flagging a post, members get faster response times to issues (as moderators will get to flags as a team rather than as an individual), and more consistent behavior from the moderation team.
2
The Moderation and Admin teams will evaluate the flagged post and determine what steps should be taken. Steps can include specific Private Communication threads to inform the member that their content is unwelcome and why, locking a member’s account for a period of time (cooling off period), or prohibiting a member from participating in the forum (banning).
3
The admin and moderation teams are all volunteers. They are expected to act with integrity, transparency, and good-faith in their decision making.
4
Note that as the forum’s host, Brandon Sheffield has final authority over the Insert Credit Forum Community.
Change Log
2023-05-11: based on community feedback, updated code of conduct 4.a to clarify overlapping off-site behavior expecations.