Slack Moderation

The main channel for communication among PAF volunteers is a Slack workspace. The purpose of this workspace is to build community and encourage each other. This is not a constructive space for debates, arguments, or criticism. These should be given directly and offline when possible.

Below are the guidelines organizers use to moderate Slack to ensure conversations there are helping our community stay strong and grow. We hope these guidelines create clear expectations about what does and does not belong in our shared communication channels.

1. All comments should be kind, respectful, and encouraging towards other community members. Comments that are critical of other community members' actions or choices will be removed. If you have feedback for someone, we encourage you to reach out to them directly, and try to understand their perspective first.

2. Do not pressure people about their individual consumption. This is not a place to tell other people why they should go vegan. Posts directly pressuring community members to be vegan or vegetarian, or shaming non-vegans, will be removed.

3. Post that belong in a different channel, or should be a reply in-thread, may be deleted. Moderators will message you with a reminder to use threads to reply to other posts, and may delete reply posts that aren't in threads to keep the channels tidy.

4. Controversial or polarizing topics are not appropriate. While debating ideas is important, that is not what our Slack space is for. Instead, we are working hard to create a welcoming space for people with different views. Posts agitating controversial topics will be removed, especially if they condemn (explicitly or implicitly) people holding opposing views. Such topics include, but are not limited to:

   • Whether certain products/activities are vegan

   • Vaccines and Covid regulations

   • Controversies around gender and sexuality

   • Religious beliefs

   Describing one's own experiences is perfectly appropriate, but do your best to avoid politicking. It is also OK to send an invitation to an event relating to another cause, even a controversial one, but please keep your message just to the invitation and minimize additional comments that could stir that controversy within our own Slack space. The following examples are an attempt to illustrate the difference:

Personal experience	Politicking
"My parents were more upset when I went vegan than when I came out 😝"	"Conservatives are hopeless, they're just a bunch of homophobes"
"My religious faith is what motivates me to fight for animals."	"Who here believes in God? If God is real, why is he letting animals suffer?"
"I decided (not) to get the vaccine."	Sharing links to information advocating for or against Covid vaccines.
"I practice the liberation pledge."	"If you really care about animals, you shouldn't go to a restaurant that serves meat."
"I'd love to see some of you at this Pro-[Life/Choice] rally on Friday."	"Anyone who supports animals really should also be Pro-[Life/Choice]."