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• Website League Community Code
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League Community Code

Website League Community Code

Last updated: January 25, 2025. Ported from original document February 9, 2025.

Part I.  General Rights and Duties of Users

Rule 1. Duties and Rights of Users and Prospective Users

1-1. Anyone using the Community Code shall interpret it per the Interpretive Code.

1-2. No one shall become a User if they are younger than the effective age of majority.

1-3. Users shall, as far as they reasonably can:

(1). follow the Community Code in their interactions with other Users;
(2). resolve conflicts amongst each other without escalating them such that Node Staff need to intervene; and
(3). use technical measures available to them, such as muting and blocking, to end or halt disputes which cannot be resolved but which do not inherently violate the Community Code and which do not threaten the well-being of the League and its Users.

1-4. Users should report to the relevant Node Staff any conduct which violates the Community Code.

1-5. Users should use their Node’s “report” function to make reports. However, Users may use other channels to make such reports if they determine that such channels would be more appropriate.

1-6. Users may appeal any moderation decisions taken or implemented against them.

Rule 2. Duties and Rights of Node Staff

2-1. Node Staff shall adhere to the Community Code in a manner which does not take inappropriate advantage of their status as Node Staff.

2-2. Node Staff shall uphold the Community Code on their Node.

2-3. Node Staff on each Node shall cooperate to arrive at whichever additions to the Community Code are appropriate for their Node.

2-4. Node Staff may make additions to the Community Code applicable only to their Node, which:

(1). may include additional rules beyond the Community Code so long as these do not directly or substantively conflict with the Community Code;
(2). shall not remove any portion of the Community Code; and
(3). shall not alter any portion of the Community Code so as to implement looser requirements or standards.

2-5. Node Staff shall cooperate with other Node Staff both within and outside their Node in capacities including:

(1). collaborating on handling incidents and conflicts;
(2). giving and receiving feedback on the execution of one’s or others’ duties as Node Staff; and
(3). supporting one another in upholding the Community Code.

2-6. Node Staff shall ensure all custom emoji, icons, and other imagery offered by their Node adheres to the Community Code.

2-7. Node Staff shall respect members’ privacy. This includes:

(1). not viewing other Users’ direct messages unless such messages are reported for potential moderation action;
(2). complying with all applicable privacy laws and regulations; and
(3). not using access to private information, such as a User’s liked or bookmarked posts, to gain any unfair advantage.

2-8. Node Staff, in enforcing new or Node-specific Rules which are likely to be unintuitive to some Users, shall exercise a degree of leniency appropriate to Users’ current understanding of those Rules.

2-9. Node Staff shall encourage Users to resolve disputes socially or use User-side moderation tools to mitigate or prevent conflict wherever such is reasonable and will not endanger any Users.

2-10. Node Staff may take whatever action on their Node they determine to be necessary to uphold the Community Code or maintain the well-being of the League, including:

(1). warnings;
(2). temporary suspensions; and
(3). permanent bans.

2-11. Node Staff may use automated tools to assist in detecting potential violations of the Community Code on their Node; however, Node Staff shall not allow automated systems of any kind to make moderation decisions.

2-12. Node Staff should evaluate all meritorious appeals of moderation decisions diligently. Regardless, Node Staff may dismiss appeals summarily if they believe such to be appropriate.

2-13. Node Staff may apply whatever discretion they determine to be necessary to enforce the Community Code, including using moderation responses to actions which are not literal violations of the Community Code.

2-14. Node Staff shall prioritise their own obligations, health, and well-being above the health of their Node when one must prevail over the other.

2-15. Node Staff shall discourage, and may take measures to prevent, the development of practices in the community which aim to circumvent the technical restrictions set out in Rule 3-8.

Rule 3. Duties and Rights of Node Operators

3-1. Node Operators shall not take inappropriate advantage of their status as Node Operators.

3-2. Node Operators should facilitate the work of Node Staff by providing access to moderation tools including:

(1) report dashboards;
(2). User bans and suspensions; or
(3). analytics that may aid moderation.

3-3. Node Operators shall make all reasonable efforts to keep their Node accessible and operational for registered users.

3-4. If a Node Operator is unable to keep their Node accessible and operational for registered users, the Node Operator shall clearly communicate such to the Node’s Users.

3-5. Node Operators shall keep their Node operating in compliance with the Community Code.

3-6. Node Operators shall clearly state on a portion of their Node’s website which is accessible to non-Users the following information:

(1). the jurisdictions which:

(a). the Node Staff reside in;
(b). the Node is hosted in; and
(c). the Node is otherwise subject to the laws of;

(2). that direct messages, private mentions, and similar “private messaging” features can be viewed by Node Staff, where a Node accepts sign-ups; and
(3). the effective age of majority for the Node.

3-7. Node Operators shall comply with all software licences applicable to the software running on their Node.

3-8. Where such is possible in a Node’s existing server software, Node Operators shall ensure that their Node does not make available:

(1). follower or following counts;
(2). like, favourite, boost, or repost counts;
(3). follower or following lists for Users available to Users other than oneself;
(4). any sort of direct indication that one User has blocked another User; or
(5). “global” or “federated” feeds.

