New Mod Policies / Update On Tags

[schmevil]

You may have noticed over recent months a few changes and additions to our moderating team. With that we've also been rolling out subtle changes to the way we moderate the community. This post is to outline and make official new policies. You won't be seeing any major changes, just additional clarification to the community ethos, making some existing guidelines official rules and some changes in the way mods will be going about enforcing the rules and ethos.

Ethos Clarification

First is the streamlining of the community ethos and creation of a new section listing the Rules of Conduct. This isn't a major change - we're seeking to make the ethos clearer for new, and existing, members and have clarified the existing rules for member behavior by adding more detail and giving them their own section in the community rules.

ETHOS.

Scans Daily was founded by girl geeks, and members of slash fandom but now strives to provide an atmosphere which is LGBT-friendly, anti-racist, anti-ableist, woman-friendly and otherwise discrimination and harassment free. The moderation team is always striving to make it a safer space for all fans, but this is not a safe space. Members come from all walks of life to talk about and share extracts from comics, and not all of them are on the same page regarding anti-oppression theory. Calling out other members or creators for discriminatory or oppressive behavior is encouraged for the good of the community.

Unfamiliar with terms like 'calling out' and 'anti-oppression theory'? Check out our resource page for some primers.

Note: Please contact a moderator immediately if you see another member making discriminatory remarks.

RULES OF CONDUCT.

Scans_Daily's aim is to create a safer atmosphere where members from all backgrounds can be enthusiastic about comics without feeling threatened or unsafe. When you join the community, we expect members to familiarize themselves with and follow the rules of conduct. Failure to follow these rules can result in official discipline, including warnings, suspensions or permanent bans.

1. Hate speech, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or otherwise overtly objectionable commentary based on people's intrinsic characteristics will not be tolerated in the community. In addition, rape apologia, rape jokes and metaphors, trolling, concern trolling, misrepresentation, derailing, passive aggression, pointless belligerence, sockpuppeting, spamming, silencing tactics and/or disrespecting the mods (including ignoring them), is not acceptable.

2. Do not make personal attacks*, issue insults, threats or express wishes of bodily harm in posts or comments. This applies to comments to both other members in the community and the creators whose work is being discussed. We welcome critical opinions, but please try to concentrate on the work rather than the person. If you can't do so without resorting to personal attacks or passive aggression, then that's probably a sign that you should take a step back from the conversation. Differences of opinion are welcome; no one has ever been nor will ever be banned on a difference of opinion alone.

3. SD respects our members' rights to privacy and control over their online identities. As far as we're concerned you are your pseudonym. Trolling and attempts to dismiss other posters on the basis of their "hiding behind a fake name" will not be tolerated. Unauthorized public release of a fellow member's contact information will result in immediate banning.

If you see someone breaking any of the rules outlined above, please contact a moderator directly, or contact the mod team through dailyscans[at]gmail[dot]com immediately so action can be taken.

*Please note that calling out other members for discriminatory behavior is NOT considered a personal attack here at Scans Daily. For our specific policy on discriminatory behavior, please refer to rule #1.


Posting Rules

In addition to the clarification to the ethos, we're making a number of additions to the posting rules. These are things that have already been part of the posting guidelines, but will now be enforced officially. They are:

- Every post must include the source of the content. In the case of comic scans, that would be the title and issue number. For webcomics, a credit and link to the source. Exceptions will be made for entries tagged as "Context is for the weak."
- If you are posting scans from a source that doesn't follow the standard single issue 22-page format, please note the page count in your post. (IE: "10 pages of 30" or "7 pages from issue #6, 7 pages from issue #8" etc)
- If you are posting scans from multiple issues, please note issue breaks in your post.
- Do not link to sites hosting pirated or otherwise illegal content in full - this includes links to Torrent and Scanlation sites and posting images which are watermarked with links to such sites.

Mod Policies

1. Going forward, the mod team will issue warnings through the new sd_admin account, reserving their personal accounts for non-mod conversations, anti-oppression discussions, and mod-member policy conversations. Additionally, all mod posts will now be posted by SD-Admin.

