notes-group-sitePolicyBadges

This idea is to have a standardized group of modules, like Creative Commons modules, that express some netequitte, rationality, civility, privacy, etc attributes of 'the way things work around here' on various sites.

I use the word 'badges' rather than 'modules' because if 'module' is so abstract, and also because it makes people think of either programming, or teaching. I would like to use the word 'icon' but what we are really presenting here is ideas, not graphic designs.

Please note that i am NOT presenting here a code of conduct for how you should run your site. I am merely presenting a set of ideas that you can mix-and-match if you choose. My goal is not to encourage one way or another of doing things, it's to make it easier for newbies to quickly understand how things are done at a given site.

Please note that it would not make sense for any one site to use ALL of these badges, because many of the badges contradict each other (e.g. 'we will protect your anonymity' vs. 'no anonymity allowed'). When two badges are listed here as opposites, if you display both of them on your site, then this will be construed as a joke, and people will not take any of your site policy badges seriously.

In fact, the badges are generally designed to be the sort of thing that some, but not all, sites endorse. For example, there is no badge for not posting illegal content, because almost all sites will forbid this. The badges are not supposed to replace terms of service.

Note: The titles and descriptions of the badges are NOT intended to be 100% literal, accurate descriptions of a site's policy! They are intended to be INFORMAL, FUZZY signposts. We don't want people going to sites and telling their moderators that their behavior is wrong because it technically doesn't match the exact, formal meaning of the words here. In addition, many sites make exceptions to their rules in special cases; for example, some sites ban anonymity or psuedonymity in most cases, but waive that ban if someone privately emails the site admins to explain why they really need it.

The genesis of this idea (for me) is both [1], under 'Modular blogger code of conduct proposal', and my friend ROF's filtered communication idea.

I don't have images for the badges yet but i'd like to. All images must be either CC0 or public domain (see http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/ ). If you'd like to contribute an image, please email me at http://bayleshanks.com/gmail_email_small.jpg .

I present the badges in categories. The categories are:

Civilty

badge: No flaming

Flaming is prohibited.

badge: No ad-hominem

Attacking another person, rather than their position, is prohibited.

(this badge is cross-listed in the 'rationality' category)

badge: No censorship

The moderator is more interested in permitting free discussion than in enforcing civilty.

This badge is the opposite of 'civilty above all'.

badge: Civilty above all

The moderator is more interested in promoting civilty than in avoiding appearances of 'censorship'.

The opposite of 'no censorship'.

badge: Don't say anything you wouldn't say in person

badge: Don't say anything you wouldn't say on the front page of the New York Times

This badge is a similar idea to "Don't say anything you wouldn't say in person", but a higher standard.

badge: Politeness over directness

If you have criticism of another, say it kindly and politely even if that means beating around the bush a little.

This badge is the opposite of 'Directness over politeness'.

badge: Directness over politeness

If you have criticism of another, say it honestly and directly even if that may hurt someone's feelings.

This badge is the opposite of 'politeness over directness'.

badge: No trolling allowed

We don't tolerate trolls here.

badge: No mean people allowed

We don't tolerate mean people here. Mean people will be expelled from this community.

badge: Don't feed the trolls

Community members are encouraged to ignore trolling rather than to respond to it.

badge: No inflammatory topics allowed

There are some topics that are by their nature inflammatory. These topics will not be discussed on this site, even if they are brought up politely.

badge: Godwin's law

It is poor form, and possibly trolling, to compare anyone to the Nazis. Such comparisons will be censored or ignored.

Off-topic

badge: mark off-topic posts

Off-topic discussion is permitted but should be clearly marked (e.g. with 'OT' in the subject line) so that it's easy for others to skip it.

badge: off-topic posts forbidden

Off-topic discussion is not permitted here (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any) and may be censored.

badge: politics forbidden

Political discussion is considered off-topic here (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any).

badge: religion forbidden

Religious discussion is considered off-topic here (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any).

badge: inflammatory topics forbidden

Discussion of inflammatory topics is considered off-topic here (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any). Inflammatory topics is not defined here but may or may not include things such as racism.

