This is a community built around writing and other creative works, writing/creative work appreciation,

and roleplaying games, with a particular focus on the work of Jenna Moran. The goals of this server are:

• to foster discussion of interesting works;

• to serve as an Internet contact point for Jenna Moran;
• to foster the creation of interesting works, including but not limited to fan works; and
• to host online RPGs, particularly games of Glitch, WTF, Nobilis, and Chuubo’s.

These are roughly in order, within one place of accuracy.

1. Illegal content is forbidden. This applies to stuff that is illegal to have here in the U.S. or Canada.

2. Content that is intended to make people unhappy is forbidden.

3. The entropy of a system at absolute zero is a well-defined constant.

4. You may not stalk Jenna.

5. No pestering Jenna, either.

6. Don’t be a Nazi. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t use hate speech or words meant to harm. If somebody asks you
to change how you speak of others, listen and be considerate.

7. Being part of a hate group or having a history of abusing others is a bannable offense even if your
conduct here is impeccable.

8. Do not post NSFW content except on personal channels marked as NSFW using the channel setting.
Ask before sharing barely-safe-for-work content. Be sensible about links.

9. Don’t deny others’ experiences. Don’t shoot down or police a person's work on the basis of their lived
experience or lack of it, or your beliefs about same.

10. Protect the record that other people have of their interactions with you here by avoiding edits that
substantively change a message’s meaning and by replacing messages with a short summary instead of
deleting them.

11. Provide content warnings where appropriate, regardless of NSFW status, and spoiler tag things you
believe might disturb or trigger others.

12. You may request a color role in administrivia.

‫יג‬. You may post short updates on your current progress on your projects in night-and-falling-words.
These are a little more flexible than the rules, particularly on Tangency and appropriate personal
channels, but only while acting in good faith.

• No pressuring people into engaging with your content.

• No casual painting people here as wicked.
• Trust that people here are gifts, including yourself.
• Words are fluid; allow others to use and understand them in different ways than you do.
• Remember that you always have things to learn from others, especially about their lived
experiences and positionality. Nobody is perfect, and it is not expected that you should be, but
don't make others do your emotional labor, and listen if someone tells you they can't have a
conversation.
• People don't have to prove to you that their feelings are legitimate, and they should be allowed
to have those feelings without it becoming about you.

The following special-purpose channels exist.

• rules is for the posting of these rules, and potentially updates and discussion.
• administrivia is for messages to the moderators and discussions of administration issues.
• for-when-jenna-wakes-up is for leaving messages to me if I am not active.
• night-and-falling words is for posting short updates on your progress on your current projects,
and for small amounts of positive feedback thereupon.
• the phantasmagory contains a large selection of “personal” channels, run by individual
members of this server. The rules are the same, but the standards may differ.

Others may be established or explained at a later time.

• If you have not been banned, and have not broken the rules for personal channels, you may ask
a moderator for a personal channel.
• Your personal channel must have a strong reference to your name (the name you use here) in its
title.
• Moderators are not obligated to make your personal channel immediately, but it is also not
hard; please have patience if necessary, but please don’t hesitate to ask!
• Personal channels are bound by the rules.
 • Personal channels can modify or waive adherence to the standards.
• Deleting others’ messages is forbidden except where those messages cause harm to you, or,
where they are a significant rule one violation and a moderator is not available to address the
matter. If you must delete someone else’s message for one of these reasons, please let a
moderator know about the circumstances.
• You may not use your authority over a personal channel to cause harm to others.
• You may mark your personal channel NSFW, creating functional leeway with regards to rule 8.
Note that this is a flag to be set in Discord, not a part of the title or a message to be pinned.

If you're participating in good faith, and you break the rules or standards, you can expect a moderator
warning. (Your message may also be deleted if illegal or extremely harmful, but this should almost never
happen if you are engaging in good faith.)

If the rule-breaking continues, this may be followed by a kick or a short-term channel ban.

The final escalation for violations of the standards is to be removed from all channels except for
Tangency and those personal channels in which you are welcome. This will last for a specific time up to a
week, or, until Jenna or Chrysoula reviews the matter and reverts it.