Part II.  Abuse and Harassment

Rule 4. Bigoted and Oppressive Conduct

4-1. Users shall not post hateful or violent rhetoric directed toward any group of people based on race, ethnic or national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

4-2. Users shall not act in a manner which has the effect of enacting, entrenching, or advancing bigotry or violence based on race, ethnic or national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender or queer identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

Rule 5. Other Harmful and Violent Conduct

5-1. Users shall not abuse, harass, or threaten others. This includes:

(1). attempting to contact any User who has taken action to stop the User from contacting them, either on or off site
(2). intentionally referring to another person with incorrect pronouns or a former name/deadname;
(3). habitually defaming most or all of one’s critics, including via abuse of political, social justice, or therapy terminology; and
(4). attempting to start campaigns which might pressure Node Staff into making moderation decisions which are incompatible with the Community Code or the goals of the League.

Part III.  Privacy and Legal Compliance

Rule 6. Privacy

6-1. Users shall not disclose the private information of anyone without their consent, including:

(1). physical addresses;
(2). contact information not made public by the person it refers to, including telephone numbers or e-mail addresses; or
(3). government identification numbers (such as Social Insurance Numbers or Social Security Numbers).

6-2. Users shall not post intimate photos or videos of anyone without that person’s consent, including:

(1). adult material edited to appear to feature a different person;
(2). revenge porn; and
(3). deepfakes and other such programmatically generated adult material featuring the likenesses of non-consenting persons.

6-3. Users shall not harmfully impersonate others in a manner that is intended to, or does, mislead, confuse, or deceive others.

6-4. Users shall not publish or link to material which they know is likely to damage or disrupt another person’s network devices or infrastructure (including computers and phones) or compromise their privacy, including malware.

Part IV.  Node and League Integrity

Rule 7. Users’ Role in Protecting the League

7-1. Users shall not sell access to the League or any Nodes in unintended ways, including registering accounts with names the User believes might become valuable in the future for the purposes of selling them later.

7-2. Users shall not attempt to interfere with the technical operation of any Node or the Website League itself.

7-3. Users shall not evade bans (whether on one node or League-wide) or otherwise create multiple accounts with any intent to circumvent the moderation actions of Node Staff.

7-4. Users who suspect that any Node or the League has any technical issues which could impede the safe operation of the Node or the League should contact the relevant Node Staff or others who are in a position to remedy the technical issues.

7-5. Users shall not post material which implicates themselves in conduct which, if encountered by law enforcement or regulatory authorities in any relevant jurisdiction, might result in the User being subjected to sanctions against their liberty or other legal rights.

7-6. Users shall not post material the presence of which on a given Node might result in any relevant Node Staff being investigated by said authorities or being compelled to participate in any legal proceedings.

7-7. Users shall not post material which is illegal in any relevant jurisdiction or use the Website League to conduct or facilitate activities illegal in any relevant jurisdiction.

7-8. Users shall not post any material which could induce liability for the posting User or any Node or its Node Staff on grounds including defamation, copyright infringement, or dissemination of trade secrets.

Rule 8. Node Staff’s Role in Protecting the League

8-1. Unless prohibited from doing so by law in any relevant jurisdiction, Node Staff shall remove from their Node any material:

(1). which is prohibited by law in the jurisdiction where the Node Staff resides or the jurisdiction where the node is hosted; or
(2). which is otherwise impermissible on the Node in a manner that could bring about technical or legal sanctions which threaten:

(a). the Node’s ability to operate;
(b). any relevant Node Staff’s ability to serve as staff on the Node; or
(c). any relevant Node Operator’s ability to operate the node.

8-2. Node Staff may prevent their Node from caching or otherwise storing material posted on other Nodes which falls within the terms of Rule 8-1 with respect to either the originating or receiving Node.

8-3. Node Staff may take moderation or reporting actions with respect to material of the sort described in Rules 7-5 through 7-8 including:

(1) deletion;
(2). more severe moderation actions, where they are required by law or are likely necessary to protect the Node or its Node Staff; and
(3). where required by laws which are applicable to a Node or any of its Node Staff such that enforcement of said laws could potentially endanger said Node or any of its Node Staff, providing information to parties legally entitled to said information under those laws.

Part V. Other Prohibited Material

Rule 9. Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation

9-1. Users shall not post material that actively glorifies or promotes:

(1) self-harm in a general sense;
(2). lifestyle choices that are associated with self-harming behaviour, including “pro-anorexia” or “suicide-positive” material; or
(3). human trafficking.

9-2. Users shall not post misleading material that would be likely to cause physical harm, which includes:

(1). harmful misinformation about world events, including:

(a). pandemic denial;
(b). genocide denial; and
(c). conspiracy theorism;

(2). other material which appears to provide medical advice which is in fact harmful;
(3). material which is likely to mislead people into unintentional property damage or injury; or
(4). material which is likely to mislead people into endangering themselves in the face of natural disasters or other natural phenomena.

