As mentioned earlier this week, The Writers' Block Discord channel is going through some changes to the way it will operate. As we have seen a faster growth than expected, we felt it important to put community guidelines in place now, rather than later when we are much bigger. These serve to protect not just our community, but also its members and moderation team. Please take the time to read though them.
We reserve the right to ammend these guidelines or add to them in future, should the need arise.
Community Rules and Guidelines
The Writers’ Block is a place where users can have their writing peer-reviewed prior to posting their articles to Steemit. Our focus is on providing good, useable feedback; critiquing work to improve it; and fostering an environment where users can create a community to support each other. As such, we expect all users, moderators included, to adhere to some rules of behavior. These rules of behavior are by no means definitive, and they may be subject to change.
Courtesy
The Writers’ Block is a community, and we all expect to have a good time while we're on the server. To do that, users must extend some basic courtesy to each other, even if they don't particularly like each other. Disagreements may arise between users or groups of users from time to time. However, these disagreements should be handled with mutual respect and courtesy. Whenever possible, disagreements or arguments should be discussed in DM and not in public channels. Airing grievances against each other in public channels usually results in more users joining in the dispute. This is disruptive and rarely helps resolve the dispute.
Harassment is prohibited. Harassment is the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one user or group of users toward another, including threats and demands, which the user or group of users has previously objected to.
Likewise, racism and sexism are prohibited. Racism is any overt expression of negative prejudice against a particular ethnic or racial group, such as using racial slurs against a particular user or group of users. Sexism is any overt expression of negative prejudice against a particular gender, such as using gender-based slurs against a user or group of users.
Professionalism
The Writers' Block aims to offer professional-level services. When working here (editing or acting as a moderator) or receiving services (submitting work for feedback), remember to adhere to professional standards of conduct. Mutual respect is required.
- Critiquing is welcome; criticism is not, and it will not be tolerated. A critique considers positive aspects of a piece of work, as well as negative ones. A critique’s conclusion may be negative, but the editor will have demonstrated a line of reasoning that led to it. A criticism is seen as an attack, condemnation, or disapproval, and is not conducive to a helpful and friendly community.
- Moderators act as authority and must uphold the courtesy and professionalism standards at all times. If two or more editors or two or more moderators disagree about a particular issue or work product, it will be handled in DM and outside of the public channels.
Put simply: be a professional if you're doing work, and don't be a dick. If you have a problem with another user, take it to DM and try to hash it out. If a moderator warns you about your behavior, you’re violating the rules.
Procedure for Resolving Disputes
If a user has a dispute with another user, including a moderator, concerning behavior that violates the community guidelines and rules, that user should attempt to resolve it in DM first. We're all adults here; communicate with each other and try to reach a solution.
If a rule violation cannot be resolved between users privately, either user (or both) must take the issue to a moderator. When taking an issue to a moderator, the user alleging a rule violation must provide a brief summary of what rule was violated and a statement of facts regarding the rule violation, as well as evidence supporting their facts. The user alleged may provide evidence in his or her defense, but this is not required. The moderator will consider the evidence and statements and attempt to resolve the issue between the users. If no resolution can be reached, or if another violation of the rules by the same user occurs, the moderator or the user or users directly affected by the rule violation may bring the issue to the arbitration panel.
The party alleging rule violations must provide a statement of what rule or rules were violated, a statement of fact supporting the allegations, and evidence demonstrating their claim to the panel. The party alleged may provide their own statement and evidence in their defense. The panel will weigh the evidence and statements made by the parties, at which point a final decision will be reached by a majority of the panel and appropriate sanctions ordered. This final decision is binding on the parties and the moderator who first handled the dispute. Final decisions will be made publicly available on a spreadsheet documenting panel decisions, and they will have a controlling authority on future cases regarding similar facts and circumstances.
The losing party to a decision has the right to appeal the decision to the panel once. The party must present additional evidence or alternative arguments not raised during arbitration. The opposing party may also present arguments refuting those raised by the losing party, but this is not a requirement. If sanctions were imposed and the losing party wins its appeal, the sanctions will be reversed. If the losing party loses its appeal, the sanctions remain in effect. In either case, the result of the appeal to either affirm or reverse the previous decision will take precedence.
Sanctions
Sanctions to users may be imposed by the arbitration panel to the degree it feels is appropriate given the violation of the rules presented. There are five sanctions that may be imposed:
- 1 - Removal of roles - A user's roles are removed for a specified period of time. This limits the access of the user to various rooms and services available.
- 2 - Kick - A user may be temporarily removed from the server via "kick,” and their roles will be removed. A user may rejoin immediately, but they will not regain their roles upon returning to the server.
- 3 - Mute - A user may be temporarily prevented from posting to any channel on the server.
- 4 - Temporary ban - A user may be kicked and prevented from returning to the server for a specified period of time. This can occur in addition to removal of roles.
- 5 - Permanent ban - A user may be permanently removed from the server.
Sanctions will be enforced, to the extent practicable, by the moderator who initially handled the dispute.
Stating a Claim
When a user alleges that another user, including moderators, has violated a rule, that user must articulate what rule was violated. The user must also present a statement of facts supporting his or her allegations. The allegation and the statement of facts supporting it must be clear and sufficient such that a reasonable person, assuming the facts were true, could acknowledge that a violation occurred.
Standard of Evidence
When attempting to resolve a dispute before a moderator or the arbitration panel, the user alleging a rule violation must present evidence supporting their claim. There is no minimum or maximum requirement for the amount of evidence presented. However, the evidence must be relevant to the violation alleged; evidence alleging another rule violation, or some other unrelated matter, will not be considered. For every fact presented in the user's fact summary, the user must present evidence showing the fact to be true. Facts without evidence to support them will be disregarded.
Imposition of Sanctions
Only the arbitration panel may impose bans on a user. The moderator who first attempted to resolve the dispute will be tasked with carrying out the sanctions imposed, but they cannot impose bans unilaterally.
A user may have their roles removed, be kicked, or be muted by a moderator if that moderator has sufficient grounds to remove them from the server, i.e., for particularly egregious, willful behavior in violation of community standards of conduct. While kicking a user can be carried out unilaterally by a moderator, it is subject to review by the arbitration panel. A user who is kicked may appeal the decision to the panel and request reinstatement of their roles. If a moderator is found to be abusing his or her authority, sanctions may be imposed on the moderator following a hearing before the panel.
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