Post Carbon London (Ontario)

Web forum policy -
Response to individuals who violate either: (a) Post-Carbon London's mission and values; or (b) the civility policy (which is below the next four points):
- First offence: Executive member would e-mail the individual to remind
them of the groups policy and that they were not following it.
- Second offence: E-mail to offender from executive advising them how
they have violated the policy and the reasons why it
is important to adhere to the policy.
- Third offence: E-mail to offender to again advise them how they have
violated the policy and that this was their last warning. They will be
advised that future offences will result in expulsion from the group.
- Fourth offence: E-mail advising them that they have again violated the
policy and that they are expelled from the group and all their
privileges have been cancelled and revoked.

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Web forum policy -
Definitions of incivility and disrespectful personal attacks

Examples of disrespectful personal attacks

Specific examples of personal attacks include but are not limited to:

* Accusatory comments such as "George is a troll", or "Laura is a
bad editor" can be considered personal attacks if said repeatedly,
in bad faith, or with sufficient venom.
* Negative personal comments and "I'm better than you" attacks, such
as "You have no life."
* Racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, religious, political, or
ethnic epithets directed against another contributor.
(Disagreement over what constitutes a religion, race, sexual
preference, or ethnicity is not a legitimate excuse.)
* Using someone's affiliations as a means of dismissing or
discrediting their views — regardless of whether said affiliations
are mainstream or extreme.
* Profanity directed against another contributor.
* Threats of legal action.
* Threats of violence, including death threats.
* Threats or actions which expose other web forum users to
political, religious or other persecution by government, their
employer or any others.
* Posting a link to an external source that fits the commonly
accepted threshold for a personal attack, in a manner that
incorporates the substance of that attack into web forum
discussion. Suggesting a link applies to another editor, or that
another editor needs to visit a certain link, that contains the
substance of an attack.

Examples of what is not a personal attack
* Disagreements about content such as "Your statement about X is
wrong" or "Your statement is a point of view, not fact" are not
personal attacks.
* Remarks describing an user's actions and made without involving
their personal character should not be construed as personal
attacks. Stating "Your statement is a personal attack..." is not
itself a personal attack — it is a statement regarding the actions
of the user, not a statement about the user. (It can however be a
harmful statement if it's untrue.) A comment such as "responding
to accusation of bad faith by user X" is not a personal attack
against user X.

Civility in a nutshell:
Participate in a respectful and civil way. Do not ignore the positions
and conclusions of others. Try to discourage others from being uncivil,
and be careful to avoid offending people unintentionally.

Examples of incivility:
Petty examples that contribute to an uncivil environment:
* Rudeness
* Belittling contributors because of their language skills or word
choice
* Ill-considered accusations of impropriety of one kind or another
* Starting a comment with: "Not to make this personal, but..."
* Calling someone a liar, or accusing him/her of slander or libel.
Even if true, such remarks tend to aggravate rather than resolve a
dispute.

More serious examples include:
* Taunting
* Personal attacks
o Racial, ethnic, sexual, and religious slurs
o Profanity directed at another contributor
* Lies
* Calling for bans or blocks
* Indecent suggestions

Incivility happens, for example, when you are quietly creating a new
page, and another user tells you, If you're going to write a pointless
page, could you spell-check it?.
Escalation occurs when you reply, Mind your own business.

This style of interaction between web forum drives away contributors,
distracts others from more important matters, and weakens the entire
community.