Severe or repeated violation of the rules can result in a ban. Loosely speaking, I don’t like bans, so this
will only happen if:

• someone breaks the rules in small ways so often that it creates an appearance of being
deliberate;
• someone breaks the rules in such a large way that a moderator feels the server or community is
threatened;
• someone appears to be on the server in bad faith;
• someone is an active danger to the community or its members; or
• someone’s presence is causing harm to others, regardless of fault, and that harm is meaningful,
and the situation cannot be resolved in another way.

It’s important to note that the last form of ban can happen regardless of fault. I’m sorry.

In a similar vein, as a tool for defusing conflicts, moderators may in some circumstances enact a short-
term channel ban or limit someone to the Tangency and appropriate personal channels regardless of
rules violations, and even if their participation is in good faith. This can also happen regardless of fault,
and need not represent a personal judgment; rather, it will be a best-effort attempt to create an
environment suitable for all participants.
FIRST ,
Illegal content is forbidden. This applies to stuff that is illegal to have here in the U.S. or Canada.

This server does not volunteer to be complicit in illegal activity.

Commentary. I don’t want this taken down. I don’t want you to get arrested because of me, or vice
versa.

If there comes a point where there is a conflict between law and justice that is legitimately within the
scope of this community to consider, this rule will be re-considered. Certainly moderators are not
expected to enforce it in ways that cause harm to community members unless not doing so would cause
harm to others, in which case a judgment call may be required.

But seriously, like, please don’t bring legal troubles to our door. In particular: no warez.

Motivation. This rule exists based on general life experience.

SECOND ,
Content that is intended to make people unhappy is forbidden.

• Don’t say things intended to make others feel bad, or bad about themselves.
• Don’t post images you know will upset or disrupt people.
• Don’t treat making someone feel bad as a positive outcome of a communication.

Commentary. This rule is about deliberate intent. It’s not meant to be burdensome; if you’re here in
good faith, it should only really be a problem if you are really into some kind of art that others will be
unhappy being exposed to. You don’t have to doublecheck every action for whether you’re trying to
make people feel unhappy. Other people shouldn’t be policing you on this: either they can accept that
you’re not trying to make them unhappy, or they should be alerting moderators to an active issue.

That said, this rule is a key part of the server aspirations, and you should keep its spirit with you:

This is not a place for war, but for writing, gaming, and writing appreciation.
Commentary #2. Limited swearing is allowed, but try not to disturb people.

Motivation. This rule exists because the fundamental purpose of this server is to encourage and
appreciate creative flourishing. Trying to hurt people isn’t just bad: its antithetical.

THIRD ,
The entropy of a system at absolute zero is a well-defined constant.

Commentary. Commentaries on this rule may be found elsewhere.

Motivation. Unknown.

FOURTH ,
You may not stalk Jenna.

Motivation. This rule is mostly preventative. I want moderators to be comfortable acting on it if

someone starts digging for things like my address when I’m not around.

FIFTH ,
No pestering Jenna.

Commentary. It is legitimate to try to get my attention, because, after all, this is an Internet contact
point. However, you don’t have a right to it, possibly with the limited exception of kickstarter backers
who’ve been unable to reach me any other way.

There is a channel, for-when-jenna-next-wakes-up, where you can leave messages for me.

This rule will be enforced, but will not be a trapdoor of doom; unless you give the credible impression of
being a troll instead of a good-faith participant in the server, you can safely expect several warnings
before this escalates. In short, do not be scared to talk to me.

Motivation. This rule was originally created by Chrysoula for reasons of her own, and I am keeping it
because I do like not being pestered.
SIXTH ,
Don’t be a Nazi. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t use hate speech or words meant to harm. If somebody asks you
to change how you speak of others, listen and be considerate.

Commentary. This server is intended for use by the disabled, the non-neurotypical, the LGBT&c.
community, and ethnic and cultural minorities. It is not intended to focus on the issues of those
communities, nor to be exclusive to those communities, but this is a space for people from those
communities, and that should be respected.

