Sample Discord Code of Conduct

So, I made a thing. Or, rather, I forked and adapted a thing.

The Sample Slack Code of Conduct, created by Annalee Flower Horne, is a wonderfully robust and comprehensive code of conduct, which has been adopted by multiple Slacks.

Think of the CoC as a handrail for your server. Image: lucianaeris on Pixabay
I've forked it to create the Sample Discord Code of Conduct, making small adjustments to fit it for use in the system that's much more common in Steem user communities. You are absolutely welcome to adapt it to your server's needs. Now, let's go over it:

Welcome!

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCORD SERVER AND ITS PURPOSE]

The current admins are:

[NAMES]
[HERE]
We want this to be a fun, pleasant, and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

This is the most basic part. The Some of the next segments are optional, but if you don't use this bit, the whole CoC becomes kinda useless.

Discretion:

[Use this section if you're running an invite-only server that you don't want non-members to know about.]

Please don't talk about [discordserver] in public. This is a private, invitation-only server. Please don't discuss it in public, or with people who aren't members. It can cause awkwardness and hurt feelings if people start asking what it is and how to get invited. Further, harassers and abusers may be surveilling some members of this server. Keeping the existence of this server private makes it more difficult for bad actors to triangulate their targets' social footprints.

If you wish to nominate someone for membership, please contact the admins (before you speak to the person you wish to invite).

For most discord servers related to Steem, this segment is irrelevant, but I'm sure there are secret servers out there, and for those, this is very important.

Confidentiality:

[Use this section if you expect your members to respect the confidentiality of this space. Please be mindful that because some discord servers are closed networks, they can foster a false sense of security that leads people to share things that really should not be public. If you have members who you suspect might leak conversations and files hosted on your server, either kick them out or use the 'Logs and Records' section below instead of this one.]

Please keep what's said in [SERVERNAME] confidential. Don't repeat or quote things said here without the affirmative consent of the speaker(s). When quoting (with consent), please be careful not to reveal the existence of [SERVERNAME]. Rather, you can refer to the quote as something that was said "in chat" or while you were talking to the quoted member.

Please be mindful that things you say here may at some point become public. While we expect members to honor the confidentiality of this space, we cannot guarantee that they will do so--nor can we guarantee that every member's login credentials and logged-in devices are secure. Please exercise caution and refrain from sharing sensitive information that could harm you or others if it became public.

The first rule of your discord server may not be that you don't talk about your discord server, but if it is, or if any measure of discretion is expected, using a version of this segment is paramount.

Logs and Records:

[Use this section in place of 'confidentiality' (above) if you want to signal more strongly to members that they shouldn't trust the privacy of your server. Admins should be on the lookout for conversations that require a greater level of security than you can provide, and warn members that their discussion should be moved to a more secure platform.]

Please be mindful that things you say here may at some point become public. We cannot prevent people from screencapping or otherwise logging this server. We also can't guarantee that every member's login credentials and logged-in devices are secure. Files uploaded here can be downloaded by anyone with a login. Please exercise caution and refrain from sharing sensitive information that could harm you or others if it became public.

Servers have a tendency to become insular, and there's trust, and that's GREAT. But safeguards are important, and knowing some of our members may turn out to be less friendly than expected is important.

Harassment:

Harassment includes:

• Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion
• Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
• Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names
• Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior in spaces where they’re not appropriate
• Simulated physical contact (e.g. textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop.
• Threats of violence
• Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
• Deliberate intimidation
• Sustained disruption of discussion
• Unwelcome sexual attention
• Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
• Publication of non-harassing private communication

This, to me, is the meat of the CoC. Sure, we all hope people are nice, and don't harass. But history has shown us, time after time, that hope may well be in vain. And I know many people on the blockchain aren't fans of rules, but sometimes this is what we need if we want to have nice things.

Reporting

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the admins. They'll respond as promptly as they can.

We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.

A harassment policy is kinda useless if we don't have a reporting system. This is the basic one, but feel free to create your own!

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the admins may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from this server and identifying the participant publicly as someone about whom we've received complaints.

This is critical. Many people will want to institute a "zero tolerance" policy, thinking this will keep their users safe. It will not. Why? Because if the consequences are automatically dire, people are less likely to report. Reporting bad behavior should never be an automatic nuclear option. Giving the mods leeway to make decisions on a case by case basis makes the policy much more effective. And if you, as a user, don't trust the mods of any given discord server? Leave.

Credits and License

[This work is available to you to use, publish, and modify under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Please keep the paragraph below attached to your final version.]

This code of conduct is based on Annalee Flower Horne's Sample Slack Code of Conduct, which is in turn based on Geek Feminism's Community Anti-Harassment Policy. We have adapted the Sample Slack Code of Conduct for our own use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

You probably know this, but you gotta keep the last paragraph in if you want to use this CoC.

Steem is growing fast, and the bigger it gets, the less likely it is that "let's just all get along," will suffice in many discord servers related to the blockchain. I strongly urge you to adapt and use this code of conduct, to make your communities safer as they grow.