Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki:Conduct policy

This page documents an official Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki policy.

It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should follow. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.

From Wikimedia

This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).

To avoid unnecessary conflicts and disarray, the Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki has a project page dedicated to defining the proper conduct all users are expected to follow. This page serves as an add-on to the existing guidelines, and is loosely inspired by Wikipedia's conduct policies and Wookiepedia's civility guidelines - attribution goes to those two places.

Examples of incivility[]

Incivility is hard to identify in certain situations. Per Wikipedia, when reviewing cases of incivility, editors should take factors into consideration such as:

(i) the intensity and context of the language/behavior;

(ii) whether the behavior has occurred on a single occasion, or is occasional or regular;

(iii) whether a request has already been made to stop the behavior, and whether that request is recent;

(iv) whether the behavior has been provoked;

and (v) the extent to which the behavior of others need to be treated at the same time.

With that being said, here are a few examples:

1. Direct rudeness

(a) rudeness, insensitivity, insults, name-calling, gross profanity or indecent suggestions
(b) personal attacks, including (but not limited to) racial, ethnic, sexual, disability-related, gender-related and religious slurs, and derogatory references to groups such as social classes or nationalities
(c) ill-considered accusations of impropriety
(d) belittling a fellow editor, including the use of judgmental edit summaries or talk-page posts (e.g. "that is the stupidest thing I have ever seen", "fixed sloppy spelling", "snipped crap")

2. Other uncivil behaviors

(a) taunting or baiting: deliberately pushing others to the point of breaching civility, even if not seeming to commit such a breach themselves. All editors are responsible for their own actions in cases of baiting; a user who is baited is not excused by that if they attack in response, and a user who baits is not excused from their actions by the fact that the bait may be taken.
(b) harassment, including Wikihounding, bullying, personal or legal threats, gaming the system, posting of personal information, repeated email or user space postings
(c) sexual harassment
(d) lying
(e) quoting another editor out of context to give the impression they said something they didn't say

Main policies[]

Users are expected to treat all other users in a respectful, considerate, and civil way. Rudeness or insensitivity, for example, can disrupt and discourage users from editing.
Edit warring can result in animosity between editors and is unconstructive. Users are recommended to settle their disagreements in the users' message walls or by messaging them on Discord.
Do not make personal attacks on the wiki. Derogatory and egregious comments will be subject to deletion, and the user involved may receive a warning or a ban.
There is no need to target users and subject them to harassment. This wiki is not a place to harass users who are reading or editing articles.
Avoid creating multiple accounts to influence a cause, mislead users, or to evade an existing block. Sockpuppetry is not allowed on this wiki.
Vandalism is prohibited on the wiki. Users who intentionally vandalize pages will have their edits reverted and will receive a warning or block.
Most topics on the wiki are decided by consensus. If you disagree with the way things are going, do not beat a dead horse - make sure to understand and respect the results, and work towards improving the subject in question in the future.
If someone makes an honest mistake, give them an opportunity to learn and improve.
Above everything, use common sense.

Moderator conduct[]

Alongside the procedures listed above, moderators are expected to follow a few extra procedures:

Do not bite the users. Enforcing the guidelines in a stiff way may result in an unwelcoming experience for users, new or old.
Make sure to remember the Golden Rule - treat others as you would like others to treat you.
Avoid involving yourself in actions that include nitpicking, stonewalling, etc.
Be impartial. Having grudges against other users may affect your standing as a moderator, so please be as unbiased as possible when dealing with situations involving users you don't like - or, alternatively, recuse yourself from any cases involving the users.
Consider situations carefully before acting on them - and be fair.
When enforcing a rule, do so in a practical manner that all users can understand. In the cases that the user persists, be calm and respectful.
If you are unable to control a situation or are unsure what to do, we strongly advise you to seek advice from a moderator. If no moderators are available, do your best to calm down the chatroom and ensure the situation is under control; avoid ignoring the chatroom and pretending everything is fine, or joining in the confusion, as this will only make it worse.
Do your best to support and maintain the goals and organization of the wiki, but be flexible about growth and change.
Revert and block simple spam and vandalism. If it clearly doesn’t belong here, make it go away. Remember to erase auto-deletion summaries. If it looks like a user needs to be banned globally, report the situation to a member of the SOAP.

Conduct policy violation guidelines[]

In the event that the moderator conduct is broken by a moderator, or that there are several complaints about a moderator's performance, there are established guidelines that deal with this, and are intended to prevent situations that could have been easily avoided. These guidelines can change some from time to time, but should generally be followed to the best of the administration's ability.

The strike system[]

Each moderator starts with zero strikes. A strike will stay on the moderator's record for 6 months, like it is with everyone else.
Depending on the severity and frequency of the violation, a moderator can receive one or more strikes for each incident, or even none. Other violations, like being rude to a member, could result in up to two strikes, while a major violation such as abusing their power or harassing someone could result in up to three strikes. This will depend on the situation and how many users were involved.
The administrators (or another high-ranking member of the staff team, depending on who's available) are responsible for issuing strikes and notifying the moderator of their reason and duration. The moderator can appeal the strike if they believe it was unfair or unjustified.
If a moderator accumulates a certain number of strikes within a given time frame (e.g. three strikes in 30 days), they will face a punishment that matches the level of their misconduct. For example, a punishment could be a temporary suspension from moderation duties, a demotion to a lower rank, or a permanent removal from the moderation team.
Unexpired strikes can only be revoked if the administration as a whole sees improvement or evidence of good behavior from the moderator.
The strikes will be kept logged in the #punishments channel on Discord, and may also be communicated to the wiki as a whole.

A mod received a complaint. What steps should we take?[]

Address the concerns with their performance and see what can be done to help resolve them.
Team the moderator/administrator up with a more experienced member and see if that helps the situation. Have them work together until the moderator or administrator gets to a satisfactory level and can then work independently.
If the concerns and/or problems continue, then the entire administration will first come together and see how it can be addressed. Depending on the severity of the concerns and/or problems, the issue may be discussed by the administration internally, or by the community in dedicated spaces (e.g. the admins' noticeboard in Discussions, or the feedback and suggestions channel on the community chat). No demotions will be allowed to take place at this stage unless it is deemed an emergency action by the administration.
If no substantial progress has been made and the above actions have already been taken, then the administration will have to vote on a demotion and/or punishment (if applicable). If the significant majority of the administration agrees that they should be demoted, then the action will be carried out.

Notes[]

The supermajority for each general user group will be as followed in order for the demotion to be valid:

60% for moderators (Chat, Discord, or Discussions), rollbacks, and code editors.
65% for content moderators and junior administrators.
70% for administrators and bureaucrats.