Community Participation Covenant and Guidelines

system · June 12, 2023, 5:48pm

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

As a registered user of discuss.uua.org, I understand and agree that the content posted here is available for public viewing.

The UUA’s discussion platform follows the same community participation covenant used during General Assembly.

Community Participation Covenant

Let us remember our commitment to the worth and dignity of all. The UUA expects users to conduct themselves in a professional manner with concern and respect for all.

The UUA is committed to assuring that all participants are safe from abuse and harassment. Any harassment regarding race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, economic class, or employment will not be tolerated. Sexual harassment includes unsolicited remarks, gestures, physical contact, requests for sexual favors, repeated sexual advances after an initial turn down, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. Religious professionals are to follow their codes of conduct to avoid misconduct or harassment. Any user who believes that they are the victim of harassment should flag such posts (if the option is available) or contact app.support@uua.org so they can be removed.

Practices for Fostering Multicultural Dialogue and Community

We gather to build relationships, which requires a commitment to remaining present to issues of power when feeling challenged. A Covenant alone can never be perfect nor lead to perfect behavior; community requires practice. You are invited to take these practices to heart and to speak from your truth while acknowledging your privilege.

Honor multiple truths - Your viewpoint, opinions, and actions have intent and impact. In cross-cultural interactions, your INTENT may be to speak from your truth and not cause harm. However, if you are not also invested in the other person’s truth then they can experience the IMPACT as harmful. This is particularly true when people with white privilege see their opinion as the universal experience. Which leads to…
Consider your social location - Each of us holds multiple identities with respect to race, class, ability, gender, sexuality, age, and more. Depending on where we are and who we are with, sometimes we are in a position of power and privilege, sometimes we are disempowered or marginalized, and often there’s a mix. Recognize your power and notice the power dynamics around you. Practice using your privilege to create more space for those on the margins.
Practice care toward yourself and those you engage with. If you’re in a position of privilege, practice letting go of assumptions, taking your cue from the other person/s, sitting with your discomfort, and/or pausing to consider how to process the conversation. If you have one or more marginalized identities, you may want to assess how much spiritual energy you have to give to the conversation, end a conversation by asking the other person to check in with an accountability partner, and/or seek out care for yourself. Either way, consider finding your people for accountability and/or support.

Agreement and Practices for Online Content & Discussion

This discussion site allows UU’s from all over to gather and provides an opportunity to build deep connections, engage, and participate in innovative learning and collaboration. It is important that we uphold agreements that support a compassionate, respectful and anti-oppressive environment for all.

As a participant in General Assembly and/or the online platforms designed to enhance communication between participants, I hereby agree to the following:

Behave Respectfully–I will engage with others in a way that honors the personhood and experience of all. I will both listen and contribute to conversations. I will make space for others to participate and avoid disruption or distraction by honoring the agenda and topics for discussion.

Self Care and Community Care–I will take care of myself and my needs. I will also take care to engage with our Unitarian Universalist communities in an empathetic, understanding and thoughtful manner.

Practice active and anti-oppressive engagement–I will make a conscious effort to engage with and understand what others are sharing. I will be attentive to how my interactions may impact others. Words and actions have been used to historically oppress people and therefore certain words and actions can be triggering of traumatic or hurtful experiences. I will be mindful of this and participate in ways that are respectful and considerate.

Show Up – Understanding that we are in a time of recovering from a global pandemic and global uprising against state sponsored violence and that these crises disproportionately impact some of us based on our identity and social location, I will cultivate grace and practice patience. I will be mindful to side with love by showing up for others in this time.

Be present to truth – We hold multiple truths gleaned from our lived experiences. None of our experiences, especially those of us who have been historically marginalized, are up for debate. I will be mindful of this during my interpersonal interactions.

Our Unitarian Universalist values call upon us to avoid the following harmful forms of expression:

Offensive language related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, pregnancy status, veteran status, political affiliation, marital status, body size, age, race, national origin, ethnic origin, immigration status, language, religion or other identity marker.
Threats of violence or aggressive behavior of any kind toward any individual or group.
Online Trolling; deliberate provocative, offensive and/or disrespectful posts (commentary, images, GIFs) intended to derail conversation
Stalking or following - online (or in the physical world.)
Sexual harassment in any form, including sexual images, GIFs, sexual language, virtual contact without consent, and inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
Revealing any aspect of the identity of a person who experiences marginalization without their consent.
Humor that evokes any of the above.
Adults should never be alone with an unrelated child at a Unitarian Universalist event, whether in-person or virtually. We ask that adults not private-message youth on any Virtual GA platform, including the GA App by Whova. It is appropriate to interact with youth where multigenerational users are all participating. It is not appropriate to engage in one-to-one communication between an adult and a youth.

We will not be complicit when observing activity that is deliberately antagonistic and harmful. Violations of this Agreement and Practices will prompt any/all of the following action steps:

A warning given, and if appropriate, an opportunity to improve their communication for the benefit of all.
Content (i.e. chat dialogue, app or social media post) may be edited, hidden, or removed.
Removal from the discussion.

Sources

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always adding something positive to the discussion, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

Name-calling
Ad hominem attacks
Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

This discussion platform provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention. Note that new users do not have the ability to flag. As you use the system and build trust, additional system features, like flagging will become available.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of a major news site.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

Don’t start a topic in the wrong category; please read the category definitions.
Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
Don’t post no-content replies.
Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

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Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.