Code Of Conduct for KotakuInAction

 

GENERAL RULES

1. Don't be a Dickwolf

Attack arguments, not people.

This isn't hard, people. "Fuck off, retard" isn't an argument. Neither is "Kill yourself, faggot". If you think someone is a shill, sjw, what-have-you... ignore them or argue the points. Calling them names isn't helping the discussion.

Now.. if you make a well-reasoned argument and you end on "Stop being obtuse; even children understand this concept"... have fun. Ostensibly, we're all adults here, a potshot like that can just be ignored.

The following special cases are based on patterns of behaviour.

1. Badgering

   Harassing another user across multiple threads, including persistent /u/ mentions and/or replies.

2. Trolling

   Posts and comments which are clearly not intended to generate discussion, but rather just aimed at generating as much drama and outrage as possible.

3. Divide & Conquer

   Posts and comments designed to drive a wedge in the community -- especially when those posts are repeatedly based on speculative or unverifiable info.

 

How is this enforced?

You'll get two public warnings from the mods. Any offenses after that, and you'll get a 3 day temporary ban. Screw up again, and you're gone for a month. Screw up again, and you're not coming back.

Warnings will expire after 90 days. So if you got a warning and didn't screw up for, say, three months, and get warned again, that counts as your first warning on the road to being banned. However, if you received a temp ban for breaking Rule 1, it'll stay on your record, and won't expire, so if you screw up after that, you go to a month-long ban. Basically, don't screw around.

In extreme cases, like dox and spam, permanent bans will be issued upon mod discretion. If it is found that the ban was issued in error or the user did not deserve an immediate ban, it will be overturned. In less extreme cases that warrant more immediate action than warnings and temporary bans, a mod will make a motion to ban a user. Two other mods, not counting the one making the proposal, must agree to the ban before it can be issued.

NOTE: While Rule 1 generally does not apply to people outside the subreddit, e.g. "God, the guy who wrote that article is such a fucking retard", Rule 1 does apply when /u/ tagging another user directly, e.g. "/u/reallybadpersonidontlike you're a fucking mongoloid and you should go die in a fire".

 

---

2. No Personal Information

Reddit is very strict about "Personal Information", so don't post it. If in doubt, ask.

What constitutes Personal Information?

• Direct link (or archive) to social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Does not include Medium, Allthink, etc.)

  • Exception: Journalist, actor, published author, public facing company personality, or your own accounts

• Real names

  • Exception: Same as above, but also includes primary subjects of articles from multiple non-blog sites

• Phone numbers, addresses, or the like.

  • Exception: Public contact numbers/address for companies (not, as a rule, individual employees)

• Other info which may be used to personally identify someone (Google maps streetview links, pig latin, what have you)

If you are in doubt whether what you posted may constitute posting Personal Information, reach out to the moderator team as we take this very seriously and reserve the right to instantly and permanently ban you for falling afoul of this rule.  

---

3. Posting Guidelines

Core topics

• Gaming/Nerd Culture
• Journalism Ethics

 

Related topics

• Socjus from companies/organizations. (E.g. university policies, but not some random on tumblr.)
• Campus Activities
• Related Politics (Affects Gaming/Internet, Free Speech/Censorship Legislation)
• Censorship (Action, not just demands)
• Media Meta (someone leaving a website (president, employee, etc.), layoffs, purchases or shutdowns.)
• OC Artwork (Related to GG/KIA; not including image macros/memes)
• Organizations/individuals under socjus attack from media (n.b. Twitter posts not sufficient)

 

Detractors

• Unrelated Politics (Does not apply if post includes Related Politics)
• Memes

 

Points system

Core topics are all worth 2 points.

Related topics are 1 point.

Detractors are -2 points

Posts must have at least 3 points to pass.

Please Note: A non-topic bonus of +1 point applies to self posts which present an argument or explanation of the post's content/context.

 

Examples

A post specifically about ethics in video games journalism would be worth 4 points.

A post merely about about social justice on university campus is 2 points. But if that socjus activity involves censorship it would be 3 points.

A post about some social justice advocacy group demanding censorship of a video game would be 4 points. And an article about unethical reporting in relation that that would be 6 points.

Notes

• Related politics are anything that can be shown to have a direct connection in any manner to gaming or the internet as a whole (TPP, SOPA, etc). Unrelated, for all intents and purposes, is defined as anything else political. This will generally include anything connected to a politician/their actions, including responses to the politican's actions/words/whatever. Similarly, it will also include laws/policy - whether enacted or proposed - including the responses to such.

  • Gamedropping will not be considered sufficient for determining "Related Politics".
  • Posts about the media response to many of these issues (migrants, BLM, etc), and specifically their own ethics in those responses may be permitted. Posts about the issues themselves are subject to removal under Rule 3 - similar to how we handled Cologne, you can discuss the media covering things up, but the issue itself was not relevant to the sub.

