Postfurry Worlds Code of Conduct

Our Pledge

In the interest of fostering a welcoming environment, we as members of the Postfurry Worlds communities (MUCK, Discord Server, etc) pledge to making participation in our community a harassment-free experience regardless of body size, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

Our Standards

We aim to provide space for exploration and discussion of topics that can be highly sensitive, personal, adult, or some combination of all of the above. Discussion and sharing of adult content is permitted by default on our servers. Therefore, all users of the servers must be at least 18 years of age.

In order to keep true to our pledge and keep our spaces welcoming and productive for all, we’ve defined some standards of conduct, positive and negative, that users can use as examples of what to do more of, and when to possibly involve an admin.

Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include:

• Using welcoming and inclusive language.
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences.
• Gracefully accepting constructive feedback.
• Focusing on what is best for the community.
• Showing empathy and kindness towards other community members.

Examples of unacceptable public behavior by participants include:

• Explicit content in rooms marked for general audiences (e.g. #general on Discord)
• Explicit content where characters/actors are not the age of majority.
• Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks.
• Public or private harassment, deliberate intimidation, or threats.
• Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or electronic address, or any other social account contact info, without explicit permission. This includes any sort of “outing” of any aspect of someone’s identity without their consent.
• Publishing screenshots or quotes without all quoted users’ explicit consent.
• Publishing of non-harassing private communication.
• Any of the above even when presented as “ironic” or “joking”.
• Any attempt to present “reverse-ism” versions of the above as violations. Examples of reverse-isms are “reverse racism”, “reverse sexism”, “heterophobia”, and “cisphobia”.

We also recognize sorts of behavior that may not always rise to the level of violation or admin action, but still should be avoided in most situtations as a matter of course. Examples of such discouraged behavior by participants include:

• Explicit content involving violence and/or gore, without a content warning.
• Flashing/startling images, without a content warning.
• Unsolicited explanations under the assumption that someone doesn’t already know it. Ask before you teach! Don’t assume what people’s knowledge gaps are.
• Feigning or exaggerating surprise when someone admits to not knowing something.
• “Well-actuallies”

An Edge-Case: Gender Terminology

Participants might use words like “cuntboy”, “dickgirl”, “shemale”, “hermaphrodite”, etc, to describe their own body types or how they self-identify. While we understand these words can and have been used as slurs, we also recognize the power in reclaiming language for personal self-expression, especially in cases where no other terms exist. As such, this sort of terminology can be acceptable, discouraged, or unacceptable, depending on context:

• These terms are considered explicit usage, and thus should be kept out of general chatrooms (and, by extension, usernames)
• Using these terms to refer to yourself is acceptable. Using them to refer to any individual or character who is not known to use them to refer to themself is not acceptable, and is considered slur usage.
• Expressing a personal dispreference to these these terms is also acceptable. Using these terms heavily around someone who has specifically expressed this is discouraged. Not everyone feels the same about terminology reclamation, and we seek to be respectful of people with differing perspectives.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies both within community spaces and in other spaces involving the community. This includes: the Postfurry Discord Server, MUCK, Github organization, Twitter, private email communications in the context of the community, and any events where members of the community are participating, as well as adjacent communities and venues affecting the community’s members.

Depending on the violation, the admins may decide that violations of this code of conduct that have happened outside of the scope of the community may make an individual unwelcome, and take appropriate action to maintain the comfort and safety of its members.

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting the Postfurry Worlds admins on any Postfurry Worlds chat server, or via Twitter at @PostfurryWorlds. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances. The project team is obligated to maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident. Further details of enforcement policies are available on the Postfurry Worlds website.

Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good faith may face temporary or permanent repercussions as determined by other members of the project’s leadership.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 1.4, available at http://contributor-covenant.org/version/1/4, and the WeAllJS Code of Conduct.