The community contract is a set of guidelines we expect all members to abide by majority time when they use the server. Slip-ups will not automatically result in bans, as we believe everyone deserves chances and opportunities to improve.
It is a living document that will be modified and revised as the community needs change, feedback is received, and the world changes. Please post all feedback in #community-suggestions, or raise it privately via #talk-to-the-mods
1- this is a gated public space for those above the age of majority (legal adults, based on country of origin)
- Please don’t use this as a diary or private groupchat. respect those around you by placing triggering content in proper formatting/channels, and avoid lateral ableism (one group of disabled people do not have it better than the other)
- Discussions of individual people causing real harm are acceptable, but discussions of hypothetical individuals making a group “less valid” if they join are not. We do not have moderator capacity to litigate those situations, and those are best for out-of-server discussions
- Respect others’ humanity at all times, even when critiquing them, or when hurt by them
- Please be considerate of others’ energy most people here have some kind of energy-limiting condition; this means not demanding education
- Moderators’ role is to ensure people are having fun and being safe, while also participating in the community
2- intersectionality is considered and respected
- Intersectionality is the idea that our Identities change the ways we experience the world (ex: white and mentally disabled vs Black and physically disabled)
- Both members and moderators need to acknowledge that no experience is “correct”
- Members should strive to hold all experiences as valid and not discount others’ lived realities
- if you feel like something is fishy, feel free to raise it with moderators via #talk-to-the-mods
- Prioritizing one person’s view of the world at the expense of another is grounds for escalation, outlined in section 5
- “at the expense of another” means: implying the other person “can’t have that experience”, implying that person is too sensitive, implying that you cannot have been hurtful, just because you don’t see what was wrong
- If someone has discounted your experiences, we encourage you to ask for a modroom (in #talk-to-the-mods)
3- We believe each other in the face of conflicting access needs
- “Access Needs” – accommodations, like time away to process a situation, needing things changed into either simpler or more precise terms, captions/transcripts of discussions, needing an explanation of a term that was used, and many others
- “Conflicting Access Needs” are when different people need opposing things
- No one accommodation will work for each person on the server
- Examples of conflicting needs include:
- Plain language for intellectual disability vs need for exact language for other neurodivergence and describing bigotry (translation will be provided whenever possible)
- Need for audio vs need for text (transcripts will be provided, tag @caption-help for audio and @image-description-help for images.)
- Those who get angry vs those who withdraw (modrooms can allow for explosive anger to be expressed in a contained setting, or for hurt feelings to be unpacked in private)
- Receiving support vs receiving education (ie. a disabled subject matter expert’s need for support and community means that no individual member is required to educate about their experience)
- If someone is venting, please offer support to them before asking questions for your own education, and don’t expect the person venting to answer (ie. ask if it’s okay to ask questions)
- If someone BIPOC tells you that you were racist towards them, apologize first, then ask someone else to help you understand what was wrong in what you said
- Repeatedly demanding education from someone is grounds for escalation (including demanding details for why you should apologize even if you didn’t mean harm)
4- trigger warnings and spoilers are what we have chosen to make the server as accessible as possible, but not all triggers are created equal
- In short: we will only guarantee delete gore and flashing gifs, consider deleting severely devastating triggers (abuse, geopolitics), and maybe ask to spoiler for everything else
- For detailed views of how moderators handle triggers, please read #content-warnings
- On bigotry: the mod team will get involved if there are microaggressions on race, gender, sexuality, religion, and lateral ableism — how much we escalate the situation depends on severity
5- Escalations
- Calling in and reminders to be compassionate with trigger warnings are encouraged, strict policing is not.
- If the missed trigger warnings fall in highly devastating topics, please tag moderators for possible deletion
- If something turns into a big argument/issue in public, we will likely open a modroom to help work things out
- Modrooms are a group chat space (with yourself and the moderators) to work out your thoughts/feelings, before going back into the public space
- If you continue engaging in a public forum while dysregulated, you might have your ability to engage with the server removed for a period of time, so you can cool off
- If all of these methods fail, and there is no sign of transformative justice, we will ban after repeated conversations
6- Harm Reduction and Justice
- We are all disabled, and nobody can be at their best/”perfect” all the time
- You do not have to understand someone’s experiences before apologizing for causing harm
- Apologize first, then ask any questions you might have about the experience
- It is impossible to avoid causing harm among individuals, no matter how hard we try; as a result we care more about how you handle harming others
- Causing harm doesn’t mean you are worth less as a person
- Committing to respect others is the most important thing
- Addressing harm requires working with everyone involved, both harm-doer(s) and harmed. We want the Void to keep improving, so it can be a safer space
House of Unicorns 