We've made some changes today, and we'd like to announce that our Code of Conduct is no longer in effect. We now have a new Terms of Service, in effect starting from today(October 19, 2023).
The "LAST REVISION DATE:" on the page also signifies when the page was last edited, and it is updated automatically. Details of specific edits may be viewed by following the "Page History" reference at the bottom of the page. All significant edits will also be announced to our users.
In this post our community mods and users may express their questions, concerns, requests and issues regarding the Terms of Service, and content moderation in Lemmy.World. We hope to discuss and inform constructively and in good faith.
I think that community guidelines/ code or conduct should still exist at a top level, in a digestible form, and not nested within a legal document.
They can still be part of the legal document, but should be made more accessible if said guidelines are cared about.
Otherwise you'll find that it's a set of expectations that no one reads (And likely cannot find even if they where looking for them), when those expectations are critically important to community health.
I like what I see. Everything looks like a set of conditions I can support. I am not sure about the gore part, but I can understand why people wouldn't want that can of worms.
4.1: No one under 16 years of age is allowed to use or access the website.
Someone's going to need a stretcher for the roblox mods.
5.0.4: Do not post illegal content of any type. Do not engage in any activity that may encourage, facilitate or provide access to illegal transactions. Do not share or encourage the sharing of abusive or sexually suggestive content involving minors. Any violent or otherwise inappropriate behavior involving a minor will also always be strictly prohibited.
5.0.4 seems to be in conflict with the existence of !piracy. I'm not complaining about its existence, just mentioning that it seems to be a conflict.
Regarding Section 1.0, the portion “lemmy.world (“Lemmy.World,” “we,” “us,” or “LW”).” You may need to include the term “our” since it’s used quite frequently throughout the document.
But seriously, what is the point of all of this? It only seems to overcomplicate things. Now a user will have to:
Follow the ToS
Follow the CoC
Follow whatever rules a community's sidebar states
Match whichever mod's interpretation of all the above
In that order, or any other order? I see nothing about protesting the breach of the ToS by either the CoC or some community, or some community's mod... so which supersedes which?
How is this going to be communicated to users commenting/posting from other instances? Or is this only applicable to users registered on this instance? In which case, what is going to be applicable to federated users?
What are the user's rights?
Users Responsibilities: 4.x
Our Rights: 6.x
Users Rights: none?
If you want to establish this as a legal document, then you're missing at least a section.
If this is about giving as many reasons as possible to remove/ban content/users, it's all unnecessary, just say "mods can remove/ban whatever"; it's a private instance, you can do that.
If this is about having a ruleset that protects the users from arbitrary mod decisions... I see none of that in there.
trusting you to fairly enforce these rules since they are beyond my willingness to parse. IANAL
That said, golden rule always applies. If a suspension or ban is warranted, please require a clear reference to the violation so behavior can be modified in the future. Hate getting banned with no reason or hope of avoiding future violations.
7.0: The website and the agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Republic of Finland Suomen.
oh ok, some operational details make more sense now
How does a TOS work with federation??? I have no intention of breaking rules to be clear, and I assume if I did I would just get banned? I'm just curious what the legal implications are.
I can see and interact with content on lemmy.world without ever visiting it, which feels like a grey area on the "accessing or using" part right at the beginning of the TOS. Maybe include a definition for what "accessing" is and can include in the context of the fediverse?
The website and the agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Republic of Finland Suomen.
Where are you guys based? Ultimately there is only one legal jurisdiction that applies here
4.0.3: You are responsible for your own experience on the website. While we are looking to provide an entertaining platform, we are not responsible for your individual experience.
4.0.3: The reporting function may not be used without good reason. Only report content that violates the rules defined in the Terms of Service, or content that violates the rules of the community it was posted to. Personal messages may be reported if they violate any of the terms defined in this document. User profiles may be reported by messaging any of the admins listed in the website’s sidebar, or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
5.0: Lemmy.World consists of a large number of communities from all around the world, leading our federated network.
This sentence is a little unclear to a native speaker. Maybe change "leading" to "constituting".
I also suggest that maybe an extra clause could be added to pick up CP related content that may not be illegal, such as drawings, hentai and AI generated content that depicts minors involved in sexual or other inappropriate acts. It doesn't quite fit into 5.04 as it may not necessarily be illegal (IDK) , or 5.06 as it may not necessarily involve gore or violence.
Do not engage in content manipulation such as posting spam content, vote manipulation through using several user accounts or consistently down-voting a user. Vote for the content, not for the person.
I think all of the different front ends that exist for Lemmy should also take the approach that they don't display up/downvote buttons on user pages. Is there any way to make this a by-default thing for old.lemmy, etc?
5.1: The content provided on Lemmy.World is not necessarily factually true, and hosting it does not mean agreeing, supporting or encouraging it. We only require all content fully comply with the Terms of Service and any other documents that are mentioned and linked to in this document.
So Lemmy.world is just as good as Lemmy.ml & Lemmygrad etc?
Lemmy.world getting increasingly like Beehaw on steroids. Ironically, for their anti-authoritarian editorial policies, they're increasingly stomping down what is and isn't acceptable. Most people who like to be treated like adults fortunately have lemm.ee or Lemmy.ml
You got terms of service, now. Looks sketchy. The yee old code of conduct was a good way to go. This here is a terms of service. The kind you click on to agree to most of the time. So sketchy it makes me think oh yeah, I haven’t agreed to them yet. Never going to. At least for noe I can say no and continue onward. You really want to enslave me but I’m not going to be your slave. Your terms of service can suck my balls.
As I said before, lemmy.world is now a corporate whore. They deleted my account instantly when I said so from my lemmy.world account. Now I can say so and it’s more difficult. Go suck my balls, lemmy world. Having a code of conduct was good. Having a terms of service is corporate shill terrritory and you’ll suck my balls forever.