More than that, it’s a writing space, which means that people need to be free to exist as themselves and
identify as themselves. This is critical and crucial.

Part of this means that reclaimed slurs are not hate speech when used to describe oneself or someone
who uses them for themselves. Leeway will also be granted in the general penumbra around this but not
to the extent of using a reclaimed slur to describe someone who is uncomfortable with it.

Note that while people are free to exist as themselves and identify as themselves here, they are not
obligated to explain or justify the details of that identification, nor to explain or justify why they are or
are not doing so.

Motivation. This rule exists as a community-inspired localization of the standard “don’t be a jerk” rule.

SEVENTH ,
Being part of a hate group or having a history of abusing others is a bannable offense even if your
conduct here is impeccable.

Commentary. This is not an automatic ban because targeted harassment campaigns that misrepresent
people exist. That said, in the absence of evidence of such a campaign, I lean very strongly, and
encourage my moderators to lean very strongly, towards believing victims. If this results in an injustice I
apologize.

Motivation. It should be safe to be here.

See also the Paradox of Tolerance, by Karl Popper, but mostly, it should be safe here.

EIGHTH ,
Do not post NSFW content except on personal channels marked as NSFW using the channel setting. Ask
before sharing barely-safe-for-work content. Be sensible about links.

Commentary. I am allowing people to have NSFW channels because I am mindful of the fact that some
creative works may include, or be, erotica. I’m also loosely willing to allow people more tone-setting
leeway on their personal channels in general. Even on NSFW channels, I ask that you limit yourself to
work that you created, work that is personally important to you, and work that is useful to the creative
process, rather than just stuff you find hot or whatever.

Motivation. After verifying that Discord allows NSFW channels and has an in-code toggle for them, I
have amended the previous proposed rule on this to account for creators who do erotic content.

NINTH ,
Don’t deny others’ experiences. Don’t shoot down or police a person's work on the basis of their lived
experience or lack of it, or your beliefs about same.

Commentary. Obviously if someone says that a wyvern with Robert Pattinson on its back just burst into
their living room, you are allowed to express polite skepticism or, as appropriate, concern. Obviously if
someone is using a storytelling style that suggests they are simplifying or filtering or exaggerating their
life, you can assume that until stated otherwise. But if someone presents something as their actual lived
experience, you don’t get to tell them that didn’t happen.

Arguably this should be a standard. I feel, like rule 2, that it may be foundational enough to apply even
in Tangency and on personal channels, but I am open to discussion.

Motivation. I wrote the second half of the rule first. It’s based on the awareness that lately a lot of
closeted queer*, trans, or survivor authors have been attacked for including that content when they
“weren’t” queer, trans, or survivors, occasionally forcing them to come out. But also more generally,
look, the penalty for writing about an experience that you don’t understand is that your work is not as
good. Letting people on this server pick on you would not be an appropriate penalty. This then reminded
me, I guess, more generally, that the first half of the rule is sometimes important, although I haven’t
seen it actually be a problem in communities I’ve associated with.

* N.B. on the usage of “queer” here: it is very important to several queer people I know that this word
be a permissible part of discourse, but I don’t self-identify with it. So I will default to using it but I am
willing to adjust the wording here if the community finds it appropriate.

TENTH ,
Protect the record that other people have of their interactions with you here by avoiding edits that
substantively change a message’s meaning and by replacing messages with a short summary instead of
deleting them.

Commentary. It’s OK to add little clarifications and tweaks to recent messages, as long as you’re not
trying to confuse matters or twist the meaning of replies, but it’s best avoided. There is leeway for
deleting things that everyone recently active in the channel agrees can be deleted and for deleting
content-free messages no one has responded to. There is more leeway for deleting messages that are
harmful to you.
It is valid to edit a message all the way down to “[discussion]” or “[content]” or something of the sort.
You may do so whenever you would feel more comfortable doing so than in leaving a more detailed
summary in place.

Accidental and forgetful violations of this rule will be enforced less stringently at first and for new
members because keeping to this rule is a skill people are less likely to be practiced in.

