Code of Conduct
Road Life Alliance is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of Gender, Gender, Disability, Physical Appearance, Body Size, Age, Race, Religion, Neuro(a)typicality, Political Affiliation.
Harassment
Road Life Alliance is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
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Offensive comments related to Gender, Gender, Disability, Physical Appearance, Body Size, Age, Race, Religion, Neuro(a)typicality, Political Affiliation
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Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
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Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
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Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate.
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Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “*hug*” or “*backrub*”) without consent or after a request to stop.
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Threats of violence.
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Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
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Deliberate intimidation.
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Stalking or following.
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Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
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Sustained disruption of discussion.
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Unwelcome sexual attention.
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Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
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Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
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Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
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Publication of non-harassing private communication.
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Dignity
Participants shall not diminish the dignity or erase the identity of any person through language, a rhetorical device, or any other means.
Diminution includes
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Referring to any person using terminology which marginalizes them or their group.
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Describing any person, present or otherwise using language which is mocking or derisive of another group
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Participants shall endeavor to express their feelings in an emotionally-intelligent manner whenever possible. We each have agency over our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Take the time to understand the difference between these and objective reality, especially when Communicating with other participants.
Exercise Emotional Intelligence By
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Making "I feel" statements, especially in times of frustration or stress.
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Describing internal perceptions and emotions rather than misrepresenting them as objective facts.
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Make an effort to qualify statements as being from your perspective – "In my view", "I suspect", or make an "I feel" statement.
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When you feel that you can't articulate your thoughts and feelings sufficiently, make clear and concise statements such as "I need space", to indicate to other participants you are anxious or overwhelmed.
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When you see someone struggling, give them space. Make time later to affirm their feelings and their humanity.
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Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any participant Road Life Alliance forums or environments, including admins. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or removed at the sole discretion of the admins.
Road Life Alliance prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. We reserve the right for the admins to abstain from action on complaints regarding:
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‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’
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Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
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Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial
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Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions
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Reporting
If you are being harassed by a member of Road Life Alliance, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the admins at. If the person who is harassing you is on the team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. We will respond as promptly as we can.
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This code of conduct applies to Road Life Alliance spaces, but if you are being harassed by a member of Road Life Alliance outside our spaces, we still want to know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by Road Life Alliance members, especially LEADERSHIP TEAM, seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. The abuse team reserves the right to exclude people from Road Life Alliance based on their past behavior, including behavior outside Road Life Alliance spaces and behavior towards people who are not in Road Life Alliance.
In order to protect volunteers from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response.
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We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of Road Life Alliance members or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.