As we have seen a rise of toxic behavior we have decided that it would be time for some rules. We would love other ideas too and feel free to discuss it here.
Also we are thinking about, to put in an Automoderation tool that could help us a lot. Because its currently not easy for us to scan every new comments and reports are rare currently. We want your opinons on that too, because its important to us that this community is based on the people here.
The shortlist that we have currently as idea for the Rules:
- Be Kind to each other
- No Hate speech
- Dont harass people
- No Racism, sexism and any other discrimination
- Dont attack other people just because they have differnt opinions (Stay on Topic)
- Do not double post
I’m concerned about the definitions of some of the terms in these rules
What does it mean to be kind? Do you have to agree with everyone? Are you allowed to say the fuck word?
What does it mean to attack other people? Are we talking ad hominem, or is making an argument with a stern tone of voice an attack?
Where is the line between opinion and action drawn? Is it okay to attack people for driving cars? That’s not an opinion, it’s an action, and it kills people, but I have a feeling certain people would say no anyway
What is a double post? Do you mean repost or crosspost?
These are the guidelines that the human moderators are going to be using to make their judgements. They’re not binding law. Is it really so important that you need to drill down to such tedious minutia? Just be good and if you do something wrong while acting in good faith, I’m sure they’ll just tell you.
Yeah you are right, its my first time being moderator for such a big community. I just wan’t to make the thought process behind my/our decisions more clear for everyone and I think that would not hurt. But thanks for your feedback! I really appreciate it
Meanwhile these people in criminal courtrooms:
“What does ‘murder’ mean? If I happen to own a knife and like to toss it, but someone moves in my way when the knife comes down, am I suddenly considered a murderer? Won’t some people abuse these rules?”
It’s naive to assume all moderators will make sensible decisions when you don’t know them.
Rules lawyering will not protect you from unreasonable moderators.
Okay I will try to give a bit more insight and it seems that we should add some explanations to the rules.
Thank you very much for your input and I hope I could make my thought process a bit clearer
Thanks for the response, that all sounds reasonable. One more question:
What happens if I attack someone’s actions and they feel personally attacked? For example, I might say that driving a petrol car, in 100% of cases, will contribute to a child’s chance of developing lung cancer. Another commenter who drives a car may then subjectively feel that they are being called a child murderer. I have stated an unbiased fact, but they have come to a completely logical conclusion and feel upset by that conclusion. So do we act as though I stated the emotional conclusion, or just the unbiased fact?
Of course, I am pretty happy that at least one person had some questions so far. Its in our all interest to make such questions a community thing (:
As you say, it is nearly impossible to write things, so that no one feels attacked by it. The goal is just to make obvious attacks against specific people against the rules. If someone feels attacked by unbiased facts, then its his problem. Because it would make it nearly impossible to make any discussions. So I would say we act by the unbiased fact.
I just subscribed today but I think these rules feel very solid, along with the intent behind them. I especially like the rule about reposts as I don’t like seeing repeated content over and over, regardless how much time has passed in between said posts.