Motivation. A solid record of events is important to some people’s sense of reality. It is also potentially
useful in moderation.

ELEVENTH ,
Provide content warnings where appropriate, regardless of NSFW status, and spoiler tag things you
believe might disturb or trigger others.

Commentary. Content warnings are an inexact science. Figuring out what will disturb or trigger others is
an inexact science. There is no penalty for accidental failures to content warn or spoiler-tag, or getting
the wrong warnings, or failing to realize that something will disturb or trigger others ... as long as you
are making a good-faith effort and listening when people tell you what they need.

Motivation. This rule is principally for the protection of survivors, but also to protect the community
against safe-for-work disturbing imagery that is also neat enough to be worth sharing.

TWELFTH ,
You may request a color role in administrivia.

Motivation. Chrysoula seems to enjoy handing these out, and people seem to like getting them.

YODGIMELTH ,
You may post short updates on your current progress on your projects in night-and-falling-words.

Motivation. Encouragement! ^_^

The following principles are easier to violate by accident.

There is a little leeway on them on most channels. There is a lot of leeway on them in Tangency, as long
as you’re still acting in good faith, and possibly on some personal channels.

Try to keep to them.

Try to have them as principles and standards for how to behave here.

... but not to the extent that you get emotionally tangled up in how well you’re keeping to them or
whatever. If you get a warning or something, try to be at peace and adjust.

Commentary. Tangency exists to allow engagement with creators and fans who are here in good faith
but have pushed the boundaries on the standards below. The standards do still apply there, in the sense
that deliberately violating them as opposed to crossing the line now and then is generally going to be
evidence of bad faith.

STANDARD #1
No pressuring people into engaging with your content.

Commentary. The other side of this is, you don’t have to engage with anyone or any of their content,
with the exception of moderators giving you moderator warnings.

Motivation. This standard exists to avoid instances of “stop the conversation, you need to listen to this.”
It’s a standard and not a server rule because it’s OK to try to get people’s attention, to poke them,
maybe even to whine at them a little depending on your relationship with them, I’m not sure. I don’t
want to have to find and legislate the exact line.

STANDARD #2
No casual painting people here as wicked.

Commentary. Implying that someone is terrible is a weighty action. I’m allowing you to do it because it is
possible that someone terrible will show up on the server. I want you to feel safe in pointing that out if it
happens. But you can’t just do it as a conversational move.

Motivation. This rule exists to prevent instances of “but if you say that, you are really saying (monstrous
thing)” and “I am hurt that you are saying that, because (extreme interpretation.)” It is a standard and
not a rule because sometimes things people say do lead in monstrous directions, and sometimes people
say things that do hurt, and it is sometimes important to mention that, and I suspect that being able to
consistently distinguish those times from times when it just feels that way is more of a skill than a
choice.
STANDARD #3
Trust that people here are gifts, including yourself.

Commentary. There’s a person in there. Something precious. You don’t actually have to like everyone
here. You don’t have to approve of every statement or action or creative work. But you can’t treat
people as malevolent forces, or mindless puppets, or roles in your personal drama. There is a thing in
them that you have not seen, a brightness, a jewel. You don’t have to see it. People are a gift to the
world, not necessarily to you. But you have to know it’s there. People are people.

That does include you.

No treating people as objects. No treating people as not having their own lives, their own animating
principles, their own deal, their own reasons, their own experiences, their own existence that is not
yours, that is separate from you, and is worthwhile.

And also no bashing yourself. Maybe it’s facile to include that in this rule just because I can do it in an
extra two words. But seriously, look, I am not immune to depression rants about my own failings, and
maybe if you want to do that on a personal channel where it’s welcome that’s, if not fine, acceptable,
but that’s not what this is for. This is not a hurt-comfort server.

Motivation. This is to avoid those weird conversations where it feels like someone isn’t really talking to
you at all but a construct they’ve put together in their head. It’s a standard and not a rule because
empathy is learned, empathy is hard, and the actual phrasing of the rule is even harder.

