BCD Member Code of Conduct
Policy information
Status
Created: 2022-04-26
Last updated: 2022-11-28
In force from: 2023-01-01
Expires: 2023-04-01
Versions
Table of contents
Part 1 - Introduction
Sect 1 - Statement of purpose
This Policy serves to outline the set of rules and behaviours that members of the Bonk.io Community Discord are expected to abide by while part of the Bonk.io Community Discord. This Policy cannot cover every real application, but it attempts to lay down a framework of rules and to provide several common examples of rule violations.
Sect 2 - Definitions
Under this Policy:
BCD, the server, or the guild means the Bonk.io Community Discord server.
member, or user, refers to a person who is in control of a Discord account that exists or has existed in BCD.
SAC refers to the Staff Advisory Council of BCD.
administrator refers to a person who is a current member of the Administration unit of BCD.
Part 2 - Code of Conduct
Sect 3 - General principles
(1) In the most general sense, members must not behave in such a manner that may reasonably be deemed to cause distress to or adversely affect the user experience of other members.
(2) Members must refrain from behaviour towards other members that is deliberately insulting, discriminatory, or otherwise hurtful in any way.
Sect 4 - Profane and derogatory language
(1) Members must not make use of language that may be considered profane, derogatory, or is otherwise intended to be discriminatory or belittling to a person or group of people.
(2) Members must not attempt to bypass any language filter programs employed by BCD to prevent the use of such language.
Sect 5 - Objectionable content
(1) Members must refrain from posting any content that may be considered objectionable. This includes, but is not limited to, content that is:
- sexually suggestive or explicit;
- intended to be or may reasonably be construed as offensive/'creepy' in nature;
- contains gore or graphic representations of violence; or
- makes light of potentially sensitive issues such as suicide, sexual assault and terrorism.
Sect 6 - Disruptive behaviour
(1) Members must not:
- spam messages (outside of any designated channel designated for the purpose);
- abuse mentions, whether individual or role mentions; or
- flood chat channels with images, videos, links, etc.
(2) Likewise, members shall conduct themselves in an orderly and civilised manner in voice channels.
(3) Serious cases of disruptive behaviour are termed raiding and will result in an instant ban from BCD.
(4) As a different example of a 'serious case', pinging Chaz#6202 (the developer of Bonk.io) has severe associated penalties.
Sect 7 - Advertising
(1) Members must not send advertising links in the channels of BCD, or via direct message to any other member of BCD unless explicitly requested by that member. These methods are termed unsolicited advertising, and can incur serious penalties.
(2) BCD instead provides a means by which any member can place an advertisement in the server, which is sent to the staff team for verification and is then displayed in a designated channel. This in fact increases the exposure of the advertisement, without unnecessarily annoying individual users. To place a legitimate advertisement in BCD, simply go to the #bots-commands channel, type --ad, and follow the prompts.
Sect 8 - Bot abuse
(1) Members must not deliberately exploit any feature of any bot present within BCD in a way that would reasonably be construed as having a negative impact on the user experience of others.
(2) For example, spamming commands:
- is, at the very least, a disruption to bot command channels;
- in its most extreme form may be considered a form of denial of service (DoS) attack on a bot; and
- in any case is a violation of this section.
Sect 9 - Channel topics
(1) Channel topics are usually located in the channel descriptions.
(2) Members must make an effort to keep any discussions within channels related to the topic of each individual channel.
(3) Minor deviations from channel topics are acceptable, but members should attempt to steer conversations back on track if they have been off-topic for too long.
Sect 10 - Honesty and impersonation
(1) Members must not deliberately lie to staff members.
(2) Members must not attempt to impersonate any user or person other than themselves.
Part 3 - Enforcement
BCD offers a range of disciplinary actions, ranging from lowest to highest severity:
- verbal warnings (not logged)
- (logged) warnings
- mutes of varying duration
- kicks
- bans
(1) Before a ban is applied to a longtime member of BCD, a final warning is generally issued as a courtesy to the member in question. This allows them one last chance to improve their pattern of behaviour.
