Furry Writers' Guild Forum

FWG Conduct Guidelines (updated as of September 14, 2018)

Furry Writers’ Guild Conduct Guidelines

These guidelines apply to all FWG-branded spaces, including the forums, the forum shoutbox (at all times, both during and outside of the Coffeehouse Chats), chat spaces on external services like Slack or Telegram, comments to our blog, and comments to our social media accounts. Moderators have the authority to take action regarding issues that arise in any of these spaces.

These guidelines can be changed or amended at any time on the authority of the admin and/or the FWG president.

Please be respectful and considerate of other participants. Keep discussions and debates civil and criticism constructive. We want everyone to feel welcome and have a good time participating in FWG-branded spaces, regardless of their age, experience level, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, ability/disability, gender identity and expression, sexual identity and expression, or level or type of participation in the furry fandom. As such, harassment, trolling, and derogatory or demeaning speech will not be tolerated, whether that speech is targeting an individual or a group.

In order to keep our spaces safe and welcoming for everyone, please respect others’ boundaries in terms of content they may find objectionable or triggering. While we don’t wish to place strict restrictions on topics of conversation, keep in mind that this is primarily a writing-focused community, and most people are here to talk about writing. If someone doesn’t want to talk politics, religion, or other potentially contentious topics, please respect that and move on to a new topic. (If you’re in a chat space and need a change of subject, simply ask “New topic, please?” No other explanation should be required.) If you’re asked for a new topic or asked to take a discussion private for any reason, please respect that request, whether it comes from another participant or from admin.
This also includes flame-baiting. Whether intended or not, if your opinion is one that makes another feel legitimately uncomfortable, it’s not something that’s welcome in these spaces. Be respectful of others.

By the same token, please note that our forum shoutbox is intended for conversation and discussion, not roleplay. While the /me command is allowed, please use it sensibly in the course of casual conversation. (Waving hello to someone is fine. Rubbing up against them is not.) Again, please be considerate of others and respect any warnings given. Abuse of the shoutbox’s /me command may result in the command being disabled.

In terms of profanity and adult material, please keep chat in our forum shoutbox limited to PG. Keep profanity mild and to a minimum, and don’t share links to adult material via the shoutbox. If you include links to adult material in forum threads, please clearly mark those links as NSFW. Adult images may not be posted to the forum except as a clearly marked link. Forum threads that contain adult content in text (for example, when posting erotica to our critique forum) should include appropriate warnings.

Please also keep in mind that while profanity/adult topics may be allowed in some FWG chat spaces, zero tolerance of harassment and inappropriate behavior is still in effect. This includes private messages sent through the forum and the FWG Slack. If someone asks you to drop a thread, do not pursue it.

Keep forum discussions on-topic. Posts/threads may be moved or created by admin as necessary to keep them in the right subforums.

Please mark spoilers whenever possible. (By “spoiler,” we mean “major unexpected plot twist.” You can certainly talk about the plot of a story, but if the climax hinges on the big reveal of Darth Vader being Bruce Willis’ dead father’s sled named Rosebud, you might want to mark that.)

Feel free to resurrect old forum threads as long as you have something new to add to the conversation. We don’t place time limits on discussions; we just ask that you don’t necro a thread from two years ago just to say “me too.”

At any time, in any FWG-branded space, if you see a problem or have a problem with any kind of inappropriate behavior, please contact an admin via private message on the FWG Forums or Slack, or by sending an email to furwritersguild@gmail.com. Please provide as much detail as you can (screenshots, copy/pasted chat text, etc.), and admin will review the situation and take appropriate action. That action may include warnings, temporary bans from any or all FWG-branded spaces, permanent bans from any or all FWG-branded spaces, and/or (in extreme cases) revocation of FWG membership.

In short: Act like grownups, play nice, help each other – and have fun!

Forum/Shoutbox Moderators

[ul][li]Chipotle (Pres) (admin)[/li]
[li]Trale (VP) (admin)[/li]
[li]Dwale[/li]
[li]Poetigress[/li][/ul]

Slack Moderators

[ul][li]Makyo (admin)[/li]
[li]Chipotle (admin)[/li]
[li]Searska (moderator)[/li]
[li]James Bell[/li]
[li]George Squares[/li][/ul]

  • Any user may raise issues to mods/admins at any point.

Telegram Moderators

[ul][li]Chipotle[/li]
[li]Dwale[/li]
[li]Miles R[/li]
[li]Tempe[/li][/ul]

Makyo technically has admin privileges in all of these locations, but has recused herself of actual moderation.

Last update: August 14, 2018

This is a change that happened earlier this year, but I didn’t propagate back to the forum. The canonical FWG CoC is now on the web site, rather than here in the forum:

Code of Conduct | Furry Writers’ Guild

The wording is different, but the basic points are largely the same.