Changes to Mafiascum Policies

[zoraster]

Changes to Mafiascum Policies

These policies are the result of months of debate by site staff. This is a living document that will change as time goes on, and we appreciate further discussion on things to include or blind spots we may have missed. But these changes, clarifications, and additions are now finalized. The aim of this policy post is to help users understand where the team may draw the line in any given circumstance. Any behavior that is not in accordance with these values will be subject to moderator action. Mafiascum is a community that has been built over the course of nearly two decades, and as times have changed, so have the rules and policies in place.

Some of these changes may require technical implementation and these will be made over the course of the following few days.

This policy thread is locked, however you can discuss it here.

Community Guidelines

1. The Mafiascum community is a place where people from all walks of life should be able to coexist. This means that statements that deny the legitimacy of any race, color, faith, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or other similar qualities are prohibited. This does not mean that dissenting viewpoints are banned. However, if your dissenting viewpoint creates a hostile environment for anyone due to one of the above statuses, then moderators will take action.

• This site has many LGBTQ+ users, and we want this to be a friendly space for them. You are not welcome to create a hostile space for LGBTQ+ users.
• This site is an explicitly anti-racist space where our Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) users can feel safe to be themselves. For this reason, we have a baseline expectation for behavior across the site and will not tolerate racism.

2. In line with our aim to prevent a hostile environment, Mafiascum will not allow ideological purity tests, "witch hunts", or any form of baiting users into defending a prohibited viewpoint. Attempts to weaponize Mafiascum rules or policies in order to get a user banned will result in action being taken against you. It is the moderators' responsibility to regulate behavior. Vigilantism will not be tolerated.

3. The Mafiascum staff does not seek to moderate and rarely takes specific action on rules infractions that occur outside of official channels (i.e. the forums, MafiaWiki, Discord server, official social media). In-person meet-ups organized on Mafiascum will be treated as extensions of this community. Rule violations that occur at a meet-up may be subject to sanction here. Users who espouse viewpoints which glorify racial supremacy, gender supremacy (including incel), Nazism, sexual predation, or other values incompatible with the Mafiascum community are not welcome. We reserve the right to take action on behavior that occurs outside of official Mafiascum channels on an individual basis where that behavior poses a threat to the community.

4. We encourage members of our community to contact site staff in situations where they feel that they are being or have been stalked, harassed, abused, attacked, or otherwise have had their safety threatened by any other member of the community. This behavior is unacceptable and not welcome here. This includes off-site and offline activity, as needed.

5. Mafiascum staff are not able to read every post on the site nor are we aware of every interaction on the site, so we encourage users to notify us when problems arise. Normally, the best way to do this is with the built-in reporting features, but we are open to discussion of concerns that would not fit into a report. We are most easily reachable via PM or Discord. A guide for how to direct concerns to the appropriate moderators, as well as contact information for staff members, can be found in this post.

6. Users with disagreements should attempt to frame their disagreement about what was said, rather than the intrinsic value of another person. For example, “that idea is really horrible” rather than “you’re a bad person.” Users who regularly attack other users rather than their arguments, ideas, etc. will have action taken against them. We also remind users that disagreement is not the same thing as insult, and responding to disagreement with an idea as if you have been insulted is also an issue.

Specific Rule Changes

We are actively in the process of looking at changing rules to better reflect the above Community Guidelines. For now, the following specific rules are changed with immediate effect:

1. “Slurs” is added to Specific Conduct #1 (“Derogatory language or slurs…”).
2. Users should make every effort to address people in accordance with their stated gender identity. Mistakes are natural, but unwillingness to try or do better will be construed as creating a hostile space for trans and non-binary users.
3. Advocacy or the incitement of violence against others, even jokingly, is not allowed.
4. For many years, the word “lynch” was used to describe the person who was voted out by town in a mafia game. We no longer allow this word to be used by game moderators, and we discourage its use by players.
5. Use of scripts or other devices to functionally ignore the presence and posts of another player in a game is not allowed.
6. Joining the official Discord server requires at least 1 completed Mafia or Large Social game on site. Other types of community activity (such as Mish Mash games) will also count on a case-by-case basis.
7. There are specific Discord rules posted in the official Mafiascum Discord server.
8. The rule about prohibited viewpoints now includes denial or revisionism of human rights atrocities, as well as discussions about comparing severity of human rights atrocities.

Expectations for Users

1. Follow the rules to the best of your ability.
2. Treat other users, including the site staff, with the assumption of good faith.
3. Please allow the moderators to do their jobs and do your best to assist us (e.g. report rule-breaking behavior, keep open lines of communication).
4. Please foster a welcoming community. While we anticipate that everyone will have their differences, the community should be an enjoyable place to be.

Expectations for Staff

1. We will investigate and keep on record every report that we receive with due diligence and in a timely manner.
2. We will be engaged and involved in the community to the best of our ability, including playing in Mafia, Mish Mash, and Large Social games, as we are ourselves members of the community.
3. We will be approachable to members of the community. Even if we have disagreements as users, we will engage with you in good faith in our capacity as staff.
4. We will not carry external prejudices into our conduct with you as staff. In the event of a conflict of interest, we will recuse ourselves.

[zoraster]

Changes to The Speakeasy and General Discussion

• The Speakeasy will now be open only to those who are 18 years old or older. Except in unusual circumstances, threads will not be moved.
  
• General Discussion will now be non-indexed. In other words, only registered users will be able to see General Discussion and all topics therein. This does not include Mafia Discussion.

[zoraster]

Discord Rules

These are posted to the #discord-rules channel that is locked to responses.

