Wondercafe2.ca promotes and values open-minded discussion and exploration of ideas. Individuals are free to respectfully express their own opinions and beliefs, and robustly debate these with others. We are committed to providing a welcoming and safe site.

You will encounter people here whose opinions and beliefs vary widely. We trust that you will approach these encounters in a spirit of openness, curiosity and tolerance, and that you will accept the right of all to engage in respectful free expression. We will generally not censure opinions presented respectfully. However, we recognize that there needs to be some minimum standards, and this Community Code of Conduct is your guide to standards for this website.

The moderators do not read every post on wondercafe2.ca. As a community, we rely on each other to monitor the site and maintain it as a welcoming and safe place for all. We rely on members to report/flag possible violations of the Community Code of Conduct, by using the Report link (see Reporting Problems below). All flagged posts will be reviewed by a moderator. Please do not flag posts just because you do not agree with the content or the poster. Reports should only be made for violations of this code of conduct.

Keep in mind that anything you post on the Internet may be accessed and used by others without your knowledge or consent.

1.    Courtesy & Respect: Community members will show respect for others - treating other members as you would want to be treated. Express your opinions about another person’s ideas, not about them personally. Keep threads started by others on topic if requested to do so. Respect the privacy of others by not posting personal information or images of another person that are outside the public domain without their consent.

2.    Violence and Hate Speech: Racist, sexist, homophobic and otherwise discriminatory, defamatory or offensive language will not be tolerated.  Comments that gratuitously attack or demean individuals or organizations are not acceptable. Inciting anyone to commit a crime may itself be a crime – don’t do it. Any such posts may be deleted and the user banned from the site.

3.    Harassment: Wondercafe2 is a community that values the privacy and safety of our members. Stalking or harassment of other members either in the public forums or through private messaging will not be tolerated. Such behaviour will result in a ban and possible reporting to legal authorities.

4.    Disruptive Behaviour: You agree not to disrupt or interfere with discussions or other functions of the wondercafe2.ca community. Disruptive behavior may include, but is not limited to: creating a disproportionate number of posts or discussions which disrupt conversation; cross-posting the same text in different threads; creating off-topic posts or intentionally posting them to irrelevant forum categories; making statements that are deliberately inflammatory (“trolling”); repeatedly misusing the Report function; or any other behaviour that interferes with conversation or inhibits the ability of members to use and enjoy this website for its intended purposes.

5.    Vulgarity: Name-calling and otherwise abusive, vulgar or obscene language is not acceptable. There is zero tolerance for pornography, sexually explicit content, and depictions of graphic or gratuitous violence – this includes language, images and URL links. We will report child abuse/exploitation to the police.

6.    User Identity: Members are allowed to participate anonymously on wondercafe2.ca. User names, profiles, and avatar pictures must not be offensive in nature. Do not impersonate others, create false profiles (“sock puppets”) or use names representative of divine figures of any religion.  Once registered, user identity can only be changed through contact with moderators, and only for validly presented reasons.

7.    Copyrighted Material / Intellectual Property: Members are responsible for not posting copyrighted text or images on wondercafe2.ca or using the intellectual property of others without their permission.  If quoting from other sources, be sure to include the source and link to the original work. It is helpful to identify the copied material using quote tags, quotation marks or in italic font.

8.    Selling/Solicitation: The sale of goods and/or services and the solicitation of funds is prohibited on the forums save for those engaged in raising funds for the use of Wondercafe2 or in sub-forums or threads that may be designated for this purpose.

9.    Your Contact Information: Members must provide a valid e-mail address when registering for wondercafe2.ca. Our moderators must be able to contact you by e-mail if necessary to discuss your account. If the address you provide is not valid, your privileges may be suspended; should this occur you can contact the moderators at wondercafe2mod@gmail.com.

Reporting

If you feel that a post in a forum or personal conversation violates this Community Code of Conduct:

1.    Click on “Report” at the bottom of the post that concerns you.

2.    In the Report Reason box, explain why you are reporting the post, referencing if possible the specific rule in the code that you feel was violated.

3.    Click Report Post

The report goes into a queue and will be dealt with by a moderator (for forum reports) or administrator (for Personal Conversation reports). Administrators deal with personal conversation issues in order to preserve the security and privacy of these more private communications as much as possible.

Sanctions

Moderators shall make every effort to defuse tense situations by posting a general warning on the thread in question before applying any sanctions to specific users.

If required, sanctions shall be applied against users as follows:

·         Violating any provision of the code – Warning issued by moderator

·         After receiving 3 warnings in any six month period – 3 day suspension

·         Any new offence in the six months after receiving a 3 day suspension – 1 week suspension

·         Any further offences in the six months after receiving a 1 week suspension shall result in the user being banned from the board. A ban means that the user’s account is permanently disabled unless and until Council decides to reinstate the user.

·         User accounts used entirely for the posting of spam (unsolicited, unauthorized advertising) or for trolling (posting of deliberately provocative material with no apparent attempt to engage in dialogue about it) shall be subject to immediate permanent bans.

Warnings are issued on the spot by the moderator investigating a breach of the Code of Conduct. Offensive language or other posted material that violates the Code shall be removed from the post at the same time with a note added in red text to show why the post was edited.

Suspensions or bans are issued by the investigating moderator after checking the user’s record and, if necessary, consulting with the other moderators.

Any behaviour or activity that violates the laws of Canada including, but not restricted to, hate speech, posting of child pornography or pirated material, uttering threats shall result in an immediate ban, deletion of the offending material, and possible forwarding of information to legal authorities.

Appeals

If a user feels they have been unfairly or incorrectly sanctioned, they may appeal by email to the moderation email address (wondercafe2mods@gmail.com). Moderators as a group will review the original decision and may modify or lift the sanction.

If the user wishes further review of the decision, an email may be sent to the administrator email (wondercafe2adm@gmail.com). Appeals sent to the administrators shall be taken to the whole Council for discussion, which is the final venue for appeals. Any decision made at this level shall be final.

A user who has been banned and who has exhausted all appeals may request reinstatement by email to wondercafe2adm@gmail.com no less than 6 months after the final decision. The email should contain the reason they believe that they should be reinstated and a commitment to abide by the Code of Conduct. Council as a whole shall review such requests based on their merit and the user’s past record and make a decision on reinstatement. The decision may be to uphold the ban, to reinstate with conditions, or to reinstate unconditionally. Conditions may include (but are not restricted to): requiring that all posts by the user be approved by moderators, imposing a tougher sanction regime on that user than specified above (e.g. move straight to suspension with no warnings), or other conditions determined as suitable by the Council. If the request is refused, the user shall wait at least another 6 months from the date of the decision before applying for reinstatement again. Spam accounts shall not be reinstated under any conditions.