Sorry for this long post! I used collapsing quotes to make it more digestible.
As you may or may not know, there are proposals to change/update the hexbear CoC here. This is an extension of the original discussion thread here.
While there isn't a specific section in the original CoC about neurodiversity, there are some pertinent sections on mental health crises:
Click to Expand
Hexbear is not a mental health service. Posts/ comments about an active mental health crisis will be removed when they are brought to our attention. Our mod team is not equipped to provide mental healthcare, others can be harmed/triggered and trolls weaponize these events. If you’re having an emergency, you can find a directory of hotline numbers here.
and use of content warnings:
CW: Unabbreviated Triggers - Click to Expand
A content warning (CW) should be before the content and spoiler both the warning itself and the content (the following example does not contain extreme content):
CW Mushrooms I cut up hella mushrooms and then ate them all raw
Topics that must be CW'd
- Violence towards self such as self-harm and suicide
- Violence towards animals or humans such as corpses and carnist products and especially ||abuse, gore, and sexual violence
- Traumatic societal harms such as transphobia, sexual and gender oppression, fatphobia and lookism, ableism, sanism, racism, ageism and other bigotry
- Other common triggers such as discussion of weight and calories, ableist slurs, abortion, NSFW,removed and sexual assault, police brutality, ethnic cleansing and genocide, etc.
Do not abbreviate your CWs. Not everyone knows what the abbreviation stands for. Be aware of your own enjoyment of the site.
I reworded the original mental health crises line to include medical emergencies. That way we are not singling out people who experience mental health crises:
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Users are not equipped to provide care for mental-health crises nor medical emergencies. If you are experiencing an active mental-health crisis, please use a local hotline to speak with someone who can properly address your needs. If you are having a medical emergency, please call your local emergency number.
Making posts on these issues can be harmful to yourself or other users. These posts can be removed.
If this seems unnecessary and you would like to keep the original wording, or want to provide an alternative, please say so.
There was some great suggestions on content warnings. Here is a draft with some changes to include epilepsy warnings and abbreviations for triggers:
CW: Unabbreviated Triggers - Click to Expand
A content warning (CW) must be placed directly before the following topics or depictions:
- Self-arm (SH), Suicide/Suicidal Ideation (SI). Mentioning SI in SH topics can be triggering.
- Violence towards humans or animals including corpses or gore. This includes animal corpses used as food, animal products, and animal abuse.
- Traumatic societal harms such as Transphobia, Sexism, Gender Oppression, Fatphobia, Lookism, Sanism, Ableism, Racism, ageism and other bigotry.
- Weight, Eating Disorders (ED), Calories, Ableist Slurs (See: Section 11 - Slurs), Abortion, Sexual Assault (SA), Sexual Violence (SV), Police Brutality, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide, etc.
- Epilepsy and Flashing Lights Triggering content should be placed inside a spoiler tag.
Post images that depict triggering content should be marked NSFW. Post titles should contain warnings at the beginning.
Use established abbreviations where possible.
Established abbreviations: Self-Harm (SH), Suicide/Suicidal-ideation (SI), Eating Disorders (ED), Sexual Assault (SA), Sexual Violence (SV), Child Sexual Assault (CSA), Child Sexual Assault Material (CSAM)
Failure to use content warnings properly can result in your post being removed and/or further moderator action.
Contributors: BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622335) (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622203), woozy@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6626173)
If this seems good or you would like to suggest any changes/additions, let me know
There was also some good discussion on latent ableism via the vague "disengage" rule as well.
Original CoC:
Click to Expand
Any discussions may be opted out of by disengaging.
Updated with proposals to reduce abuse, make it a personal statement of resignation than command to others:
Click to Expand
Any user may disengage from any discussion by posting a two word, and only two word, reply: "I'm Disengaging".
Stipulations:
- Do not post a lengthy reply and then end it with "I'm disengaging."
- Do disengage yet continue to reply directly/indirectly to the user or about the user.
- Do not complain when someone properly uses the feature on you.
- Do not try to circumvent these restrictions by vague posting or bringing it up later in another thread.
- Do not retroactively use disengage through editing posts or comments.
Abusing disengage, failure to abide a proper disengagement, or circumventing the stipulations can result in moderator action.
Contributors: SickSemper@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622373), MizuTama@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622432), Marxism_Sympathizer@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622373), SuperNovaCouchGuy2@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6627165), GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6626660)
People have been discussing widely accepted ableist slurs for some time, outside of these most current discussions. I felt that should warrant its own section in an updated CoC. I started with the usual sanist suspects but decided to include widely accepted racist slurs as well:
CW: Slurs, Ableism, Racism - Click to Expand
Society at large is biased towards discrimination against marginalized groups. One expression of this is acceptable language. Society tolerates bigoted language that demeans marginalized peoples. Hexbear flat-out filters some of these words, but some remain unfiltered. As leftists we should confront and criticize this by changing the words we use.
Work to rid the following from your vocabulary:
- insane
- crazy
- loony
- lunacy
- lunatic
- hysteria
- hysterical
- idiot
- moron
- lame
- blind
- ignorant
- powwow
- dumb
- crippled
There are also some problematic idioms:
- mumbo-jumbo
- peanut gallery
- gyp
- long time no see
- no can do
- sold down the river
- tone deaf
While we don't expect everyone to be perfect or immediately undo life-long bad habits, we do expect a level of self-criticism and social-consciousness from users.
All this boils down to me requesting input from this community on the matters closest to you. Any suggestions, re-wording, additions, critiques, or comments on keeping the old CoC rather than changes would be very appreciated. Contributors will be cited as such in drafts. If you have already contributed, thank you! Sorry to bother you with this again.
My thoughts on these:
Agree on all the rest. I also found the comment about how "bullying" is a bad term to use for what is done as dunking very relevant, it's in the main thread. I think that if we would frame the dirtbag left style pushback as resistance and retire the term "bullying" it would reveal the actual bullying that is sometimes done in the name of dunking better. Because these are two separate things.
Here is what I have so far:
(CW: Unabbreviated Triggers) Section 2 - Content Warnings & Tone Indicators
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2A - Content Warnings
A content warning (CW) must be placed directly before the following topics or depictions:
Triggering content should be placed inside a spoiler tag. Post images that depict triggering content should be marked NSFW. Post titles should contain warnings at the beginning. Use established abbreviations where possible.
Established abbreviations:
Failure to use content warnings properly can result in your post being removed and/or further moderator action.
Contributors: BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622335) (https://hexbear.net/comment/6622203), woozy@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6626173)
2B - Tone Indicators
Users should work to introduce the use of tone indicators into their posts and comments. Place tone indicators at the end or beginning of the relevant content.
Common tone indicators:
There is no punishment for failing to use tone indicators. However it is a helpful practice for neurodivergent comrades and overall communication on the site. Read more here.
Some comms, like the ones that forbid low-quality posts, may enforce the use of tone indicators at the discretion of the respective moderator(s).
Contributors: StillNoLeftLeft@hexbear.net (https://hexbear.net/comment/6631900) (https://hexbear.net/comment/6636914)