9-3. Users shall not post material that interferes with the integrity of public office elections, at levels including:

(1). supranationally;
(2). nationally or federally;
(3). regionally, provincially, or at the state level; and
(4). locally;

which includes material designed to intentionally suppress, intimidate, or confuse voters.

Rule 10. Spamming, Fraud, and Grift

10-1. Users shall not engage in spamming, which includes:

(1). repeatedly following Users or sharing or liking their posts to an extent that it can reasonably be inferred that there is intent to pester them with notifications;
(2). posting large numbers of unwanted mentions or comments on other Users’ posts;
(3). posting low value material which contains off-site links in an attempt to improve their search engine result ranking;
(4). posting sponsored material without disclosing that you are receiving promotional consideration; or
using an account or page largely to post solicitations to join:

(a). referral marketing programs;
(b). make-money-from-home schemes;
(c). multi-level marketing;
(d). Ponzi schemes; or
(e). other businesses or organisations which primarily derive revenue from new members joining as opposed to the sale of real services or products.

10-2. Users shall not promote any products, services, investments, or business opportunities related to blockchain technologies unless they unambiguously do not fall into any of the categories listed at Rule 10-1(5).

Rule 11. Material Requiring Exceptional Enforcement Measures

11-1. For the purposes of this Part, "child sexual abuse material" means:

(1). realistic depictions of minors of a sexually explicit nature, whether actual photographs/videos or visual art difficult to distinguish from actual photographs/videos; and
(2). non-explicit realistic depictions of minors which appear to be sexual in intent, including creepshots and underage “fashion modeling”.

11-2. Users shall not post child sexual abuse material on any Node, regardless of whichever local laws are applicable to that Node or the User posting.

11-3. Node Staff shall:

(1). immediately and permanently ban any User who attempts to upload child sexual abuse material to any Node any given Node Staff member is on the staff of;
(2). immediately and permanently ban any User who they become aware has attempted to post child sexual abuse material on a different Node; and
(3). immediately report any attempts to post child sexual abuse material on a Node which they are on the staff of to the relevant law enforcement authorities. 

11-4. Node Operators shall permanently break federation with any Nodes which fail to respond to any attempted posting of child sexual abuse material per Rule 11-3 within a reasonable period of time.

Part VI.  AI-Generated Material

Rule 12. Obligations of Users Posting AI-Generated Material

12-1. Users shall not post material produced by “off the shelf” generative models (”AI-generated” material) to the Website League without labelling it:

(1). as "AI-generated", if the entirety of the post is AI-generated; or
(2). with a disclaimer before any portion of the post which is AI-generated, if only a portion of the post is AI-generated.

12-2. Users should tag partially AI-generated posts as being “AI-generated”.

12-3. Users shall not:

(1). post AI-generated material intended to mislead someone or spread misinformation of a nature that is likely to be believed;
(2). create a page solely to post material generated by large model generative AI products; or
(3). solicit donations or payment for material generated by large model generative AI products.

Part VII.  Adult Material

Rule 13. General Rules on Adult Material

13-1. For the purposes of this Part, “adult material” means:

(1). pornography or nudity, either photographic or drawn;
(2). other material which depicts or describes sexual acts in explicit detail; or
(3). material which is prohibited from being distributed to persons who are under the effective age of majority of a User or Node.

13-2. Users shall ensure that any adult material they post is posted using technical measures allowing other Users to have it be hidden by default.

13-3. Users shall not post adult material on their profile picture or header image.

Rule 14. Material to which Additional Requirements Apply

14-1. Users shall not post sexually explicit non-photorealistic visual art of characters who are, or are apparently, minors.

14-2. Users shall not post art which Node Staff determine could be reasonably interpreted to be of a suggestive nature involving minors without a descriptive, clear content warning.

14-3. Node Staff may take moderation measures including deletion with respect to any material that falls within the scope of Rule 14-2, whether it has adequate content warnings or not, if they determine that such is necessary.

14-4. Users shall not post written material discussing sexual experiences involving minors, including when the minor in question is or was the User posting, which constitutes any of the following:

(1). written fiction involving real people who are minors or depicted as minors;
(2). material encouraging, glorifying, or advocating sex between adults and minors;
(3). material whose dominant characteristic is the description, for a sexual purpose, of sexual activity with anyone younger than the effective age of majority in the circumstances; or
(4). any written material discussing sexual experiences involving minors if posted without a descriptive, clear content warning.

Part VIII.  Tags and Content Warnings

Rule 15. Obligations of Users Respecting Tags and Content Warnings

15-1. For the purposes of this Part, “sensitive material” includes:

(1). depictions of graphic violence or self-harm;
(2). depictions of sexual violence of all kinds;
(3). depictions of explicit racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or other bigotry in a documentary capacity;
(4). depictions of abuse, particularly of children or animals;
(5). depictions of drug use and abuse, descriptions of self-harm, suicide, incitement to suicide, or threats of suicide in a documentary capacity; or
(6). gross-out or shock material.

15-2. Users should apply descriptive, clear tags to any posts containing sensitive material.

