A code of conduct for your instance

Status: placeholder. This guide will be written before launch.

Every Pavillion instance ends up needing some statement of what's allowed and what isn't. The mistake most first-time admins make is treating the code of conduct as a single document, when in practice there are three layers — what the software enforces, what your policy enforces, and what's just culture. The CoC is the middle layer. This guide is about writing one that pulls its weight.

Planned scope

• The three layers, named: software (rate limits, reportable content, federation blocks), policy (your CoC — the things humans enforce by reading and acting), culture (the unwritten norms that take care of themselves when the first two are working)
• What belongs in a policy CoC: behaviors that can be observed, reported, and acted on; consequences that the admin can actually impose; scope (this instance only? federated content shown here? off-platform behavior?)
• What doesn't belong: aspirational statements that nobody can enforce, lists of slurs that age badly, vague clauses that turn every dispute into a re-litigation of the rules
• Concrete clause examples — one that pulls its weight, one that doesn't, with the contrast doing the work
• The relationship between your CoC and federation policy — your CoC governs the calendars on your instance; defederation governs what other instances send you
• Updating the CoC after an incident: when to amend, how to announce, what to backdate and what not to
• The "we're a small instance, do we really need this" question — short answer, sketch the policy in private even if you don't publish it, you'll want it the first time something goes wrong