2. Some of you may have noticed that we've been making increased use of placeholder comments and thread-freezing. This is a new strategy we've adopted to give ourselves time for consults, and to give members a cooling off period in threads which we consider are becoming problematic. Look out for the following wording in threads that have been frozen:

"THREAD FREEZE: this thread has been frozen and is being discussed by the mod team."

Means that we might be hitting you with a reminder or warning after we've consulted.

"THREAD FREEZE: this thread has been frozen."

Means that it's time for you to take a breather, but that no further mod action is forthcoming.


What does this mean for you?

Not a whole lot actually. Instead of individual mod accounts issuing you warnings and some formal mod notes, SD-Admin will now be taking care of all of those. ie. All standardized modly duties will be performed through the joint SD-Admin account.

Policy conversations and anti-oppression discussions will continue to be conducted through personal mod accounts.

Why are you doing this?

The mod team is looking to depersonalize day to day modding so that individual mods aren't identified with discipline as a whole, or other modly duties. Warnings will increasingly make use of the boilerplate in the userinfo. (We are mod-bot!) We hope that this will reduce member confusion as to when they are receiving official modly attention, and make it easier for mods to play in the comms as regular members in their downtime.

How will I know which mod I'm talking to?

You won't. But to put your minds at rest, we'll give you a behind the scenes on the mod team:

Mod posts and warnings are all collaborative efforts. To ensure fairness, moderators don't act independently in matters of discipline, and all potential warnings and bans are subject to time-limited consultation and votes. Additionally, we've adopted a policy of trying to avoid modding conversations we've participated in. In those cases, we make problem threads and posts known to the rest of the team and then let them take point. When we mod, we mod together. The policy of freezing problem threads gives us time to do so.

As always, if you'd like to dispute a warning, you can do so on comm, or through dailyscans[at]gmail[dot]com.


Tags

In addition to the problems we had with tag-trolling, leading to the tags being locked to moderators only, we're coming ever closer to our hard 5000 tag limit. As previously discussed, we're looking at a Delicious.com based solution. murklins from deliciouslymad is currently working on an import-script that will copy all of our Dreamwidth and Livejournal tags to the Scans/NoScans Delicious account. This means that on-comm tags will be revised and stripped down, and that the bulk of metadata will be found in the Delicious tags. The new Delicious tags will be far more detailed than our current system, and will organize posts to both communities.

Tag Wranglers

If you were a tag wrangler before we locked down the tags, and are interested in being a tag wrangler again, please report to the volunteer comm. Or if you're a member who is interested in becoming a member of the Delicious tag wrangler team, contact the mod team at dailyscans[at]gmail[dot]com. We'll need your help in building the new Delicious tag archive!

In future, tag wranglers will mostly be working through the Delicious.com interface. If you have no experience with Delicious, don't let that stand in your way - it's an easy system to work with. However, Afuna and Mark from Dreamwidth are working on a patch that will allow original posters to create/add/edit tags in addition to mods, and we will be taking advantage of that too when it comes through on the next code push.

We'll keep you all updated on the tags situation as and when we see developments.

Comments

[valtyr]

We should certainly worry about the delicate sensibilities of people who say racist things. I for one think we should stop focusing on the feelings of minorities and start focusing on the feelings of people who say shitty things about them.

[jlbarnett]

your problem is you're assuming that no one will abuse calling people out as a chance for free insults they couldn't otherwise get away with under the rules of this forum.

[kingrockwell]

And you're problem is you think it's abused more often than not. If we see it abused, we will act on it, but your concerns here aren't really supported.

[curlyjo1]

If we see it abused, we will act on it,

And this takes care of some of my concerns. This was the first mention I've seen of, "The offended party can call you out, but if THAT gets too abusive, the mods will step in."

I just didn't want to see a situation of someone saying something they had no idea was racist (even after reading all the resources, I could still see something slipping through somewhere), and getting completely jumped on, and it would be okay, because it's the calling out allowed in the rules. But this does help clarify things. Thank you.

[recognitions.livejournal.com]

I must have missed all the "kill whitey" threads popping up on s_d.

[cleome45]

Haven't you heard? Speaking of Geoff Johns' latest masterwork in less than 100% laudatory terms is exactly like calling for an ethnic cleansing against White people.