15-3. Users shall apply descriptive, clear content warnings to any posts containing:

(1). depictions of non-consensual sexual conduct;
(2). material which is likely to induce photosensitive epileptic episodes, including material containing large areas of flashing lights; and
(3). material requiring content warnings under Rules 14-2 and 14-4.

Rule 16. Rights and Obligations of Node Staff Respecting Content Warnings

16-1. Node Staff may take measures to remedy posts containing sensitive material with inadequate content warnings including:

(1). adding appropriate content warnings to the post; or
(2). modifying the existing content warnings on the post.

16-2. Where a Node’s software does not permit addition or modification of content warnings by Node Staff, Node Staff may summarily delete posts containing sensitive material made with inadequate tags or content warnings if they determine that the circumstances are too urgent for them to wait for the posting User to edit the post themself.

16-3. Node Staff shall take measures to prevent posts containing the material described in Rule 15-3 from being displayed to Users without adequate content warnings, including hiding the relevant post.

16-4. Node Staff may take moderation actions such as deleting the relevant post(s) or banning the relevant User in the event of repeated or particularly severe breaches of Rule 15-3.

Part IX.  Other Behaviours to Avoid

Rule 17. Reposting and Attribution

17-1. Users shall not post or repost other people’s material without attribution. Furthermore: 

(1). If the material a User wants to share is already on the Website League, the User should use the built-in share feature to boost it instead of reposting it.
(2). If the material a User wants to share is not on the Website League, the User should link back to the source where possible.

17-2. Users shall only post the contents of private conversations where it is compatible with the Community Code. For clarity:

(1). Users may call out bigoted, abusive, and otherwise highly harmful behaviour without anonymity.
(2). Users may share the contents of private conversations they consider to be funny or unusual if and only if the other participants in the conversation are kept anonymous.
(3). Users may share private conversations or remarks non-anonymously with the approval of the sources of the remarks.

17-3. If the creator of any given material reasonably requests the removal of any of their material posted on the Website League, Node Staff may perform such removal if the reposting User does not.

17-4. Node Staff may ban accounts on the basis that their primary form of posting is unsourced reposting.

17-5. Node Staff may take whatever moderation actions they determine to be necessary and proportionate to stop patterns of infractions of Rules 17-1 and 17-2.

Rule 18. Discretion with which to Address Patterns of Detrimental Conduct

18-1. Node Staff may limit, suspend, or ban any User for reasons outside the Community Code or any given Node’s rules when a User’s conduct is determined to be detrimental to the well-being of the League or any given Node. Examples include:

(1). bad-faith provocation of conflict;
(2). egregiously argumentative behaviour; or
(3). routinely being detrimental to others’ enjoyment of the League.

18-2. In applying Rule 18-1, Node Staff should usually avoid discouraging arguing, snide remarks, and overt displays of anger against other Users. However, Node Staff may take administrative and moderation action against Users with an excessively frequent or intense pattern of such conduct.

18-3. Users should make use of user-side safety tools such as muting or blocking as a first-line response. However, Users should report any patterns of conduct as described in Rule 18-1 which appear to them to be excessively intense, protracted, or otherwise severe.

18-4. Node Staff shall not interpret Rule 18-1 as permitting excessive policing the tone of users or ignoring the context in which remarks are made.

18-5. Node Staff shall apply Rule 18-1 with a conscious, active awareness of the way in which their moderation actions might have discriminatory or bigoted effects regardless of intent, and shall actively consider the immediate, historical, and societal context surrounding any conduct which they perceive as potentially warranting action per said Rule.

Website League Interpretation Code

Last updated: January 25, 2025. Ported (from original) February 9, 2025.

Part I. Definitions

1. Short Names for Website League Documents

1-1. The “Community Code” means the Website League Community Code and entails the interpretive sources set out in 6-2.

1-2. The “Interpretation Code” means this document, the Website League Interpretation Code.

2. Structural Terminology

2-1. A “Node” means a website or server which:

(1). accepts the Community Code as all or part of its own code of conduct, whose Users are required by its Node Staff to comply with the Community Code; and
(2). allows its Users’ accounts to communicate with the accounts of Users on other Nodes.

2-2. The “Website League” means, as appropriate:

(1). the network constituted by the Nodes;
(2). the entire set of Nodes in the League; or
(3). the users of the Nodes collectively.

2-3. The “League” means the Website League.

2-4. A “User” means anyone who has an account on a Node.

2-5. “Node Staff” means Users of a Node who have administrative or moderation permissions on said Node or who otherwise have additional rights or responsibilities on that Node.

2-6. “Node Moderators” means Node Staff who are responsible for facilitating governance and mediating intra-Node and inter-Node conflict. This includes:

(1). nominating and appointing other Node Staff;
(2). facilitating discussions of governance on their respective nodes; and
(3). enforcing compliance by a Node’s users with the Community Code.

2-7. “Node Operators” means Node Staff who are responsible for maintaining the functionality of whichever Node they are Node Staff on.

2-8. A “Steward” means a User or other person who has been included in the League’s decision-making group, which is collectively the “Stewards”.

