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

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

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I’d also like to add that racism is likely never going to be a problem on this site because news flash. It’s an online site how does anyone know if I’m white or black or ever hawain and you can’t really be raciest if you don’t know someone’s race.

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(responding to r) u know how theres a country section on peoples profiles? some people might have beef with a certain country and be extremely rude to them bc of their country

yes i know ppl can lie about their country but like still

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Yeah but being racist is different than being mean to someone because of their county. I can understand why you might group racism and discrimination against people from a specific county but the 2 things are quite different. Honestly I don’t get why we have a country thing in our profiles in the fist place that seems to just be asking for people to hate on you because of the county you are from. Also if you want to continue this conversation let’s move it to our walls so as to not keep bumping this post.

Answer 1

For anyone who needs to hear it from us, the mods agree with everything in this post. No hate speech, the whips will crack if we see it.

But in spite of that, we wouldn't put something like this in the rules. The main reason is it wouldn't be effective. You can't convince a chud using a policy like this because they think it's hilarious. Their whole thing is "triggering the libs" and you just told them in painstaking detail how to trigger you.

I'm not saying this to put you down, I've just been doing this for a long time and had to learn the hard way. If you're explaining, you're losing. If you sound wordy, officious, engrossed, etc then that makes you a target. The solution is dead simple messaging - don't be a dickhead, least of all on Pokemon hobby forum. Everyone already knows what that means.

Some other points were already mentioned, like keeping the rules tight and how this hasn't been an issue in practice. But the main thing is framing decency as common sense.

I cancelled out the downvote btw.