Netiquette

Healthy communities need shared expectations. These guidelines provide a common baseline for considerate participation on Zen Social. They describe the participation that helps a community thrive, not only the behaviour that damages one. Circle administrators may adopt them as their circle rules and add rules suited to their own context. Circle-specific rules cannot override Zen Social's Terms of Service or applicable law.
  1. Remember the person — Communicate as you would face to face. Treat people with dignity, including when you strongly disagree.
  2. Be respectful and inclusive — Welcome different experiences, backgrounds, abilities, and ways of communicating. Harassment, threats, dehumanizing language, and discriminatory attacks are not acceptable.
  3. Disagree constructively — Address ideas, claims, and actions rather than attacking the person. Ask questions, explain your perspective, and remain open to being wrong.
  4. Pause before reacting — Online communication can amplify misunderstandings. If a message makes you angry, take time before replying and seek clarification before assuming intent. There is no expectation of an immediate reply here; taking your time is normal, and a slower pace is part of the point.
  5. Stay relevant and provide context — Post in the appropriate circle or conversation. Use clear titles, include necessary context, and avoid repeatedly pulling discussions away from their purpose.
  6. Respect privacy and consent — Do not share another person's private information, messages, photographs, or personal circumstances without permission.
  7. Share information responsibly — Distinguish facts from opinions, check important claims before sharing them, credit original creators, and correct errors openly when you discover them.
  8. Make room for others — Avoid dominating discussions. Welcome newcomers, listen actively, and create space for people who communicate less frequently or differently.
  9. Do not manipulate or disrupt — Do not spam, impersonate others, deliberately provoke conflict, coordinate harassment, or use misleading content to manipulate a community.
  10. Repair what you can — Repair is shared work, and each side brings the capacity it has. If you have caused harm, acknowledge it plainly, take responsibility, and put it right where you are able. If you have been hurt, then insofar as you are able, hold the most generous account of the other person that you can honestly believe — most harm is careless rather than deliberate. Being open to rebuilding trust matters more than being proved right. No one is obliged to carry this work alone, on someone else's timeline, or beyond their capacity.
  11. Help care for the shared space — Follow moderator guidance and circle-specific rules. Report serious concerns through the available channels, and help restore constructive dialogue where doing so is safe and realistic. Responsibility grows with capacity: if you hold a role in a circle — admin, editor, long-standing member — your example carries further, and so does your restraint. Capacity is not only a matter of position. Whoever has the steadiness, standing, or time to tend a difficult moment carries some responsibility for it, whether or not they caused it and whether or not they were asked.
These guidelines draw on established principles of mutual respect, good-faith participation, privacy, inclusion, accountability, and community care, including the Council of Europe's work on digital citizenship, Mozilla's Community Participation Guidelines, and the Wikimedia Universal Code of Conduct.