3. Specific Definitions for Common Words

3-1. “includes” and “including” imply “(but/and) is not limited to” unless specified otherwise.

3-2. “must”, “required”, and “shall” mean that a given action or definition is an absolute requirement.

3-3. “must not” and “shall not” mean that a given action or definition is an absolute prohibition.

3-4. “should” and “recommended” mean that there might exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to vary away from a given action or definition, but the full implications must be understood and carefully weighed before doing so.

3-5. “should not” and “not recommended” mean that there might exist valid reasons in particular circumstances that a particular action or variation upon a definition is acceptable or even beneficial, but the full implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed before doing so.

3-6. “may” and “optional” mean that there is a right to engage in a certain action or for a certain definition to apply. All Users and Nodes shall be prepared to address conflicts arising from anything falling within this category in a manner which maintains compliance with whichever document is using these terms in any given context.

4. Terminology for the Interpretation Code

4-1. A “Referring Document” means whichever document one is referring to this document from.

4-2. A “Binding Document” means any document which must be accepted by all Users, Node Staff, or Nodes, as is appropriate for any given document considering its content.

4-3. A “Persuasive Document” means any document the acceptance of which is not strictly mandatory, but where non-application of the document may be treated as an adverse factor in disciplinary or accountability processes.

4-4. An “Advisory Document” means any document of a solely informative or advisory nature.

5. Terminology Related to Legal Compliance

5-1. The terms “law” and “legal” are used in a broad sense that includes juridical and jurisprudential constructs which may be regarded in some analyses as being separate from some stricter definition of “law”, such as equity.

5-2. The term “prohibition” includes any legal measure that has the effect of forbidding or penalising some given form of action or inaction regardless of any legal principles or doctrines that assert that a given legal measure is not prohibitive in nature.

5-3. Each of “criminal”, “quasi-criminal”, “statutory”, “regulatory”, “rights”, “enforceability”, and “liability” include any analogous or otherwise similar legal constructs in legal contexts where the preceding terms are not strictly applicable.

5-4. A “jurisdiction” in any given context means the least granular description of the jurisdiction in which someone or something is located that suffices to disambiguate which:

(1). criminal or quasi-criminal prohibitions;
(2). non-criminal statutory requirements, restrictions, or prohibitions;
(3). regulatory requirements, restrictions, or prohibitions;
(4). requirements, restrictions, or prohibitions arising from rights-conferring documents enforceable against private actors including human rights codes; or
(5). potential forms of civil liability arising from mechanisms including intentional tort and negligence law;

apply in subject areas that might be relevant to the:

(6). permissibility of a person accessing certain material online;
(7). material that a person might be legally permitted to post online; or
(8). administration or moderation of a Node.

5-5. Notwithstanding 5-1, the relevant second-level administrative division of a state in which someone or something is located is deemed to be sufficiently unambiguous, in which case anyone interpreting such shall assume that the most restrictive rules present in any subdivision of said second-level administrative division are applicable.

5-6. “age of majority” means the age at which one attains the legal rights of an adult in a given jurisdiction.

5-7. The “effective age of majority” in any given context is the oldest of:

(1). 18 years of age; or
(2). the oldest age of majority applicable to a person in any relevant jurisdiction.

5-8. “minor” means anyone below the effective age of majority in the relevant context.

5-9. A “relevant jurisdiction” in any given context means:

(1). the jurisdiction from which a User is accessing a Node;
(2). the jurisdiction a Node is hosted in; or
(3). the jurisdiction in which any of that Node’s Staff reside or are carrying out their duties as Node Staff.

Part II. Interpretive Principles

6. Principles Within each Referring Document

6-1. The current full text of any Referring Document takes precedence over any simplified versions or unofficial translations in the event of any inconsistency.

6-2. All Users shall interpret any Referring Document based on, in descending order of priority:

(1). The spirit of its contents and the underlying values which produced said contents, considered in light of how those values and that spirit have evolved during the League’s existence.
(2). Avoiding blatantly unreasonable conclusions and outcomes.
(3). The plain and ordinary meaning of the text of the Referring Document, in light of the differing backgrounds from which its drafters and editors have come and not in a manner which enables pedantry, obfuscation, or obstructionism.
(4). The above bases of interpretation as applied to all other Binding Documents to the extent that such is necessary to unambiguously interpret the Referring Document.

6-3. No person shall draw any inferences from the style, terminology, structure, or content of any Referring Document in a manner intended to circumvent or diminish, or having the effect of circumventing or diminishing, the bases of interpretation in 6-2, including:

(1). imputing any degree of legal knowledge or sophistication, or lack thereof, upon any Steward, the Stewards, or any other members of the League;
(2). inferring that a specific jurisdiction’s laws or principles of legal interpretation have any relevance to the interpretation of the Referring Document above and beyond that of any other jurisdiction’s;
(3). inferring any acceptance by any Steward, the Stewards, or any other members of the League of any obligations which can be accepted via performance or in any other implicit, unintentional, or otherwise not both explicit and intentional manner; or
(4). imputing any knowledge of any given jurisdiction’s laws upon any Steward, the Stewards, or any other members of the League.

