Reporting guide

How to report Code of Conduct violations

Social.Coop is based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. Our top priority is the safety of each of our members and our community as a whole. We will not tolerate bigotry, including fascist, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or transphobic content, and will act swiftly and decisively to protect our members from abuse.

We would rather get "false alarms" than have Code of Conduct violations go unaddressed. If you believe someone is violating the Code of Conduct, please report them to the social.coop CWG Ops Team. Detailed instructions on how to report a user can be found in Mastodon's reporting documentation.

What happens after I make a report?

You will receive an automated email acknowledging that we've received your report. We will work diligently to respond to your report within 24 hours. Please note that we are an international and asynchronous team, each living in different time zones.

Our priority is making sure everyone is safe. If necessary, we will:

Delete, edit, or hide a problem post

Privately tell the violator(s) to knock it off, delete/redact posts on Mastodon/Loomio/in Matrix chat, or apologize
Publicly tell the violator(s) to knock it off, delete/redact, or apologize
Mute or block the violator(s)

In certain cases, we may delay an official response until we have dealt with the immediate situation. Once we have an understanding of the situation, we will proceed with a decision and contact you. We will take your feedback into account, but the action we take is our responsibility.

Potential outcomes may include:

Nothing (if we determine no violation occurred)
A temporary ban
A permanent ban
A request for a public or private apology
A request to participate in mediation

We embrace the principles of restorative justice. We want to give people a chance to correct mistakes and learn from them. If you disagree with our final decision, you can appeal it here: < link to CMT >.

This is a revised version of the Reporting Guidelines that were approved in a membership vote on 9/1/2018.

Changes were made on August 5 2023, these have not been brought to membership.

What happens behind the scenes of a report?

When a report is Marked as Resolved, it goes into our database of closed reports, however a closed report can be reopened if needed.

What do these actions mean?

Delete

If the user is a member of social.coop, the Delete function removes the specified posts from the Fediverse.

If the user is a member of another server, the Delete function makes the specified posts no longer visible to users on social.coop.

Limit

Limited accounts are only visible to social.coop accounts that already follow them or who look them up directly.

Limited accounts can still be transferred to other servers. Sometimes we will Limit accounts on social.coop rather than Suspend so that they can move their account.

Suspend

If the user is a member of social.coop, the Suspend function makes it so that they can't post or interact on Mastodon. Suspension is revertable within 30 days.

If the user is a member of another server, the Suspend function makes them no longer visible to users on social.coop. It appears that non-server members can be unsuspended at any time if the user still exists.