STANDARD #4
Words are fluid; allow others to use and understand them in different ways than you do.

Commentary. This is arguably included in the rule above, but only if you read the commentary.

Motivation. I have seen conversations where a distinction in the use of language is the hinge to a large
disagreement, and yet somehow when that difference is discovered, it doesn’t turn into “oh! You meant
X! OK, we are good.” but rather “how dare you mean that.” I don’t like those conversations. Conversely,
like, I don’t have a universal translator, so this is a standard and not a rule.

STANDARD #5
Remember that you always have things to learn from others, especially about their lived experiences
and positionality. Nobody is perfect, and it is not expected that you should be, but don't make others do
your emotional labor, and listen if someone tells you they can't have a conversation.

Motivation. It is really easy to say, “Oh, I’m hurting you? Spend the next two hours explaining to me
how. Then, because I’m an ally, I will permit you to leave.” It is harder to spend two hours explaining
why something sucks. Conversely, if I had a hat, I’d eat my hat if I don’t screw this up sometime myself,
because, like, see above, it’s really easy. No work at all. Just hand off the work, lean back in your chair,
and put on some tunes! So it’s a standard and not a rule.

An important standard, tho. Like, take note.

STANDARD #6
People don't have to prove to you that their feelings are legitimate, and they should be allowed to have
those feelings without it becoming about you.

Motivation. This is a condensation of general experience, and was not inspired by a specific incident or
incidents. It’s a standard and not a rule because, as noted earlier, empathy is learned and empathy is
hard; more importantly, recognizing that others’ feelings can just be, and be there, and be OK, and that
you can be OK with that, is a relatively high-end life skill. It’s one that is particularly nice on servers like
this, though, so do try!

PCR #1
If you have not been banned, and have not broken the rules for personal channels, you may ask a
moderator for a personal channel.

Commentary. It’s nice to have a gallery and a place to bring people to discuss a personal project or point
of interest that isn’t suited to or isn’t grabbing the attention of the server as a whole.

Motivation. I had one on a server once. It was nice.

PCR #2
Your personal channel must have a strong reference to your name (the name you use here) in its title.

Motivation. Clarity.
PCR #3
Moderators are not obligated to make your personal channel immediately, but it is also not hard; please
have patience if necessary, but please don’t hesitate to ask!

Motivation. I don’t want my moderators overwhelmed, but I also don’t want this to feel like a special
privilege.

PCR #4
Personal channels are bound by the rules.

Commentary. This does mean that hate speech, denying others’ experiences, policing or shooting down
others’ work on the basis of their lived experience or lack of it or your perception of the same, and
record-distorting edits and deletions are forbidden even on personal channels. It’s likely that
moderators will be a bit more hesitant to kick or channel-ban you ... but that’s an observation, not a
request.

Motivation. The rules are explicitly the rules I want to be the rules everywhere.

PCR #5
Personal channels can modify or waive adherence to the standards.

Commentary. In principle, I think the standards are all pretty unimpeachable. Like, it’s not that I want
there to be a channel where it’s explicitly OK to pressure people into engaging with your content.

It’s just ...

Like, the standards are just how I put things, y’know?

If you don’t want to stress about the way I put things, the way I framed things, and how well you stick to
it, on your own personal channel; if you want to frame things differently, or just not worry about the
standards at all there—go to. Just make sure the same applies to any of your guests!

Commentary #2. This rule does potentially allow you to impose higher standards. After a certain point,
though, the penalty for violation will be limited to “you can kick the violator off of your channel,” with
the moderators not getting involved to enforce your ideal that people should only log on if they are
actively holding ice cream or whatever.

Motivation. I want the space to feel a bit more like your own. I want people who are having trouble with
moderators over the standards, but not the rules, to have a safe place to retreat to to talk to their
closest friends here.
PCR #6
Deleting others’ messages is forbidden except where those messages cause harm to you, or, where they
are a significant rule one violation and a moderator is not available to address the matter. If you must
delete someone else’s message for one of these reasons, please let a moderator know about the
circumstances.