(2) An example punishment schedule for each rule outlined in Part 2 of this Policy is as follows:
| Category / Number of offenses | Punishment |
|---|---|
| General principles | |
| 1 | Verbal warning |
| 2 | Warning |
| 3 | 1d mute |
| 4 | 3d mute |
| 5 | 7d mute |
| 6 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 7 | Ban |
| Profane or derogatory language | |
| 1-2 | Verbal warning |
| 3 | Warning |
| 4-5 | 1d mute |
| 6-7 | 3d mute |
| 8-10 | 7d mute |
| 11 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 12 | Ban |
| Objectionable content | |
| 1 | Warning |
| 2 | 1d mute |
| 3 | 3d mute |
| 4 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 5 | Ban |
| Disruptive behaviour | |
| 1 | Verbal warning |
| 2 | Warning |
| 3 | 1d mute |
| 4 | 3d mute |
| 5-6 | 7d mute |
| 7 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 8 | Ban |
| Advertising | |
| 1 | Verbal warning |
| 2 | Warning |
| 3 | Kick |
| 4 | Ban |
| Bot abuse | |
| 1-2 | Verbal warning |
| 3 | Warning |
| 4 | 1d mute |
| 5 | 3d mute |
| 6-7 | 7d mute |
| 8 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 9 | Ban |
| Channel topics | |
| 1-3 | Verbal warning |
| 4-5 | Warning |
| 6-7 | 1d mute |
| 8-9 | 3d mute |
| 10-11 | 7d mute |
| 12 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 13 | Ban |
| Honesty/impersonation | |
| 1-2 | Verbal warning |
| 3 | Warning |
| 4 | 1d mute |
| 5 | 3d mute |
| 6 | 7d mute |
| 7 | 7d mute and final warning |
| 8 | Ban |
(3) This punishment schedule is only an approximation.
(4) All offenses should be assessed on a case-by-case basis, particularly with regard to both severity and intent.
(5) Offenses that have occurred in the past (e.g. several months beforehand) should be taken less into consideration than more recent offenses when determining a user's history of disciplinary actions.
(6) Where it is clear that a recently-joined member has entered BCD with the express purpose of violating one or more of BCD's rules, the Moderation unit may proceed directly to a kick or ban.
Part 4 - Appeals
Sect 11 - Bans
BCD has a specific process for ban appeals. The banned user must:
Initiate a Direct Message to a member of the Moderation or Administration unit.
Write an appeal message with the following format:
Name: [The name you go by in the Bonk community]
Reason for ban: [The reason why you were originally banned from BCD - don't lie, this will be checked]
Reason for appeal: [Write at least 100 words on why you wish to be unbanned and why there is unlikely to be a repeat of your original ban reason]
Send this to the same staff member. They will forward it to the Moderation unit for consideration.
If this process is followed correctly, the staff team should come to a decision within a few days.
If an appeal is denied:
- The user should consider why it was denied and try improving their conduct accordingly.
- The user may optionally try again after a period of time (>1 month).
If an appeal is accepted:
- The user should be able to rejoin BCD without any delay.
- There will be a probation period in which any rule violations will be punished more severely, and severe offenses may result in a re-ban.
- The duration of this period will vary depending on severity of offenses both past and during the period.
- If a user is banned again after a successful ban appeal, their chances of another appeal being accepted at a later date are extremely low.
Sect 12 - All disciplinary actions other than a ban
(1) This section applies to all other disciplinary actions taken that are not bans.
(2) If a member feels that such an action that has been taken against them is disproportionate to the severity and intent of their actions, based on their history of disciplinary actions, they can appeal for an amendment to the action.
(3) Such an appeal should be made to any sitting member of the SAC.
(4) If the member that receives the appeal feels that the appeal has merit, they should then raise it for discussion with the Staff-in-Council.
(5) The Staff-in-Council can then vote on any amendment to be made to the disciplinary action as in s8 of the Governance Policy.