Behaviour and community guidelines
Define expected conduct, harassment/abuse boundaries, prohibited content/activity, conflicts, enforcement states and appeal/correction process. Rules should be versioned and understandable before people are asked to participate.
Moderation needs ownership and capacity
A moderation promise requires named accountable owners, reviewer capacity, evidence/logging, escalation, response expectations, conflict handling and an ability to restrict or close participation when safety requires it.
Privacy and consent
Define what data is collected, why, who can access it, visibility, retention, deletion/correction, consent, public-recognition permission and how sensitive reports are handled. Community growth is not a reason to collect more data than needed.
Mentorship and support boundaries
Mentorship is not therapy, legal advice, clinical care, religious authority or emergency response unless the actual qualified service exists. Peer support needs clear limits and escalation routes.
Recognition and appeals
Recognition should be evidence-based, permissioned and correctable. People need a way to challenge inaccurate role/recognition claims, moderation outcomes or public attribution. Correction should update current status without erasing contribution history.
Opening gate
Do not open a public community merely because the page exists. Release only when owner, moderation, privacy, safeguarding, rules, response capacity, logging, correction/appeal, manual fallback and closure/rollback path are actually ready.
Reflection
Questions to sit with
- Who owns the community when something goes wrong?
- What can be moderated reliably with current human capacity?
- How can someone correct or appeal a public attribution or moderation decision?