6-4. No person shall interpret the absence of condemnation of some given behaviour in any Referring Document as an endorsement of that behaviour by the League or any members thereof.

6-5. The following categories of persons shall apply these definitions in their interpretation of any Referring Document:

(1). Node Staff may interpret any prohibitions on conduct described within any Referring Document as also encompassing conduct outside of the League where they determine such to be appropriate.
(2). Anyone outside the League who is interpreting any Referring Document shall do so in a manner informed by the international nature of the League and the multiple legal contexts which have informed said Referring Document.

6-6. The League may, via whichever governance channels it might have at some given time, amend any Referring Document in the future.

7. Between Referring Documents

7-1. Where one Referring Document conflicts with another Referring Document, a person determining which document to follow shall apply the following rules in deciding:

(1). A Binding Document takes precedence over any Persuasive Document or Advisory Document.
(2). A Persuasive Document takes precedence over any Advisory Document.
(3). Between documents of the same degree of precedence, one shall apply the following rules as necessary in descending order:

(a). The decision which will cause the least harm, where “harm” includes forms of harm mediated by third parties such as legal sanctions or liability, takes priority.
(b). The decision which will create the least risk of harm, in light of both probability and severity, takes priority.
(c). The decision which is most consistent with the interpretive bases set out in 6-2 with respect to both documents takes priority.
(d). The decision which is least restrictive takes priority.

7-2. Where the rules in 7-1 do not allow one to determine a single correct course of action, the person shall bring the issue to the attention of the Stewards.

8. Applicability to Existing Documents

8-1. Any person interpreting any document of the League which was most recently updated before the approval of the Interpretation Code should interpret said document in a manner which is informed by the fact that such documents might not have been drafted with explicit reference to the Interpretation Code.

8-2. Any person interpreting any document of the League which was most recently updated before the most current version of the Interpretation Code came into effect should interpret said document with reference to the version of the Interpretation Code which was in effect at the date of said document’s most recent update.

8-3. Any person drafting or contributing to future documents of the League shall make their best efforts to do such in a manner that does not result in conflicting or inconsistent definitions with the Interpretation Code.

Governance Documents

Steward Code of Conduct

Ported from the original document on Feb. 9, 2025.

Our Pledge

We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, sexual identity and orientation, any other born or inherent characteristics.

We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.

Scope

The Steward Code of Conduct applies within all League governance spaces, and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. Examples of representing our community include communications in open League infrastructure (including but not limited to Coordination, Consensus, and Broadcast), and in publicly visible conversations relating to matters of League governance. Behaviour outside of League governance is covered by the League Community Code, not this document.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:

• Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people.
• Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
• Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback.
• Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience.
• Assume good faith in evaluating reasonable critique, unless that assumption is proven to be unwarranted.
• Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community.
• Responding in a timely and just fashion to reports of bad conduct, in order to ensure our compliance with these standards.

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind.
• The use of any language commonly considered to be derogatory toward any member of the aforementioned minority groups, including slurs and stereotyping.
• Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal attacks of any kind, directed at anyone.
• Public or private harassment.
• Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission.
• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.
• Conduct which violates the consent or boundaries of others.
• Serious violations of the League Community Code.
• Extraordinarily egregious conduct inside or outside the League that is prima facie incompatible with a Steward’s continued collaboration with other Stewards, their ability to deal with other League users, or their ability to perform their responsibilities as a Steward in a fair and just fashion. (This is the broken stair clause.)

These standards apply to any use of League centralized governance communications infrastructure, and to publicly accessible words and actions related to League governance concerns. Publicly accessible, in this case, means in avenues that may be viewed by any given person without permission or prior notice, and with or without login in venues that allow account approval for the general public.

Enforcement Responsibilities

The Conduct Working Group is a body of Stewards who have demonstrated the ability to approach and resolve conflict in a professional fashion, without lashing out or acting in anger. Approval of members of the Conduct Working Group is by consensus vote of active Stewards, given the responsibility placed upon them. The CWG must consist of 3 or more Stewards, preferably an odd number; in the event of a tie due to an unfilled position or recusal, decision responsibility will fall to the Stewards as a whole, excluding any directly involved parties.

The Stewards as a whole, and the Conduct Working Group in specific, are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

The Stewards and Conduct Working Group have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to the Steward Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

As with the League Community Code, this document is to be interpreted by the rules laid out in the League Interpretation Code. To stress, this includes interpreting it based on the following, in descending order of priority:

1. The spirit of its contents and the underlying values which produced said contents, considered in light of how those values and that spirit have evolved during the League’s existence.

2. Avoiding blatantly unreasonable conclusions and outcomes.

3. The plain and ordinary meaning of the text of the Referring Document, in light of the differing backgrounds from which its drafters and editors have come and not in a manner which enables pedantry, obfuscation, or obstructionism.

4. The above bases of interpretation as applied to all other Binding Documents to the extent that such is necessary to unambiguously interpret this document.

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the Conduct Working Group responsible for enforcement at conduct@websiteleague.org. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly.