1. All site rules apply. Please refer to them here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6470
2. Do not discuss bans either from the forums or here in discord.
3. Given the real-time nature of chatting on Discord, we expect a higher standard of general conduct. Please foster an environment where users feel comfortable. Offensive language, defined as words or images that have a high likelihood of causing harm or are intentionally used to put down or harass another user, is not acceptable.
4. Please be aware that, because of this expectation, moderators will likely warn, ban, mute on their own and for more minor events. The Discussion Moderator team makes a concerted effort to work together and not take unilateral action. However, given the real-time environment of a Discord server, we may be more likely to take immediate smaller-impact reactions (e.g., asking users to step back from heated discussions, temporary server mutes) than we would be on-site. Please try to avoid putting us in a situation where we need to use our power, but do not be surprised if we take action for more minor offenses on the Discord server.
5. Spamming or advertising other sites or communities is not allowed. This includes linking to other mafia sites and other sites that have Large Social Games (a.k.a. “Online Reality Games”). Please ask a relevant list moderator if you would like to advertise. If links are requested or solicited, please keep them in private rather than the server.
6. Our Discord server is intended for members of the Mafiascum community. In order to become verified, you must have finished one Mafia or Large Social game on site. Exceptions may be made if you are active elsewhere; please tag a moderator who can verify this. Post in the #welcome channel with your Mafiascum username. We reserve the right to remove users who fail to verify their Mafiascum identity.
7. While there is not a “Report” button in the server, we implore users to report conduct which makes them uncomfortable. Given that this is a real-time chat, reporting infractions as swiftly as possible makes it much easier for us to act on them. To report Discord misconduct that occurred over text chat, please DM the ModMail bot (ModMail#5460) with a link to the message:
   
   
   To report DMs, send a screenshot of the chat that you are reporting. To report Discord misconduct that occurred over voice chat, please DM the ModMail bot with a detailed narrative about what happened, when it happened (dates and times), and who was involved. When filing a report, please provide information about what led up to the event and what happened afterwards in as much detail as possible.

[zoraster]

How to Contact Moderators

There are several ways that the moderator team can be reached. Below is a guide for how to direct common inquiries. Contact information for site staff can be found in the last section of this post.

Reporting Misconduct on the Forums

For any posts or private messages made on the forum that violate rules, use the Report button (). In the "Further Information" field, enter as much information as you can about the context of the post (if any) and your thoughts about why the post violates community guidelines. Please note that the "Notify me" function does not reflect what is actually done with a report. All reports are logged, and reports may be closed when they are logged, not necessarily when a publicly-visible action is taken.

Reporting Misconduct on Discord

For any behavior that occurs on Discord text or voice channels, send a direct message to the ModMail bot (ModMail#5460). Pay close attention to ModMail's messages to ensure that you are contacting the correct server. Include as much information as you can about the context of the reported message and your thoughts about why the post violates community guidelines. For text, send us a link to the message:





For voice, be as detailed as possible about what happened, when it happened, and who was involved.

Contacting Moderators Outside of the Report Function

Moderators can be contacted either as a group or individually for issues that need further intervention than filing a report. Links for private messages on the forums and Discord tags are included below for members of the team.

For issues related to Mafia games, refer to the Mafia list moderator responsible for that game's queue. For example, if an issue occurs in a Mini Theme, then your point of contact would be the Mini Theme list moderator, MariaR. For issues that span multiple games across queues, contact the list moderators responsible for the queues involved.

For issues related to Large Social or Mish Mash games, contact any of the Mish Mash list moderators. All Mish Mash moderators handle Mish Mash games, and each Large Social game has a specific list moderator assigned to it.

For appeals or reporting moderator misconduct, contact zoraster. When submitting an appeal, refer to this guide for appeals before contacting zoraster.

For all other issues, contact any of the discussion moderators. It is easiest to include all of the discussion moderators in your private message; however, if this is not possible (e.g. due to conflicts of interest), then we encourage contacting whomever you feel most comfortable approaching.

Abuse of the Report Function

When moderators receive a report, the report is assumed to have been made in good faith. In other words, we treat the report as a notification that some harm has been done to the community and that the behavior in question violates site rules. However, processing reports becomes more difficult when a report is made in bad faith, whether because:

• the report is being used as a way to get moderators to punish a user for a personal vendetta, or
• an excessive number of reports (e.g. 10+) is being filed on one user where the posts being reported are not relevant to that user's rule-breaking behavior.

We almost never take away a user's ability to report posts when they are not banned, but we reserve the right to do so if a user consistently abuses the report function.

Contact Information

• Mafia List Moderators (oversees Mafia Games subforums)
  
  • Newbie: PenguinPower - PM, PenguinPower#9236
  • Normal: implosion - PM, implosion#7564
  • Mini Theme: MariaR - PM, Ripple#5042
    -
  • Open: T-Bone - PM, T-Bone#1364
  • Micro: Isis - PM, Isis#8756
• Mish Mash List Moderators (oversees Other Forum Games subforums)
  
  • Cephrir - PM, cephrir#8821
  • PrivateI - PM, MontyWhittaker#6697
  • xofelf - PM, xofelf#1697
• Discussion Moderators (oversees Discussion and Administration subforums)
  
  -
  
  • Papa Zito - PM, Papa Zito#0192
  • Pine - PM, Pine#3083
  • the worst - PM, Tom #4827
    -
• Discord and Site Chat Moderators (oversees Discord and Site Chat)
  
  • schadd_ - PM, schadd#7589
• Administrators (oversees appeals, staff conduct, and technical stuff)
  
  • Kison - PM, bidness mike#7275
  • zoraster - PM, Zoraster#9525

[zoraster]

Just as a Zoraster Note: This is the result of quite a bit of work from all of the staff, but special thanks is due to Equinox who really took the lion's share of work in making this happen. This is only the start of a longer process (next is tackling the actual rules post).