Over the past 6 months, I have been working on updating our forum guidelines. Aside from being wildly outdated compared to how we moderate this space, the current guidelines are fuzzy at best.
I’ve created a Form doc to collect feedback on these changes. There is a ton of information on the logic behind the changes, and I made sure to include the current guideline phrasing with the revisions to make it easy to see the differences.
Moderators and Open Home Foundation employees have reviewed these changes and provided their feedback, helping me fine tune the way things are written to largely avoid English-specific phrasing. This is the community’s opportunity to provide similar feedback.
Please provide your feedback via this Form by March 20, midnight Pacific time
This thread will remain locked to ensure all feedback is submitted through the Form. This keeps not only your identity anonymous while you provide feedback, but also organizes the feedback in one space. Moderators have been instructed to close any topics they see pop up about this and redirect users to submit their feedback through the Form. I sincerely appreciate everyone’s understanding in this - it will really keep things from overwhelming me as I review your feedback.
Some quick highlights about this form:
- Your response to this Form is not only optional (meaning, you don’t have to submit a response) but also 100% anonymous. Anonymity ensures that there is little bias on my side when reviewing the feedback, and honors our value of privacy. Please be respectful, though.
- I’ve created separate Form sections for each guideline section to include both the current and revised texts. This makes it easier for you all to see what the current guidelines state and what I’ve adjusted it to. At the beginning of each section I explain the logic behind the changes, and you will be able to provide detailed feedback at every step.
- Each revised section, for the most part, has more content than the current guidelines. During the feedback phase from my colleagues, I was called out for being too wordy. Yes, this is the trimmed down version.
- I included a couple posts from this community that are incredibly helpful for new members. Thanks greatly for those who contributed these, you deserve the acknowledgement for your hard work.
- I made an effort to be clear in what is and isn’t allowed - including our stance on LLMs. Yes, finally, clarity on this!
A couple important notes:
- When these guidelines are finalized and updated here, they are considered your warning - the moderators will not be expected to give warnings to those long-time community members, but will provide grace to first-time posters and new members. Please carefully review these as you will be held to their standards.
- I am now working on updating our Code of Conduct which will cover all projects maintained by the Open Home Foundation, and will be made clear that it covers not only the community but those employed by the foundation (whom we consider part of the community). There will not be a feedback round on these updates. Much like the guideline updates, when the new version of the Code of Conduct is published, it will be considered the warning for long-time community members.
- In the near-ish future, we’re going to do an overhaul of these forums. They are so outdated and need a ton of love. I don’t yet have a timeline for this, but I wanted to at least let you all know that I’ve been working on scoping this out recently. I’m not just making these updates and then dipping out on you all.
I genuinely look forward to your feedback on these changes! To those of you who submit a response, thank you for taking the time to leave your thoughts with me and helping make sure this is a collaborative effort to keep these forums an enjoyable place for all. 