All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident. Discussion of a report is to be conducted in a limited-access Coordination channel.

Members of the Conduct Working Group must ensure they investigate reports with the goal of ensuring that League collaborative spaces remain a safe and healthy environment. Any investigation must be conducted with a goal of conflict resolution and mutual understanding, and approached with as much kindness and respect toward all involved parties as possible, except in the case of clear and obvious malice.

Any member of the Conduct Working Group who finds they cannot maintain a calm and levelheaded approach must recuse themselves from the case at hand. Members of the Conduct Working Group may force a recusal of another party via a simple majority vote.

Anyone in the Conduct Working Group involved in a conflict under investigation, or with close personal ties to parties in a conduct under investigation that may affect their impartiality, must recuse themselves. In the event a conflict involves a majority of the Conduct Working Group, responsibility falls upon the body of active Stewards as a whole.

The Stewards as a whole are to make the best effort possible in appointing minorities to the CWG. In the event that a conflict involves a minority issue where no members of the Conduct Working Group are a member of that minority, the Conduct Working Group must seek outside advice.

Enforcement Guidelines

Community leaders will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of the Steward Code of Conduct:

1. Correction

Community Impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or unwelcome in the community.

Consequence: A private, written warning from the Conduct Working Group, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested. In the event of a conflict within the body of Stewards, involved parties may be requested to take part in a mediation or conflict resolution procedure.

2. Warning

Community Impact: A violation through a single incident or series of actions.

Consequence: A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Steward Code of Conduct, for a specified period of time. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.

3. Cooling-off period

Community impact: A single incident or series of incidents that show that a Steward is either under extreme stress, or is suffering extreme stress due to their role as a Steward, in a way that impacts their own or others' ability to healthily and productively accomplish their work as a Steward.

Consequence: An enforced break from the responsibilities of Stewardship. This should be utilized in cases where someone has demonstrated a track record of useful work, but whose condition has changed in such a way as to be unhealthy for them or others should their participation continue in that fashion. The Steward is placed on the roll of inactive Stewards for a period ranging from days to months, at CWG discretion, and is expected to adhere to this. In the event the Steward in question has assumed responsibility for a critical task or role, they must make this clear and that responsibility must be passed to others for the duration.

This must be approved by a two-thirds vote from the body of active Stewards.

Call it an enforced vacation.

4. Dismissal from Stewardship

Community Impact: An egregious incident or a pattern of behavior which demonstrates an inability or unwillingness to productively and calmly resolve interpersonal conflict in their role as a Steward, or which interferes with the ability of the Stewards to run the Website League in a healthy and productive fashion.

Consequence: The steward is removed from League stewardship, without prejudice; if they wish to rejoin the Stewards in the future, the ordinary Stewardship nomination and vote process applies. The responsibilities of the removed Steward must be assigned to other Stewards.

This must be approved by a two-thirds vote from the body of active Stewards.

5. Temporary Ban

Community Impact: A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior.

Consequence: A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period of time. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Steward Code of Conduct, is allowed during this period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.

This may be applied as an emergency measure to halt extreme and obvious misbehavior while the Conduct Working Group (or other responsible group) conducts an investigation.

6. Permanent Ban

Community Impact: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of minority groups and members of same.

Consequence: A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction with League governance, including all infrastructure. This may also be accompanied by a League-wide ban, as implemented by individual site staff. This must be approved by consensus vote of active Stewards.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is a modified version of the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct.html.

Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by Mozilla's code of conduct enforcement ladder.

For answers to common questions about this code of conduct, see the FAQ at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq. Translations are available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/translations.

Responsibilities and Processes for Website League Keyholders

Ported from the original document on Dec. 13, 2024.

Last updated: 2024-12-13

Rationale

To facilitate collaboration between Stewards, as well as to ensure all users have visibility into the workings of the Website League, the League operates a set of central, self-hosted services. The nature of these services requires a heightened level of trust in people that are given full administrative access to them, as a bad actor could use that access for a variety of malicious purposes (changing access permissions for various users, exfiltrating user data stored on central infrastructure such as emails, messages (both public and private), etc.).

In mitigating this risk, we introduce the concept of a “Keyholder” role. Keyholders are designated Stewards who have full administrative access to central infrastructure services, and are tasked with ensuring that infrastructure remains operational, secured, and up to date. The set of Keyholders should ideally remain limited to minimize the attack surface of central infrastructure, and Keyholder status should only be granted to people who can be trusted with its sensitive nature.

While Keyholders are trusted with access to more of the Website League’s infrastructure, this should not elevate them beyond the status of any other Steward in governance. The purpose of the Keyholder role is to ensure smooth operation of central League services, and to minimize the attack surface of those services by granting access to as few people as possible. Keyholders are not to be viewed as “above” Stewards in any sense, and Keyholders must not abuse their elevated access to attempt to subvert, disrupt, or overrule League governance processes.

Current Keyholders

This list reflects the current state of who is granted Keyholder status. If, at any time, Keyholder status has been granted or revoked from any person, this section of the proposal is to be amended to reflect those changes.

