DisNCord Rules

This is an ongoing discussion to create a server overview, and description of all channels, as well as an effort at revising and clarification of the rules.

Server Description

DisNCord is NCommander's personal Discord server, which has taken many forms in the two years it has existed. At the moment, it's a combination of a social group, a center of preservation and retrocomputing, a place of acceptance, healing and understanding, and much more. It's expected that DisNCord will constantly shift and change throughout its existence both as its residents, and its owner changes. This is a living document intended to outline its core tenants and values.

Rules

1. Treat everyone with respect. Absolutely no harassment, witch hunting, sexism, racism, or hate speech will be tolerated.
2. No NSFW or obscene content. This includes text, images, or links featuring nudity, sex, hard violence, or other graphically disturbing content.
3. No spam or self-promotion (server invites, advertisements, etc) without permission from a staff member. This includes DMing fellow members.
4. This server is focused around retro-technology, and the history of computing but there are no hard and fast rules on topics.
5. Posting links to proprietary information (such as copyrighted, or classified material) is prohibited.
6. Excessive negativity, doomsaying, lashing out, and similar behaviors is prohibited.
7. Venting is fine (we have a dedicated forum), but try to remember the other human.
8. Violations of the rules may be reported via the ticket reporting system
9. Transparency and accountability are the keys to a long running server.
10. The Discord ToS supersedes all server rules, and shall be upheld by all moderators
11. Come by and have a good time.

To prevent excessive rule lawyering, a general statement of what each rule means is provided for some of the more open ended ones. Moderators have final authority in determining what is and isn't acceptable, but, at the same time, moderators are humans too, and it should be understood that mistakes can and will happen.

Proprietary Information

The term proprietary information is an overarching term that essentially refers to anything that isn't intended for publication. This also includes information that would be covered under a signed limited disclosure agreement or NDA, trade secrets, or classified material. The standard line to use here is similar to that of clean room design (sometimes known as the Chinese wall technique), where you can discuss things learned, but not directly link to such information. The very simple example is as follows: Linking to a news article is fine, linking to leaked docs, not so much.

Moderators will handle this on a case by case basis.

The Responsibilities of Staff

Staff, which include both moderators, and those who've taken up a volunteer role such as Wiki Editor are responsible for helping create DisNCord (and this wiki) what they are, as well as upholding the server's values and roles.

At the time of writing (2022-12-26), moderators are organized in a flat structure, with NCommander being the final arbitrator.

At the time of writing (2022-12-26), wiki volunteers are organized in a flat structure, with a wiki admin group being created in the near future.

Server moderators have the "Trusted N" role, and a gold name in chat. Moderators uphold the chat rules, and are trusted to timeout, kick, or ban on their own cognition. Server moderators are considered volunteers.

The Importance of Volunteers

Volunteers are recognized with a distinctive purple color and icon in chat representing where they are interested in working. While volunteers are always welcome, by becoming one, you also accept the responsibility of being a representative of the server, and thus should be expected to be held to a higher standard than a normal member might be.

As DisNCord expands, it is important that we always remember the people who make it possible, and more defined benefits and responsibilities will be laid down as we expand further.

Supporter Roles Are Not Rule Exempt

This server accepts both NCommander's Patreon, and its own Discord Supporter payments, and collects funds towards both helping its creator, and funding it's own internal projects, such as this wiki, and Mastodon servers. Unfortunately, there are who believe that one can simply buy their way out. As an official policy, supporter status shall not be considered when a moderation decision is made. At NCommander's discretion, Patreon perks may also be blocked for especially egregious conduct.

Discord Nitro Boosters are considered a supporter role, although at this time, they do not gain any access to perks.

Channel Descriptions

A Note On Private Channels

A small number of private channels have been used in the past to hold discussion between server admins, as well as handle time sensitive topics. These are generally all inactive, and only exist for archival purposes.

Server Roles

Self-Selected Roles

Pronoun Roles

Pronoun roles exist for easy identification of folks. Roles are self-selected through a bot (or for more rarely used roles, filing a a ticket and requesting it). At the moment, roles are colored differently, and ordered in such a way to help increase diversity on the server.

In the past, the pronouns all shared an orange color, which stood out against the white generic color; the diversity in colors also helps allow those who don't have roles selected from not feel forced to take one.

Colors and ordering may change in the future

• She/Her (Cyan)
• He/Him (Red)
• They/Them (Purple)
• Any/Any (dark gray)
• It/Its (gray)
• Fey/Fey (gray)

Things To Be Written

• Reporting/Ticket Handling Guide
• Incident Response Guide (ICS Primer)
• Improvement Proposal Guide