Commentary. Look, if someone posts a jump scare image in your channel, or porn in a SFW channel, or
something that hits you so hard your channel is useless to you while it’s there, don’t let stress over this
rule get in the way of doing what you have to.

Like, seriously, if it’s hurting you, don’t stress about how much it’s hurting you, or if it’s hurting you
enough to trigger this exception, the only question is whether you have mental room to let a moderator
do it instead.

… but I really don’t like it when other people’s messages get deleted, so, like, if it’s not a harm issue,
don’t do it, and if there’s no choice, let us know what happened so it doesn’t become a thing.

Motivation. So like someone deleted some of my messages once and it was like losing an hour’s work in
Word. That brain itch.

PCR #7
You may not use your authority over a personal channel to cause harm to others.

Commentary. While harm is pretty much always bad, this rule in particular only triggers when the
channel ownership is part of that harm; simply being the owner of the channel where it happens is not
itself a trigger. This point isn’t really going to matter if actual harm is done, because, as noted, actual
harm is pretty much always bad, but it might help channel owners understand their obligations under
these rules.

Motivation. I don’t really know how this would come up without tripping some other rule or the more
general moderator rules for handling harm. But running things does come with a lot of power, so I
wanted to make it clear. Don’t hurt people with it or you might lose the channel, in addition to whatever
else happens.

PCR #8
You may mark your personal channel NSFW, creating functional leeway with regards to rule 8. Note that
this is a flag to be set in Discord, not a part of the title or a message to be pinned.

Commentary/Motivation. See the commentary/motivation for server rule 8.

Bans

Banning is reserved for:

• those participating in the server in bad faith,

• active dangers to the community or its members,
o specifically including Nazis, members of other hate groups, and known abusers, as per
the seventh rule,
• a final escalation step in handling rules violations, or
• when someone’s presence is causing active harm to others, regardless of fault, and that harm is
meaningful, and the situation cannot be resolved with other tools.

If the situation is time-sensitive, you may issue an immediate ban in those circumstances.

If the situation is time-sensitive but uncertain, it is acceptable to apologize to someone, tell them that
the ban will be reviewed as soon as possible, and then ban them.

If the situation is not time-sensitive, please consult with Jenna or Chrysoula before acting.

Channel Locking

If someone is participating in the server in good faith, but failing to abide by the standards, it is
permissible to restrict them to Tangency, appropriate special-purpose channels, and to such personal
channels as they are welcome in. At the time of this writing, this means locking them out of

• λ-here,
• here there be dragons,
• creational things,
• and optionally voice channels.

If leaving access to the phantasmagory causes problems, then this policy will be amended to first lock
them out of the phantasmagory, then return control over any personal channel they have, then contact
the owners of any personal channels you or they believe they would be invited back to to give the
owners an opportunity to re-invite them.

General Escalation Protocol

To protect a positive server environment, the standard moderation escalation path for violations of the
standards should be a warning, then a kick or a temporary removal from the channel in question ranging
from a minute to a day, followed by a restriction to Tangency and appropriate personal channels either
for up to a week or until Jenna or Chrysoula has had a chance to review the matter.

The standard moderation escalation path for violations of the rules should be a warning, then a kick or
temporary removal from the channel in question ranging from a minute to a day, followed by a last-
chance warning if feasible, followed by a banning until Jenna or Chrysoula has had a chance to review
the matter.

Talking about oneself and expressing one’s own reactions and experience—even if it manages to violate
one of the rules—should always be more forgivable than statements that focus on or question others.
This does not mean that a self-focused statement can’t break the rules, but moderators should weigh a
statement’s internal focus, if present, heavily when deciding how quickly to escalate, how strongly to
weigh intentionality, and how much to consider past offenses.

Moderators are not entitled to issue judgments or punishments: warnings, kicking, temporary banning,
channel banning, channel restriction, and banning are there as options to protect the health of the
community and its members.

That said, moderators do not need to engage in excessive introspection about whether their actions are
a judgment or punishment before issuing a warning or taking urgent action; such introspection is only
requested when taking stronger actions when there is time to reflect.