Last updated: December 7, 2021
In accordance with our mission, our highest priority is community. And like every other community, we need standards we can hold one another accountable to.
We envision this document as a list of guard rails: they align with our aspirations and caution against behaviors we want to avoid.
This section outlines the community we aspire to be. Remember, this is a community we build together, and we need your help to make it the best it can be.
Be welcoming and open-minded. Remember, everyone has a different background and different experiences. We've all experienced the feeling of being an "outsider" so we should be quick to welcome others.
Respect each other. Nothing sabotages healthy conversation like rudeness. Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or dehumanizing. Don’t harass or grief anyone. Treat each other with dignity and consideration in all interactions.
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. Disagreement is not the same as disrespect, and disagreement can be part of healthy diversity.
That said, remember to criticize ideas, not people. Avoid name-calling, ad hominem attacks, responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content, and knee-jerk contradiction. Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.
Communicate with empathy. Disagreements or differences of opinion are a fact of life. Being part of a community means interacting with people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, many of which may not be your own. If you disagree with someone, try to understand and share their feelings before you address them. This will promote a respectful and friendly atmosphere where people feel comfortable chatting, participating in deeper discussions, and simply being themselves.
Stay on-topic. As our community gets bigger, it will be easy to accidentally steamroll one conversation with another, which can leave people feeling unseen and frustrated. So let's use the channels we have to sort the conversation. And if we need more, we'll make more!
This section outlines the kind of behavior which we do not want in our community. We do not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into the following:
Threats of violence. Threats of violence are strictly forbidden.
Even if you mean something as a joke, it might not be received that way. Put yourself in the shoes of the hypothetical "other" who is the object of your joke. Would that person or group agree that you are "just kidding?" Or would they feel ostracized, unwelcome, or unsafe?
In extraordinary cases, we may report threats of violence to law enforcement if we think there may be a genuine risk of physical harm or a threat to public safety.
Dehumanizing speech and discrimination. Nobody should be made to feel less than human in connection with their circumstances or personal attributes.
Conversations about personal attributes (from fashion choices to skin color) are not out of bounds by themselves, but they must be approached with sensitivity and empathy.
Realize that, when approached in an aggressive or insulting manner, sensitive topics like these can make others feel ostracized, unwelcome, or unsafe. While there's always the potential for misunderstandings, we expect our community members to remain respectful and civil when discussing sensitive topics.
Bullying and harassment. We do not tolerate bullying or harassment.
This includes any persistent badgering or intimidation targeted at a specific person or group of people. In general, if your actions are unwanted and you continue to engage in them, there's a good chance you are headed into bullying or harassment territory.
Disrupting the experience of other users. Being part of a community includes recognizing how your behavior affects others and engaging in meaningful and constructive interactions with people and the platforms the community relies on. Behaviors that disrupt the experience of other users are not allowed.
Impersonation. You may not impersonate another person by copying their avatar, posting content under their email address, using a similar username or otherwise posing as someone else. Impersonation is a form of harassment.
In some circumstances, this could include role-playing as (or writing fan fiction about) someone else's character.
Doxxing and invasion of privacy. In general, we discourage the sharing of one's own personal information on our platforms. However, it is expressly forbidden to post other people's personal information.
This could include information such as personal, private email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, credit card numbers, Social Security/National Identity numbers, or passwords. Depending on the context, such as in the case of intimidation or harassment, we may consider other information, such as photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject's consent, to be an invasion of privacy, especially when such material presents a safety risk to the subject.
Nudity, sexual content, or graphic violence. We do not tolerate depictions of nudity, sexual content, or graphic (that is, realistic) violence on our platforms. Please assume young children are present and conduct yourself accordingly.
Swearing, cursing, or obscene language. Again, please assume young children are present and conduct yourself accordingly.
Every culture and time has different words and phrases that it considers offensive. If you see someone using language or slang that might be offensive or unsuitable for children in your culture, say something! Let the speaker know that he or she might want to avoid those words or phrases. And if you are the one who finds him or herself using a word or phrase in a way that is inadvertently offensive, take it as a learning opportunity. Refrain from using that language in the future.
There are a variety of actions that we may take when inappropriate behavior or posts come to our attention. Our first action will include reaching out to the individual and gently pointing them to this document so they have a chance to adjust their conduct.
We recognize that sometimes people may conduct themselves inappropriately for any number of reasons. Perhaps they did not realize how their words would be perceived. Or maybe they just let their emotions get the best of them. Of course, sometimes, there are folks who just want to spam or cause trouble.
Each case requires a different approach, and we try to tailor our response to meet the needs of the situation that has been reported. While we aspire to be welcoming and open-minded, we will not tolerate individuals who demonstrate a persistent disregard for the community standards outlined in this document.
Actions we may take in response to a violation include but are not limited to:
In some cases there may be a basis to reverse an action, for example, based on additional information a user provided, or where a user has addressed the violation and agreed to abide by our community standards moving forward. If you wish to appeal an enforcement action, please contact our office.
These are only guidelines; they do not supersede our Terms and Conditions and are not intended to be a complete list. We retain full discretion under our Terms and Conditions to enforce our community standards as we deem necessary.
This document was adapted from GitHub's Community Guidelines, which was generously provided to the public domain.
Correspondingly, we dedicate the textual body of this Community Code of Conduct document to the public domain for anyone to use, reuse, adapt, or whatever, under the terms of CC0-1.0.
MBE.tv
