Moderator Discussion - Adherence to the Code of Conduct

I’am pretty sure that each day more people will join the forum that bought an Z9 and mostly join the discussion. Just normally as the shipping of the Z9 is below 30 days now, mostly even possible it gets shipped way sooner. (announcement on the product page).

while this of course is actually not for everybodies taste here, as i noticed myself when i joined the forum, it’s just a normal thing to happen and the Moderators or whole Zcash team should that have in mind, as well as the older community. I don’t think that hostility and nonstop offending is helpfull in whatever matter.

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I’m so grateful to @root and @sonya for joining in and helping make this a good place to share and to learn. :heart:

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Agree 100%. Root is not impartial in the application of the “rules”.

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This is because the company leader expressed a position that was counter to the position that the company put forward from the earliest days of this project. It is no surprise that this angered a large part of the community. Then, the moderators here began banning and censoring those voices. What did you guys think would happen?

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Phakov,

Your post expresses an authoritarian position. The sort of authoritarian and pro censorship mindset expressed in your post is not going to be well received by the sorts of people who are involved from the beginning of a privacy oriented / censorship crypto community like Zcash was. Users like Cryptomind and ProudClown and others who’s voices are being suppressed in this space were loyal to this project and helped to promote it from the start. It is a shame how the moderators have used censorship to silence dissent from the “party line” here.

You should encourage open conversation and stop banning and censoring people who call you out Zooko.

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This is on point. The moderators have not been even handed on this forum. It is obvious.

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“Civil” is a term that can be interpreted differently by different people in different ways at different times under different circumstances.

You can not fault people for expressing strongly held opinions. You can not fault people for being strongly critical of peoples behavior and publicly stated positions. The passion of those who express strong opinions is an asset of the community. Banning people for dissent is wrong. Hiding censorship behind the subjective and selective enforcement of TOS or COC is even more wrong.

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This is an internet forum. It’s their rules their way. This is not some government. It’s vital users of internet forums understand distinction. No one has any rights here. Whatever “rights” exist are granted to users by the TOS. All others are ceded when that “Accept” button is pressed.

Perhaps a reading of Rousseau’s Social Contract philosophy will guide those who need it.

NB: Careful of labeling users with preconceived notions.

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The Code of Conduct is subjectively interpreted and applied against those who have expressed an opinion contrary to those that pay you, isn’t that the case? How many posts have you censored that were expressing an opinion aligned with those who have no problem with Bitmain ASCICs dominating the Zcash network.

First, I’m a volunteer and not paid.

Second, the code of conduct is clear and easy to interpret. It’s not subjective. Facts exist and are not products of perspective. There are multiple moderators and higher up admins that are in place to review and make sure my conduct is objective rather than subjective. That process took place within ~12 hours after those users were silenced. Combining public statements made and private statements via messages painted a clear picture of the violations that occurred.

There are clear examples in the Code of Conduct to make the rules easier to understand and less subjective:

  • The use of sexualized language or imagery
  • Personal attacks
  • Trolling or insulting/derogatory comments
  • Public or private harassment
  • Publishing other’s private information, such as physical or electronic addresses, without explicit permission
  • Other unethical or unprofessional conduct

The users that were silenced used several personal attacks. Those users also engaged in public and private harassment. The language was extreme and unprofessional. Threats in personal messages to moderators also breaks the Code of Conduct.

I suppose that someone who has never held a formal position in a workplace may have trouble deducing what is professional and unprofessional, but that is also really simple: be nice while disagreeing respectfully. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

You can not fault people for expressing strongly held opinions. You can not fault people for being strongly critical of peoples behavior and publicly stated positions. The passion of those who express strong opinions is an asset of the community.

You’re absolutely right and we didn’t do that. Strongly held opinions are welcome.

Unfortunately those users crossed the line and did not change their behavior after receiving a warning. Instead the situation was escalated.

We have actually been lenient and have offered some users a second chance if they promise to stick to the guidelines. This is the ideal outcome: not to stop disagreeing and debating, but to make this a harassment-free environment.

As @sonya said: just be nice.

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We’re not happy about banning people, but users who berate and threaten others are not welcome here. It is possible to support Zcash, or be interested in the underlying technology, and still behave in a way that harms the community.

Notice that you are criticizing us civilly, without personal attacks, and you haven’t been banned. Nor have your posts been hidden. Because we appreciate criticism that is offered in good faith! Another example is how @daira has expressed her thoughts. That kind of dissent strengthens the community rather than undermining it.

It’s also worth pointing that every user here has the right of exit. There are other communities for discussing Zcash, and it’s easy to create your own new community online. The Zcash Foundation and the Zcash Company both have public email addresses, if you specifically want to let the “official” leadership know what you think but don’t want to post here.

Also — while I hope this isn’t the case — if you’re fed up with Zcash completely, there are other privacy-oriented cryptocurrency projects. Monero and ZenCash, for example, have similar missions.

For the record, I personally do not have a settled position on how we should handle ASICs. I think both the proponents and the detractors have made good points.

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3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Let’s talk about Cryptomined

Something doesn’t jive here. I’ve seen a lot of hidden posts in the Let’s talk about ASIC thread. Yeah some of them were like way over the top. Others I look at and scratch my head why they are hidden at all. Is anyone going through the hidden posts to make sure things are being done on the up and up? Don’t get me wrong, it’s human to make a mistake, but I ask if someone is giving these actions a second look to make sure what’s has been done is right?

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Do you have an example?

If you can view a post, it hasn’t been hidden by a moderator. Several moderators here have closely watched “Let’s talk about ASIC” thread and have confirmed the actions on comments that broke the Code of Conduct.

good chance that some have been seen/flagged as off topic …
I’am pretty sure that the Asic thread is closely watche by the moderators and not only bey them but as well Zcash/Members and Foundation Members as well. Just logical.

You answered part of what was bothering me…so if it’s hidden but I can still see it, a user did it. If it disappears completely (how would I even know?) then it was a Mod? That right?

So I didn’t want to go through all 2.6k posts again, but I did find one that was apparently user hidden…and still is. Don’t these get reviewed by mods and unhidden if they aren’t “wrong”?
https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/let-s-talk-about-asic-mining/27353/1037?u=cryptometrix

And the reply was flagged as well? All the reply said was “End the thread here”…why was that flagged?? You see what I mean?

Possibly, not overly familiar with how the forum mechanics work yet.

@cryptometrix From here forward if I’m participating in a conversation and see something off-topic I’ll flag it for another moderator so to not take sides or give the impression that I’m hiding things I disagree with. Thus, some posts might be flagged by me, but still visible.

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Potential moderators do tend to have positions on contentious topics affecting the future of Zcash, and this should not be surprising. I’m a moderator and have also participated in the ASIC discussion. Some moderators are affiliated with ZcashCo, some are not. The ones who are not, bear no responsibility for ZcashCo positions and do not speak for the company. Similarly for the Zcash Foundation.

There would not be an adequate pool of moderators (especially with the recent resignation of @Shawn as moderator, but even before then) if there were any requirement for moderators not to take part in discussions on contentious topics. Moderating a thread in which you are participating obviously requires care and restraint, but as a practical matter, we also don’t have enough moderators to allow for those participating in a thread to recuse themselves from moderating it.

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That post was flagged by a moderator, me.

Flagging a post doesn’t remove the post, regardless of whether the flagging was done by a moderator. Hiding a post is a separate action. Moderators can see posts that were hidden (we see them as greyed out).

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