Users Code of Conduct

Users Code of Conduct

Our Standards

We want a free, open, positive and welcoming environment. Remember the human; we're all here because we want to connect over a shared passion for retro gaming!

Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include

• Using welcoming and inclusive language.
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences.
• Gracefully accepting constructive criticism.
• Focusing on what is best for the community.
• Showing empathy towards other community members.

Unacceptable social behavior

• Asking for or posting links to download sites where others could download illegal ROMs.
• Spamming message or attempting to vandalize Discord or the website by any means.
• Advertising products, services, or other Discord servers without approval.
• Bigotry: This includes racism, sexism, elitism; intolerance regarding others' nation, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, etc.
• Public or private harassment. Harassment on RetroAchievements is defined as systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone in a way that would make a reasonable person conclude that RetroAchievements is not a safe platform to express their ideas (obviously, such ideas must not violate this Code of Conduct) or participate in the conversation, or fear for their safety.
• Defamation, as in making false statements about a person that injure their reputation.
• Threats of violence.
• Unwelcome sexual attention or advances towards others.
• Posting pornography, as in images or descriptions of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement.
• Posting gruesome or gory images intended to cause disgust.
• Publishing others' private information, such as a photos of them or their physical or electronic address, without explicit permission.

These behaviors may result in the offender getting muted, kicked or banned from the Discord server and/or RetroAchievements.org

Social behavior strongly frowned upon

• Heated public arguments.
• Excessive shitposting.
• Personal attacks. As in making abusive remarks on or relating to one's person instead of providing evidence when examining another person's claims or comments.

The moderators will step in to cool things down if arguments start getting out of hand. In these cases moderators may remove comments, temporarily mute users, ask users to talk in private, or take other actions they feel necessary to pacify the situation. Keep it chill, and we'll all have a much better time.

Explicitly Allowed

• Reasoned criticism and questioning of leadership decisions.
• Reasoned criticism of developer's creations.

When making a public criticism stay civil by keeping to the facts and your opinions without making personal attacks. Not following this will result in moderation.

For the sanity and morale of the community try to keep your criticism encouraging, constructive and optimistic.

Discord Chat Specific Rules

Stay on topic within the channel you are in. Some channels are strict in this while others are very flexible. Check the channel description at the top and also see how others are using the channel.

Forum Specific Rules

• All posts need to be on-topic. If you want to chat you can use the front page site chat or the community Discord server. If you want to change the subject, create a new topic or find a related one.

Forum Etiquette

Post it!

• Your post directly relates to the subject of the thread.
• Your post brings new ideas or outlooks to the discussion.
• Your post has your ideas and point of view on the subject.
• Your post is a direct answer to the question of others.
• Your post is reiterating long buried points that you believe need new light.
• Your post has reasoned criticism of other's view points and ideas.
• Your post has evidence to back up your claims.

Leave it out!

• Trolling, or making fun of the position or character of others.
• Vague complaints.
• memes, jokes, idle chat.
• Agreeing or validating other users, without adding reasoning.
• Disagreeing or criticizing the position of others with others without providing a reasoned counter-argument.
• Spam and content-less posts.
• Directly or indirectly attacking the character of other posters.
• Aggressively or passive-aggressively attacking the position of others.
• Arguing with or opposing moderator directions.

If others are showing bad form do not play the moderator!

• Instead of matching or one-uping their tone be the bigger person and use good forum etiquette.
• Instead of telling them they are spamming/trolling/flaming/being toxic ignore that portion or all of what they've said and contact a moderator (if needed). Responding or playing moderator adds fuel to the fire and feeds trolls.

If you feel moderation is needed direct your issues to RAdmin, a shared mod-mail account, via PM.

If you have problems with how any moderation action takes place send a PM to RAdmin](http://retroachievements.org/createmessage.php?t=RAdmin) or email [email protected]. This is a shared moderation account that all mods and admin see, the issue will be discussed and dealt with fairly.

Arguments

It's fine and often good to have an argument, but it's important to keep it productive. See Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement to know what is appropriate. Anything below contradiction is not good enough for the forum, as in criticizing tone, attacking the character of others or name-calling isn't acceptable.

Cheating

Check the Global Leaderboard and Achievement Hunting Rules.

Accounts that are proven to be cheating will be set to "Untracked" and in some cases they can be banned.

If you suspect others of cheating, do not make a public accusation. Share your evidence with the mods/admin and wait for careful review. Cheat accusations can be extremely disruptive to the community and are often unfounded or do not have certain enough evidence to warrant punishment. Your accusation will remain anonymous and the admin/staff will publicly post a response to the evidence.

Example: ____ user was accused of cheating, after reviewing evidence, _____, ____, ____. We found that there is sufficient/insufficient evidence for them to be untracked.

Reporting

Instances of unacceptable behavior or cheating may be reported by contacting the RetroAchievements mods team at Discord Server (users with blue names). You can also contact all active admin/mods by sending a Private Message to the RAdmin user in the official website.

Complaints will be reviewed, investigated and responded to as fitting to the circumstances.

Admin/Mods Responsibilities

Admin/Mods are responsible for keeping this community functioning well. They must uphold this Code of Conduct and the Achievement Developer's one on the website and on the Discord server. Their duties on these two fronts are detailed below.

On the website

• Within the rules of the Code of Conduct, remove or reject
  • comments,
  • achievements,
  • badges,
  • forum posts,
  • any other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct.
• "Untrack" users found to be cheating.
• Warn, ban temporarily or permanently members who are violating this Code of Conduct excessively, a warning being given first in most cases.
  • When the inappropriate behavior is not very clear, the staff will discuss among themselves what action should be taken.

On Discord

• Provide help when it's asked for, preferably showing a doc page with the answer (so people can start to use RADocs to find the answers they need).
• Keep channels on topic, but with a degree of looseness in the general channels, as to allow for the natural flow of conversation.
• Verify users on Discord.
• Ensure user's nickname on Discord match the website's one. Accepted exception: DiscordNick (RA_Username).
• Manage roles, like:
  • Give jr-dev role to those who show interest on create achievements (and at least have read some basic docs)
  • Give developer for those who have Developer status on the website.
  • Manage AotW Winner role.
  • Manage the *-news roles.
• In cases of those who are violating this Code of Conduct excessively, admin/mods will use their judgement to kick those users from the server, a warning being given first in most cases. If they come back and keep the bad behavior, most likely they'll be banned.
  • When the inappropriate behavior is not very clear, the staff will discuss among themselves what action should be taken.

Admin/mods who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good faith may face temporary or permanent repercussions as determined by other members of the project's leadership.