PPC IRC Rules

Note: This is a historical article. The PPC no longer has an IRC Channel; we're on Discord instead. See PPC Lounge for more information.

Nominate your enemies to be Designated Arbitrators now!

These are the rules for the #PPC IRC Channel. Firstly, some meta-rules:

Rules exist to codify where the community draws the boundaries of what it finds acceptable. The rules are subservient to the community, and not vice-versa.

Closely related to that: The rules do not exist to trip people up with technicalities. This is absolutely about the spirit of what is said and done, not about the exact wording.

And finally, the rules come from the community. This means that if someone breaks a rule, the community, first and foremost, are the people expected to step up. This means you. If someone is breaking a rule (Especially rule 0!), speak up!

The rules themselves:

Rule 0: Thou shalt read the Constitution. Thou shalt abide by the Constitution.

Rule 1: Don't be a dick. If someone else is being a dick, inform them of this. Politely. Otherwise, you're being a dick. Which is against rule 1. (The observant reader will notice that this is closely related to articles 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, and 14 of the Constitution. In case the eightfold repitition doesn't make it obvious enough, this is an important rule.)

Rule 1.1: It doesn't matter how nicely you word things when you are being a dick, nor what excuses you try to raise. Being a dick is being a dick. This specifically includes: deliberately misunderstanding people, deliberately playing stupid, and being condescending while keeping a civil tone.

Rule 1.2: Baiting people to get a rise out of them falls under the category of Being a Dick. You should not need to be told this.

Rule 2: Personal attacks. Don't. Seriously. They are Not Cool, with capital N and C.

Rule 3: isms of any sort (racism, sexism, etc.) are not welcome here.

Rule 4: It's really hard to mark comments on an IRC channel as "NSFW". Thus, if you'd have to label it NSFW on the Board, it probably shouldn't go on the IRC. Just to hit a few specific examples:

Rule 4.1: The words f**k, s**t, c**t, p***y should be avoided, as should profanity of similar caliber.

Rule 4.2: Explicit erotica is the same way.

Rule 5: Habitual profanity is not cool. Swearing up a storm, be it at another chatter (which is also covered under Rules 1 & 2), a fic, or life in general, should not be done.

There are two ways in which people break rules. The first is innocently - they forget, or don't realize that it's a rule, and so on. The second is wilfully. The statute of limitations on most of these is very short - kicking someone three hours after an event is wrong, except for the most exceptional of situations. These are listed in order of severity. They are not steps for escalation - making the same mistake twice does not warrant being bumped up to the next severity.

The least severe response to an innocent breaking of the rules is a Leaning On, which consists of anyone saying "Dude, that is not cool, and it's also kinda against the rules", or similar. Note the ordering there-Leanings On are notices from the community that someone has left the territory that the community finds acceptable, and can be delivered by anyone. Try to avoid dogpiling, but never be afraid to speak up.

The second response, and this is where wilfull violations start, is a kick. This is a single, simple kick, definitely not an "and-I'll-kick-you-again-if-you-don't-stay-down" kick. This is as high as single violations of Rule 4.1 go.

The third response is a warning of a ban. This one only gets skipped in incredibly exceptional situations.

The fourth response is a ban. Bans are to be used sparingly, and never for personal reasons - any DA can request a review, and if it's not for a bleeding good reason, order it reversed. If someone gets banned for something, please save logs to be better prepared for audits later.

Speaking of which, the Designated Arbitrators (or DAs) are here to be your friends. Specifically, they're people we trust to keep their heads and tell us when we're being stupid. If we're being stupid enough that we don't listen to their wisdom, they have the authority to table conversations.

Note the following carefully. DAs are not mods. DAs are not meant to be mods. DAs are the balance to the mods' power. Hence why they have the authority to review bans.