It also wins you honorary membership in Fred Phelps' congregation.

[rolleyes]

[neo_prodigy]

The "kill whitey" threads results when POCs get attacked by racist white folks and we do anything other than shuck and jive for Massah.

[valtyr]

Good point. If you have people lurking, just waiting for the chance to call you a name on a particular forum, you should be doubly careful about not saying anything discriminatory.

[cmdr_zoom]

There's a comment I would very much like to make in reply, but it's specifically against the rules just posted. So instead I'll say this:

People are always going to be jerks to each other, and they'll always be able to make up excuses and reasons why it's justified (for them, in this case). It's how we're wired.

[valtyr]

here's a comment I would very much like to make in reply, but it's specifically against the rules just posted.

Well, it's good to know we have some common ground.

Actually, there's also lot of wiring in people for co-operative behaviour and altruism.

We have mods to judge whether or not people's jerkiness is justified.

[cmdr_zoom]

Heh.

Actually, there's also lot of wiring in people for co-operative behaviour and altruism.

Yes, but because we're mentally incapable of being this way to everyone (look up the Monkeysphere, if you're not already familiar with the concept), we manage this by dividing ourselves up into Us and the Other, the latter being everyone that it's okay to not treat as people. And then we further divide and rank ourselves within Us according to the ancient rules of pack behavior.

[valtyr]

Yeah, I know it. But people do overcome it, don't they? People give money to charity, they put money in a stranger's meter, they see someone looking ill and bring them a glass of water. People can certainly learn to treat everyone they interact with with a basic level of respect, and that's what's being asked here. I'm sure if someone says "It's a black day for comics" and gets a torrent of vicious personal abuse accusing them of racism, the mods will address that. But it's pretty unlikely.

Calling out racism tends to be an uphill struggle, not a happy fun time.

[zemo]

There is a philosophical way of thinking that even altruism is in fact selfish, as the giver receives a good feeling from giving, ie endorphines :3

Humans, way too complicated.

[valtyr]

There's a philosophical way of thinking anything. ;)

[zemo]

True. None of them explains Paris Hilton's success, though :3

[greenmask]

Can I just say - I don't think I have ever met a comment of yours that I didn't like? :D!

[neo_prodigy]

And I'll say right now, as a POC and an LGBTQ, I won't pretend there aren't folks who do heinous shit under the veil of anti-oppression. I've clashed with more than a few of them in the past. However if I see that shit, I will personally shut it down because not only is it wrong but it undercuts legitimate efforts of anti-oppression.

And just because some people exploit anti-oppression issues does not negate the legitimacy of said issues.

But seeing this community's track record on bigotry, I seriously don't see militant minority uprising being a problem.

[valtyr]

Yeah, there's certainly people who do awful stuff under the veil of anti-oppression - all too often using one 'ism' to defend another (transmisogyny under the guise of feminism, or feminists accused of cultural intolerance (not to say feminists can't be culturally intolerant, but objecting to the forced marriage of a nine-year-old isn't)).

But of course it's a far smaller issue than the problem of actual oppression, and it's kind of where we have to trust the mod team.

[neo_prodigy]

*nods*

and by the by you've been kicking ass and taking names with your comments as usual too. just in case no one else has mentioned that yet.

[valtyr]

Aw, thanks. :)

[cleome45]

I keep hearing all these dire predictions of dissenters being driven off the board in some big anti-oppression crusade, but I seem to keep missing the instances where this has actually happened.

[jlbarnett]

well, we do have significantly fewer member than there were at LJ and possibly even at IJ. These rules are mostly new things since the transfer, so at least some people have decided the group is no longer worth the trouble.

And at least one poster, Box in the Box, asked to be perma-banned after his second strike because he was tired of the new rules, arguements etc.

[jlbarnett]

I'm not worried about a militant minority, just a person here or there being jerks because they have an excuse.

[neo_prodigy]

we do assess the situation and take a look to see what's going on. if we think someone is acting inappropriately whether they think they have an excuse or not, we will deal with them accordingly.

[glprime]

If we think someone is acting inappropriately whether they think they have an excuse or not, we will deal with them accordingly.

That's about all I wanted to hear.