Thank you for posting some guiding questions. It made thinking about this much more focused and reply-able for me. Without them it was just too much to think about.
Kellis Amberlee wrote:Who should enforce the policy? (some ideas from us: One person or a team? A team made of admods or of users, or of a mixture of the two?)
Personally, I think I would be fine with having the admod team enforce the policy. (Sorry for the vote to add more to your plates!) I think you all have done an amazing job running and moderating the forum, which already involves caring for user safety. If the admod team feels like it would be overwhelming for them, maybe the forum can nominate members they think would be good to become either mods or part of the harassment policy enforcement team. (Could they get colored names if that happened? I think it would be good to have those members, if not mods or admins, designated.)
Kellis Amberlee wrote:What happens if someone in the anti-harassment team is the perpetrator of harassment?
I think the person should not be allowed to investigate the case against them, and should be taken off the team until the matter is decided. If it is a misunderstanding case, where the accused is innocent but the accuser felt uncomfortable, the accused would have to understand which boundaries they crossed and apologize (if wanted) before resuming duties. If the accused is innocent and the accuser was acting in bad faith (like trying to get the accused in trouble), then I think the accuser should get a two week ban and have to apologize before being allowed back fully. If the accused was actually harassing, I think they should be permanently banned, because the position of power they were in and then abused would definitely make me feel unsafe here.
Kellis Amberlee wrote:Does this policy only include what happens on the forum, or does it also apply to meetups? If to meetups, does it only apply to those advertised here, or all Captain Awkward-affiliated events?
I think if something happens at a meetup that was advertised on this forum that makes someone so uncomfortable that they would report harassment on the forum, it should be taken seriously. I don't think it should include all CA affliated events, but I am not sure why...
Kellis Amberlee wrote:What do the team do if they hear about a user who has harassed people in non-Awkward spaces but not broken any rules in our forums/meetups?
This is something I've been thinking about for a while. I have lingering fears that the people who abused/assaulted me will join this forum. (Not like I'd necessarily know if they did, but it really freaks me out that they
could.) I think, if someone can prove that the person has done something outside the forum and them being here makes them feel unsafe, the other person should be permanently banned. Because, I foresee this being for other survivors of assault and rape getting their abuser out, someone who was stalked getting their stalker out, etc.
Kellis Amberlee wrote:How strict/lenient will we be when it comes to looking for proof?
I'm not sure about this. I think of harassment as being a major thing, so it would be pretty apparent, especially as the forum is in writing. Maybe I am misunderstanding harassment, but I feel like it would be extra obvious since we don't have tone of voice to deal with. Can we clarify what harassment means? I'm thinking of insults, pressuring people to give details they would be uncomfortable giving (specific locations, photos, etc), which I feel would be pretty evident over text-based communication.
Kellis Amberlee wrote:What are the consequences for harassment? What if it's a second or further offence?
Personally, as I touch on before, my ideas of harassment are really big, nasty, in bad spirit attacks, in which case I think a permanent ban would be the only way to maintain the community. But, I'm not sure what more subtle or smaller-scale harassment would look like, so I can't really figure out how to handle it, especially with the "good faith" clause of the rules. I do think if a person shows a pattern of harassment, they should be banned for the safety of all community members.
Kellis Amberlee wrote:Where do unwanted Jedi Hugs fall on the spectrum of harassment? How does that fit with our community vibe?
I think if a person posts and asks for no Jedi Hugs, and someone offers them, it should be treated like offering advice in the Jedi R Us forum, in that an admod comes in, states this is not the place for hugs, and deletes the comment. However, that really doesn't help if a person has a habit of intrusively making Jedi Hugs. Could that be something the admods/harassment policy team watch out for? If A gives B Jedi hugs and B didn't say "I don't want Jedi Hugs," I don't think A is in fault as there is no way A could've known. And if B never wants them, I think it is on B to draw that boundary, either when they post in the Jedi R Us subforum and other places where one might want to offer Jedi Hugs, or include it in a signature, as in this community with so many members, it might be hard to keep track of who doesn't want Jedi Hugs, since they are pretty ingrained in the community.
So yeah, throwing my two cents in!