The current list of people granted Keyholder status is as follows:

• srxl (Ruby)
• atomicthumbs
• sirocyl

Audit Log

Any changes made to the list of Keyholders must be logged here, as an amendment to this proposal, for transparency.

• 2024-12-13 - srxl, atomicthumbs and sirocyl formalized as initial Keyholders

Duties

Keyholders have a set of duties and expectations that they must follow as part of their role. These duties are as follows:

• Perform various system administration tasks on central League infrastructure as required. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Configuring central services and ensuring they function as required by League members
  • Fixing any bugs/issues in central infrastructure identified by League members
  • Assigning/revoking roles that grant Stewards access to services needed to perform their duties
• Providing technical support for central infrastructure services to League members on a best-effort basis
  • This is not exclusively the domain of Keyholders - however sometimes a Keyholder is required to modify central infrastructure to fix an issue
  • Keyholders should, within reason, try to respond to support queries at their earliest convenience
• Perform regular maintenance on central infrastructure to keep services up to date
• Onboard new Keyholders, and offboard former Keyholders as Keyholder status is granted to/revoked from League members
• Send out announcements on the Buttondown newsletter and Broadcast as necessary
• Refrain from accessing any data stored on central infrastructure services, particularly user information or private messages, unless required to carry out any other Keyholder duties

Processes

To ensure central infrastructure operates smoothly, and Keyholders remain aware of how to carry out their duties, there are a set of processes that Keyholders should follow.

• If changes are made to any central infrastructure, ensure that change is documented somewhere. This can include:
  • Bookstack
  • The “Infrastructure Operations” channel in Coordination
  • Consensus, if relevant to a discussion held there
• In the event of central infrastructure downtime (planned or unexpected), League members should be notified through at least one of the following channels, where available/necessary:
  • The Announcements channel in Coordination
  • Broadcast
  • The #announcements channel in the Website League Discord server
• If downtime is planned, an announcement should be made prior to the downtime occurring. The advance notice period is determined by Keyholders on a case-by-case basis, with longer downtimes requiring further advance notice.
• A regular update of all central Infrastructure services should be performed at least once every 3 months.
  • This should be conducted by one Keyholder, who is nominated to perform that specific update by all Keyholders.
  • Unless an update to a service would cause that service to stop working without significant work to mitigate the breakage, all services should be updated to their latest versions during these runs.
  • Any services that are not updated during a regular update should be logged with a ticket in Planning to ensure the update is eventually performed.
• To onboard a new Keyholder, the following tasks must be performed:
  • Create a new user on the central infrastructure VPS, and add an SSH key to that user
  • Add their Authentication account to the following groups:
    • Infrastructure Operators
    • Information Admins
  • Create a login with the requested username and password for Observation
  • Send out an invite to Vaultwarden and grant access to the credential vault
• To offboard a former Keyholder, the above tasks must be undone by removing accounts/keys as necessary.
• When a newsletter issue or a Broadcast announcement has been drafted, one Keyholder should be nominated to send out that announcement.

Access

Keyholders require elevated permissions and access to various central infrastructure services to perform their duties. The additional access granted to Keyholders is as follows:

• Administrator (full) rights on the following services:
  • Coordination
  • Consensus
  • Broadcast
  • Information
  • Authentication
  • Planning
  • The website-league organization on GitLab
  • The Website League Discord server
• Individual accounts on the following services:
  • Observation
  • Vaultwarden
  • SSH to the central infrastructure VPS
• Credentials for the following accounts:
  • @league@websiteleague.org on Broadcast
  • Buttondown account for the newsletter
  • The infrastructure@websiteleague.org email inbox
  • The Google account managing our shared Google Drive
  • The SMTP service provider account
• Entry into the private “Infrastructure Operations” channel in Coordination

Membership

Any Steward can be nominated to be a Keyholder through a proposal on Consensus. The process for nominating a Keyholder is the same as our process for nominating Stewards. Keep in mind that a very high level of trust is required for Keyholders, and as such, Keyholders should only be nominated if more Keyholders are desired, and if the nominee has demonstrated a high level of trustworthiness within the Website League already. Only existing Stewards are eligible to be nominated as Keyholders, to ensure that Keyholders are held accountable to the Stewardship body through the same mechanisms as all other Stewards.

At any time, a Keyholder may decide to temporarily relieve themselves of their duties for whatever reason, such as changes in personal circumstances leading them to be unable to adequately perform their duties as a Keyholder. In this event, access to all services listed under the Access section must be temporarily disabled, and a note is to be recorded in the Audit Log section of this document. At any time, they may choose to return to Keyholder duties, in which case an active Keyholder should re-enable all their Keyholder access and record another note in the Audit log.

Keyholders can also be removed from the role for the following reasons:

• If a Keyholder decides to voluntarily step down from their role, for whatever reason
• If a Keyholder has been inactive and unreachable in an official League capacity for at least 1 month
• If a Consensus vote is held to relieve a Keyholder from their duties for whatever reason, such as abuse of their elevated access or lack of trust by the community