We should add a Non-Discrimination Policy (aka a fancy way of telling people not to be jerks)

Question

Here I made one. Maybe we should add it to the rules or something. Opinions or revisions are welcome.

The PokéBase strictly prohibits discrimination, harassment, or hate speech of any kind. Any violating of this policy can be used against you by a moderator who believes you are discriminating, resulting in a temporary or permanent ban and/or removal of your offensive content. We do not tolerate bias or unfair treatment based on one's stated or suspected traits, including, but not limited to:

• Race, color, or ethnic origin
• Nationality or national origin
• Religion, belief, or creed
• Sex, gender, gender identity, or gender expression
• Sexual orientation
• Age
• Physical, mental, or learning disability
• Socioeconomic status

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This policy applies to all aspects of the PokéBase, including:

• User Behavior: all activity on this site
• Profiles/Avatars: all content within one's profile

Additionally, if a moderator sees a PokéBase user off-site doing something that breaks our non-discrimination policy, they can judge whether that behavior makes said user not welcome on the PokéBase.

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To maintain a safe space, the following actions are strictly banned on our platform:

• Using slurs, derogatory language, or discriminatory jokes.
• Promoting hate speech, stereotypes, or harmful generalizations against any group.
• Excluding, bullying, or harassing individuals based on any protected characteristic(s) listed above.

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We take violations of this policy seriously. If you witness or experience any form of discrimination on our website, please report it to us immediately. To do so, post on a moderator's wall, or, more privately, submit a response on the PokéBase's Report Form.

Comments

rule 0.1 bud

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Can't believe Pokebase is going woke

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@ht 0.1 is unspecific. it says "be kind to other people" I feel like this would be more useful and referable.
@X as much as I like the fact that the DB doesn't keep up with the stupid things on the internet (like having personalized ads and tons of annoying cookies), I feel like this is the least of that, and there's a reason many websites and workplaces have these kinda rules. We already have a privacy policy anyway, which doesn't say much, so adding this to it wouldn't be a big deal and would just be something useful that mods could use as a way to tell people what they were doing was unwelcome.

https://pokemondb.net/about#privacy

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rule 0.1 is unspecific because it doesn't need to be specific. "be kind" is all-encompassing because it includes "don't call other people names" as well as "don't be a racist piece of ****". this addendum to the rules would be wholly unnecessary because there's nothing in the rules that may insinuate that there's some sort of loophole where people could act like this and have it technically be within the rules. the rule simply stating "be kind" both encompasses these situations, as well as far less extreme situations where someone is just being a jerk in general. i feel like the more specific the rules become, the more annoying they are for moderators to enforce. obviously, this isn't really a negative thing when it's about the quality of site content, but when it comes to the general actions of people, having to site specific rules when banning someone seems like much more of a pain when the reason can just be that someone was acting undesirably as per rule 0.1.

not only does rule 0.1 state "be kind" but it also states "no bigotry". that takes the entire essay you wrote and condenses it down into four words. if my memory is correct, the rules were intentionally condensed from the drawn out specific examples like you wrote to what it currently is because it was awful to read and annoying to cite. nobody wants to read paragraphs to be told "don't be a twat". and nobody needs that. again, "be kind" is far more useful here because it's all-encompassing. the most i'd support as an addition would be to add "no hate speech" to rule 0.1, but "no bigotry" covers that pretty well.

it's also worth mentioning that the people that spread stuff like this are generally the type that don't care about rules like this. they're going to be that way regardless of rules. it's obvious to people who aren't bigots that "be kind" also encompasses this, and it's easy enough to ban bigoted people and cite rule 0.1.

tl;dr: this is made entirely redundant by "be kind" and "no bigotry"

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ok. I just thought an elaboration on "be kind" and "no bigotry" would be a little more useful for both new users and mods but I take your point.

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socioeconomic status




i love you froggy

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I think the comments have pretty much resolved this question, but I'll still add my two cents.

I don't really think this rule would be necessary, as I have seen no examples of discriminatory behavior in my 5-ish years on the site. (My profile's only 4 months old, but I've been using this site for a long time.)

Unless this becomes an issue (Which I hope it doesn't) there's no reason to add to the rules to prevent something that isn't happening in the first place.

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We have the rules as minimal and vague as possible to cover every scenario without getting too boring or redundant. We want people to read the rules, so we keep it short. Ultimately, anything unkind will get removed, including everything in your post.
And yeah discrimination isn’t really an issue here. If anyone joins and starts spewing hate speech, we just ban that immediately since we don’t need problematic behaviour from a user right out of the gate. If a legitimate user acts discriminatory, it’s usually enough to tell them to stfu, or have a real conversation with them about why their behaviour is problematic and hurtful, and answer any questions they have. And then, the problem is usually solved. Those cases are few and far between; it’s been a couple years since I had someone be pressed about me going by they/them. Most of the time it’s from young teens who don’t understand, which can easily be resolved when it comes up