Fedecan

English

Français

English

Français

Appearance

Fedecan Guidelines ​

Draft

These are draft guidelines that have not been finalized, and are pending further community discussion.

Guidelines that actually prioritize the community ​

Fedecan is a not-for-profit organization that is federally incorporated in Canada. As such, we are not beholden to shareholders or advertisers. In addition to meeting the obligations under Canadian law, our priority is to protect the people who use our platforms and everyone affected by what happens on them.

When creating these guidelines, we follow a hierarchy of principles. When a particular guideline is a point of contention between two principles, the higher-priority principles will win out:

Hierarchy of Principles

  1. Canadian law and our legal obligations
  2. Well-being of people who use our platforms and everyone affected by them
  3. User experience and enjoyment of the platforms

We make up one part of the Fediverse, and we intend to have a positive influence on the rest of the network. Living in Canada, we've been shaped by frameworks such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and its values naturally shape how we approach the decisions we make about our platforms.

Overview ​

Our guidelines are organized into three tiers. This structure sets clear expectations for conduct while allowing each platform to add additional rules based on platform norms and nuances.

The third tier provides optional template rules that community moderators can link to or adapt, so users get consistent, well-explained rules without every moderator reinventing the wheel.

ImageImage

You can jump to each section with the following links.

Tier 1: Fedecan Rules

Tier 2: Platform-specific Rules

Tier 3: Template Rules for Communities

Governance & Updates ​

We want this to be a collaborative process! If you feel that the guidelines can be improved in some way, please share your thoughts with us.

To propose a change or start a discussion, you can post to one of the following communities:

Review Cycle ​

The guidelines must be reviewed and updated annually.

Between annual reviews:

  • Minor corrections, such as typos, clarifications, and broken links, can happen at any time and will be recorded in the changelog.
  • Substantive changes, such as new rules, removed rules, or meaningfully different enforcement, will generally require 2 weeks' notice before taking effect, so the community has time to respond.
  • Urgent safety actions, such as blocking spam, responding to sudden harmful content, or addressing legal obligations, can take effect immediately. These should be documented as soon as practical, and communicated to users with an explanation for why speed was necessary.

All changes are tracked in the changelog.