• If you believe your post is of sufficient importance to the subreddit but are concerned that it would not pass the above guidelines, please contact the modteam for approval

• We are defining SocJus to include the following: radical/third wave feminism (dat's sexist!), Oppression Olympics, "privilege", Tumblr-style SJWisms, campus speech issues. We are not including things like the migrant problems in the EU, etc.

• Meta posts about KotakuInAction continue to be allowed and are not subject to the guidelines above.

 

---

4. Please tag posts for flair

You can use brackets at the beginning of post titles to designate which flair your post needs. This is strongly encouraged!

 

The supported tags are as follows:

[Ethics] - Major findings on ethics in the press.

[Gaming] - Posts about the wider games industry and issues within.

[Drama] - Drama between individuals. Typically from twitter. E-celebs.

[Opinion] - Opinion pieces by mainstream media outlets or individuals, positive or negative.

[Censorship] - Censorship of discussion of GamerGate or other gaming-related issues.

[SocJus] - Posts relating to SJWs influencing wider nerd culture.

[Humor] - Jokes, etc.

[Discussion] - Serious discussion on a topic, question, etc.

[Meta] - Relating to KiA itself.

[Misc.] - Anything else with a tangible relevance to GamerGate.

[Meetups] - Relating to GamerGate meetups.

[Twitter Bullshit] - Random user posts from Twitter, Twitter drama, etc., that have minimal relation to actual on topic issues

[Dramapedia] - Wiki related drama and issues including Wikipedia, Rationalwiki, etc.

[News] - Major events/information that does not qualify for a [Happenings] tag

[Community] - User art, morale boosters, organizing online events/gaming groups/etc.

[History] - Older information to act as reminders for users/bring new users up to date on events/involved people

[Deepfreeze] - Posts to or about Deepfreeze

 

Guidelines on flairs can be found here:

How exactly do I do this?

It's easy. Follow this format:

[tag you want] POST TITLE

 

Please only use one tag per post, choosing whichever is the most appropriate from the list above. It confuses automoderator if you add more than one. Beyond this list of tags, there are two others that can be applied on request. A [History] tag, for older but relevant information and a [Twitter Bullshit] tag for twitter specific drama.

 

^{*Please note that [Happenings], [Verified], [Unverified], and [Goal] tags are applied at moderator discretion}

---

5. We are not your personal army

Don't post a call to action to downvote some submission on reddit you disagree with. In fact, all links to other subreddits' comment sections will be automatically removed by AutoModerator.

Don't make posts like "let's give that idiot a piece of our mind!" if you come across something stupid someone said on the internet .

If you want to point and laugh then post an archive, but brigading, dogpiling, and call-to-arms posts against individuals will not be tolerated. Rule 2 is a factor regarding whether the person counts as a public figure, if they do not, be certain to anonymize the information. And most importantly, look but don't touch. If you choose to take action offsite in direct response to something posted here, you will be dealt with as having violated this rule, if not sitewide rules.

Random stupid things said by nobodies on Twitter are not allowed to be posted, unless the linked tweet chain shows direct relevance to media ethics-related or major gaming-related issues. A "nobody" is defined as any account with less than 2500 followers, or who otherwise does not meet the "public figure" requirements listed in Rule 2; above that threshold is fine to post, below is not. If you believe an exception is needed, contact the moderators to confirm that it is ok to post.

It should be noted that the subreddits in our sidebar (except where otherwise noted) are whitelisted and their comment sections may be linked to. (This will be updated together with the blacklist)

 

---

6. Archive as much as you can

Use archived links for as many things as possible. This is to preserve articles in their original format in case they are edited in the future, as well as to ensure that the articles comments sections are not brigaded. Record-keeping is important, and archiving pages are our way to preserve those records. Additionally there is an active blacklist of sites that will automatically be pulled by the automod if not archived. You can find this list here.

 

---

7. Don't post bullshit

Editorialized headlines and links to provably false information will be removed with prejudice. Give us the information and don’t try to spin a narrative!

Additionally, quotation marks should be reserved for the exact wording someone used. If you need to add inline context, put the words that were not said [in square brackets].

If a post makes a claim that is later proven false, the post will be deleted, regardless of vote totals. We don't want misinformation taking over KiA.

 

---

8. No Reposts

We will remove reposts of the same information.

This includes posting articles on the same topic from different publications when one is already on the front page, unless there is substantial new information. Always give /r/KotakuInAction/new/ a look before submitting a post. If a post is older than 7 days, its content can be reposted for visibility, if the situation warrants it.

---

9. METAREDDIT STUFF UNRELATED TO GAMERGATE, OR MAJOR REDDIT HAPPENINGS DON'T GO HERE.

Posts that originate from other subreddits, unless they mention, reference, or allude directly to GamerGate, or KiA, don't belong here. There will be exceptions to this rule in cases of events such as censorship of GamerGate-related topics, multiple subreddits being banned publicly, or major changes to Reddit policy. Basically, the sorts of things that can be shown to have a direct potential impact on the operation of KiA.

Issues with general moderation of other subreddits are better off in /r/subredditcancer.