Post History

I just heard about this place (thanks icanfathom). Willing to give it a try. Of course, the first thing I checked on was the code of conduct and, no surprise at all, the only item of contention in the code of conduct is the harassment clause. So let me offer some suggestion on why harassment clauses are so contentious, and what might serve as an alternative.  

I note that many community codes of conduct start by saying that they aim to be a safe space for "everyone". This is impossible. Codes of conduct exist to exclude, specifically to exclude people who want to behave in a certain way. Codes of conduct exist to specify that this is a certain kind of community, and that certain kinds of people are not welcome. That is the only terms under which community is possible. 

Yes, that is very sad. But it is also human. As long as there exists an opinion or behavior X, for which some people feel offended and/or harassed by the assertion of X, and some people feel offended and/or harassed by the denial of X, your can't have a peaceful community of everyone. And there are lots of values for X in this world. 

The problem with a specific harassment clause it that it makes plain who is excluded, destroying the illusion that this is a place for "everyone". The problem with a vague "I'll know it when I see it" harassment clause is that it is open to contention, and to people campaigning to have their particular X explicitly included in the code, which is exactly what happened at SE. You can hope that does not happen for a while, but the possibility is always out there. 

In fact, harassment clauses (and hate speech codes) are now frequently used as ideological filters to exclude people from various places of influence. (For a long time, anyone who wanted to hold office in Britain had to take the "oath against transubstantiation". The purpose of this was to exclude Catholics from positions of influence. (This may be a plot point in a story I am thinking of writing.)) One you institute one, however pure the intention, you leave yourself open to this kind of attack. If you truly want this to be a place for writers of every stripe, then you would be well advised to defend against any attempt to bring in an ideological filter via a harassment code.) 

A community is a collection of people with shared values. It excludes people who don't share those values. People in the community don't have to share all their values. They just have to be able to coexist peacefully with other people based on the values they do share. They have to tolerate in that community things they might not tolerate in another. To be stable, a community needs some core values that are central to its reason for being a community. It needs its members to agree to abide by those values, even if they find some of the actions of other members of the community upsetting in ways outside of the community's reason for being. 

One of the values commonly shared by writers is freedom of expression, which includes both the freedom to say what you think, and also the freedom to not say what you don't think. I don't think you want a generic code of conduct here. You want a code of conduct specific to the common values of writers. 

But I'm not advocating for an anything goes policy here. Just because we value freedom of speech does not mean that we have to exercise it in all situations. If you want to say that God does not exist, I will defend your right to say it. But if you walk into a church or a synagogue or a mosque in the middle of a service and say it, I will applaud as the cops carry you away for disrupting a religious service. Context and purpose matter. 

So, let me propose a pair of simple and time tested rules that I think will serve a community specifically of writers well, will define and accord with our shared values, and will make a harassment clause unnecessary:

1. All discussions must be on topic. Don't talk about subjects that are outside of the purpose and scope of this community or the particular subject under discussion. 

2. No ad hominem arguments. Address the idea, not the person. Saying the moon is made of green cheese is okay. Saying that people who believe the moon is made of green cheese are idiots is not okay. Saying that the orbital characteristics of a moon made of green cheese would not match the observed orbit of the moon is okay. 

And if perhaps we really need to make the point:

3. The expression of an opinion (excluding ad hominem statements) is not to be construed as harassment, no matter how much you disagree with the opinion.