Penguicon.social Code Of Conduct - last updated May 17, 2019
This is the User Agreement that governs a user's access to and use of Penguicon.social.
To use this site, you must be 16 or older, and attended Penguicon in person.
Penguicon's in-person Code Of Conduct applies to the convention weekend, and so it discusses things like alcohol and swimming pools. Year round, the internet enables stalking, persecution campaigns, and privacy violations, at a scale not achievable in three days in a convention hotel. Therefore, this page addresses a different set of concerns.
- Content Warning Etiquette
- Unsolicited Sexual Advances, Ads, And Other Spam
- Pronoun Etiquette
-
Prohibited Uses
1. Sexualized depictions of people who appear to be minors, real or imaginary
2. Intimidation of groups needing special protections
3. Conspiracy theories and disinformation - Harassment
- Moderator Actions
Content Warning Etiquette
Use the button marked CW ("Content Warning") to hide discussions of an explicit and graphic nature, so that a reader must click if they wish to see it.
Use the Eye button when posting images more sexually-explicit than PG13.
Keep your avatars and header images PG13.
Use the following content warnings on content or links, containing evocative or graphic depictions. They are not required on brief mentions that are factual, clinical, and dry. CW: Suicide, CW: Rape, CW: Sexual Assault, CW: Pedophilia.
Mods might delete posts that skirt a grey area.
Unsolicited Sexual Advances, Ads, And Other Spam
Do not use Penguicon.social to directly approach prospects as a marketing tool to send unsolicited sales pitches to users you barely know. This includes, for example:
- unsolicited sexual advances
- selling your company's products
- unsolicited sexual advances
- religious proselytization
- UNSOLICITED SEXUAL ADVANCES
- other spam
If the recipient deems your message to be welcome, we will not take action against it. That determination is up to them at the time of receipt. This places the risk on you as the sender, not on them.
If companies use Penguicon.social, they are asked to mostly use it to participate in discussions taking place on social media. Acceptable uses include opinions and education about their trade, and engagement with their company's users who request support. Such uses should be presented as a specific individual representing the company. But if they post little more than promotional links to their own company's website, that is prohibited.
Pronoun Etiquette
Avoid using pronouns or names for a person, which that person has asked to not be used.
Prohibited Uses
The following are prohibited even if placed on mute or hidden behind a content warning.
Penguicon.social places a domain block on dozens of other servers in the Fediverse that would otherwise bring this onto our server.
1. Sexualized depictions of people who appear to be minors, real or imaginary.
2. Intimidation of groups needing special protections.
We do not provide a platform for intimidation behaviors to drive marginalized vulnerable groups out of an online space.
- Race
- Sexual orientation
- Gender or gender presentation
- Disability
- National origin
- Physical appearance
- Religious tradition of origin
"Asshole" is not a protected category.
3. Conspiracy theories and disinformation.
We do not provide a platform to promote the following:
- Religious justifications for marginalizing vulnerable minorities
- Holocaust Denial
- "Cultural Marxism"
- "The Great Replacement"
- Denial that humans are causing climate change
- Opposition to vaccination
- Flat earth
Harassment
Harassment is a subcategory of misconduct, defined as a pattern over time, of unwelcome interactions targeting a specific person.
Penguicon’s Board tracks reports of misconduct over multiple years, and takes patterns of misconduct into consideration for multi-year disciplinary action, regardless of whether incidents occurred at Penguicon. We need your help to identify whether the incidents you are experiencing on Penguicon.social are part of a pattern you do not know about.
Harassment applies to electronic communication as well as physical. Participants must not engage in misconduct at any convention venues or convention-related social events, not just the Penguicon weekend.
Do not persistently pursue someone who no longer wishes to interact with you. If Mods are made aware that you are doing this outside of Penguicon.social, Mods will make your personal life our business, by taking appropriate actions on your Penguicon.social account.
We can tell when someone is abusing the misconduct reporting system as a tool of a harassment. Software developers on the Mod team are prepared to respond to attempts to flood our complaints system with frivolous reports on every post made by a victim of a harassment campaign.
Moderator Actions
The Mod responses to known violations of this CoC will depend on the severity, and the context of whether the offender is skirting a grey area with a frequency that increases the workload of the mods.
Mods reserve the right to escalate the response as quickly as necessary, even to Suspend for a first offense based on their own judgement.
- Education.
- Deleting one or more posts.
- Setting the persons account(s) to Silenced mode (invisible to all but those who are following the Silenced person). Mods will inform the Silenced person of the duration to be spent Silenced.
- Setting the offending person's account(s) to Suspended (deleted and unable to create another account).
- Banning or blocking emails, entire email domains of known spammers, or entire Mastodon domains, to prevent a person interacting with our users.
Mods must take aside individuals privately when asking them for changes to their behavior. If Mods publicly embroil an audience of bystanders who can do nothing to resolve a conflict which needs to be handled by a Mod, they will be removed from Mod duty.
Mods may not publicly vent about being a Mod. They will be immediately be put on a time-out from Mod duty, if they post to express exhaustion or dissatisfaction with the role. We all have different amounts of energy at different times. Mods are expected to be prepared to need to calm the flame wars. That requires a minimum of mental and emotional health to avoid fanning the flames. Those who are low on energy must spend some time in a different role than Mod, so they can receive energy instead of spending it.
You may appeal the decisions of the mods by emailing board.feedback@penguicon.org.