These are topic which are outside the site's core focus and which the site believes have a propensity to lead to situations where one or another person takes offense and/or to lead to flamewars and/or to provide especially fertile ground for trolling and/or to cause a lot of work for moderators. Often the site believes that these topics are not inherently bad and are even of value to discuss, but just not here.

Sometimes sites displaying this badge may make exceptions when a particular topic, though inflammatory, is clearly and unusually relevant to the site's core focus.

badge: sexual topics forbidden

Discussion of sexual topics, and sexual content, is considered off-topic here (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any).

badge: sexual topics permitted, but porn forbidden

Discussion of sexual topics is permitted but obscence content and pornography is not.

badge: commercial promotion forbidden

Don't mention any specific product or service or company (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any).

badge: advertising and commercial linking forbidden

Don't 'advertise' any specific product or service or company (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any). In some circumstances discussion about a product or service or company is permitted, but don't link to it (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any).

badge: affiliate linking forbidden

Don't post affiliate links (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any).

badge: woo-woo forbidden

'Woo-woo' topics forbidden (outside of designated forums/topics/threads, if any). Woo-woo is not defined here, but some sites consider some topics relating to aliens, psychic phenomena, paranormal, mind control, magic, conspiracy theories, mysticism, or even 'alternative' anything to be woo-woo. Note that some sites permit some of these topics and not others, for instance, some sites might permit discussion of alternative medicine but not of aliens.

badge: woo-woo forbidden without mainstream authoritative evidence

'Woo-woo' topics forbidden except when evidence can be presented from a mainstream authority. See badge 'woo-woo forbidden' for a discussion of what 'woo-woo' might mean. For example, some sites might prohibit discussion of alternative medical treatments except insofar as scientific study in a recognized scientific journal has talked about them. What is 'authoritative' or 'recognized' is not here defined and is up to the site.

Moderation

badge: I will not delete posts merely because i disagree with them (except in exceptional circumstances)

The site owner promises not to delete posts without a better reason than 'i disagreed with what they are saying'. Exceptional circumstances are in the discretion of the site owner; for example, some sites might consider Holocaust denial to be an inherently inflammatory topic.

badge: I will not delete posts merely because they politely criticize me

The site owner promises not to delete posts just because they are critical of the site owner, as long as they are polite.

badge: Alternatives to deletion

The site typically uses other moderation methods, such as disemvoweling, or such as hiding a post by default but allowing readers to see it if they wish, instead of deleting substantive posts.

This badge does not promise that substantive posts will never be deleted, nor does it promise that spammy or nonsensical posts will not be deleted.

badge: the moderator is always right

"Sure, there’s freedom of speech. Anyone who wants it can go start their own blog. On Yog’s board, Yog’s whim is law. Yog is an ancient ghod of chaos and evil. And he doesn’t like people very much. Moderation is a subjective art, and the moderator is always right. " -- http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010445.html

This badge is the opposite of "fair and open process".

badge: a fair and open process; the moderator can be wrong

The moderator promises to follow a fair and open process and a set of published, specific rules that constrains their use of discretion. If the moderator fails to follow the process correctly, community members have a right to complain.

This badge is the opposite of "the moderator is always right".

badge: community enforcement

Old-timers are encouraged to explain the community etiquette to newbies and to each other, and to gently and politely correct others when they breach it.

This badge is the opposite of 'no backseat moderation'.

badge: no backseat moderation

Unless you are a moderator, do not correct someone else. If the site software contains a 'flag' option, use it, but that's all you should do.

This badge is the opposite of 'regulars, please help'.

badge: meta-discussion permitted

Meta-discussion about site policy is permitted.

This badge is the opposite of 'meta-discussion prohibited'.

badge: meta-discussion only in the meta-discussion forum

Meta-discussion about site policy is only allowed in the forum(s)/topic(s)/thread(s) specifically reserved for that.

badge: meta-discussion prohibited

Meta-discussion about site policy is prohibited.

This badge is the opposite of 'meta-discussion permitted'.

Privacy

badge: no anonymity (and no psuedonymity)

Neither anonymous nor psuedonymous posting is allowed here.

badge: weak anonymity

Anonymous posting is allowed, but the site owner may 'out' some anonymous posters, at their discretion.

For example, the site owner may 'out' someone they consider to be a troll.

badge: anonymity

The site owner is saying "If you post anonymously, I will not 'out' you (except in extraordinary circumstances)". "Extraordinary circumstances" are not defined here but probably include things like threats of violence, court orders, possibly illegal posts, automated spamming, law enforcement requests, etc.

badge: strong anonymity

This is like the 'anonymity' badge but the site owner wishes to express even stronger protection for anonymous posters. Intended to be used for situations where the site owner wants to protect people's whose jobs or safety would be at risk if they were deanonymized, and/or where the site physically does not keep logs that could be used to deanonymize you.

Merely showing this badges does NOT mean that the site owner has promised never to out you, even in the most extraordinary circumstances, and it does NOT mean that the site owner is willing to go to jail to protect you. This badge is merely a fuzzy, informal expression of the idea 'strong anonymity'. Please read the site owner's written, textual anonymity policy for details.

badge: anonymity, but no psuedonymity

Anonymous posting is allowed, and posting under your real name is also allowed, but posting under a psuedonym is NOT allowed.

The idea here is that if you will not expose your real name to reputational risk, then you should not be allowed to build a reputation.

badge: we don't sell or trade private, personal user information (for now)

The site promises not to sell or trade private, personal user information, such as your email address. This may change in the future but if so, there will be a chance to opt-out.

This badge does not necessarily promise not to share information at all; for instance, many sites share information with service providers in the course of providing the site.

This badge does not necessarily promise to affirmatively reach out to notify users in case of a policy change; some sites may just change their privacy policy by posting the new policy without any other notice.

This badge does not necessarily promise that in the event of a change, there will be a chance to opt-out in a way other than deleting one's account.

This badge does not necessarily promise not to reveal 'anonymized' bulk data, even if that data can be de-anonymized by clever people.

This badge does not necessarily promise not to reveal private or personal information for purposes other than selling or trading, for instance, to assist research or law-enforcement.

Site owner's standards for themself

badge: I make conflict-of-interest disclosures

The site owner promises to disclose any connection to the topics under discussion that present a conflict of interest, in the judgement of the site owner.

badge: I do not do paid endorsements or reviews

The site owner promises not to accept payment in exchange for endorsing or reviewing a product.

Quality and Rationality

badge: No ad-hominem

Attacking another person, rather than their position, is prohibited.

(this badge is cross-listed in the 'civilty' category)

badge: Humorless

This site values earnestness and clarity and frowns on sarcasm and witty bon-mots.

badge: Don't post too much too quickly

Post sparingly. We only want quality, well-thought-out posts here, not a lot of short, quick back-and-forth.

Even if your posts are high-quality, if there are too many of them at once, the community won't have time to read and absorb it.

badge: DocumentMode encouraged

(for wikis only)

ThreadMode? is allowed but not too much of it. Please make it a priority to refactor pages into DocumentMode?.

badge: evidence required

When you are presenting an assertion that is not a tautology, your assertion will be considered invalid unless you provide evidence for it.

badge: speak literally

Speak literally.

This community is pedantic. If you need to add qualifiers to make a statement literally true, then add them.

This badge is the opposite of 'speak informally'.

badge: speak informally

Speak informally.

Feel free not to clutter your posts with a bunch of qualifiers. This is a forum, not a legal document. We will not hold you to the literal meaning of your words, and we understand that most of what you post is your opinion, not necessarily something you are 100% sure of.

In discussion, make substantive, not pedantic, arguments. This community is more concerned with content than with saying everything the right way.

This badge is the opposite of 'speak literally'.

badge: be concise

This community values brevity.

badge: dictionary definitions

This community interprets words using their dictionary definitions, even if that differs from popular usage.

This badge is incompatible with 'speak informally'.