Rules against bad behavior

Attention please: read the general policies before reading the rules below.

Insults

We’re only dealing with PUBLIC insults here. If someone insults you in private messages, you may refer to the rules about harassment.

What do we consider as an insult?

A statement that mentions a specific person, and which makes the person feel offended.

The person targeted must be clearly identifiable. Ex: Trang is very intelligent and pretty.
The person targeted feels offended about the statement. It doesn’t matter if your intention was not to insult, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks, it doesn’t matter that what you said was “the truth” and “justified”, it doesn’t matter that the person targeted doesn’t want to understand what you meant.
If the person is not clearly identifiable, refer to Case nº2.

A statement that mentions a group of people, and which makes a significant part of them feel offended.

The statement may target one person who is not clearly identifiable. Ex: I know someone who is very intelligent and pretty.
The statement may target several people who are not clearly identifiable. Ex: I know some people who are very intelligent and pretty.
The statement may target a whole group. Ex: All the people I know are very intelligent and pretty.
For conditions 1 and 2, we consider that the targeted group is all the people who can potentially be the person or the people mentioned. Ex: I know someone... → group = all the people I know
At least 20% of the targeted group feels offended about the statement. This is based on the assumption that for every negative “thing”, you need 4 positive “things” to balance out the negativity.
A person belongs to a group as long as they claim to be part of that group. It doesn’t matter that you think they are not part of that group, it doesn’t matter that the rest of the world thinks they are not part of that group.

Rules

In both cases

If you feel offended, ask someone you can trust to tell you if you have a good reason of being offended, or if you’ve misunderstood the statement. The root of many, many conflicts is misunderstanding or lack of communication...
Do not reply to an insult with anything provocative. It’s not going to help. Preferably do not reply AT ALL. Especially if it has nothing to do with you. Stay AWAY FROM IT. It will be much less complicated to delete or edit the comment if there is no reply.
If your moral values tell you that you cannot stand there and watch this without doing anything, then the best thing you can do is send a kind message of support to the offended. Because if you reply to the public offense, it’s only going to make things more complicated for the offended, and if you send a private message to the presumed offender, you may end up making feel them harassed by the community.
If you reply to an insult with an insult, you will be subject to the same kind of sanctions, even if you were not the first to insult. It doesn’t matter “who started it”.
Whenever you send a private message related to the conflict, send a copy to TatoebaPeaceKeeper, as a proof that you have followed the rule.

Case nº1: The statement mentions a specific person

If you are the offended:

If it was not a misunderstanding, you may contact the offender (and TatoebaPeaceKeeper) in a private message to say that you feel offended. There is no need to make a scene, just make it simple. Ex: Hello, I did not appreciate what you wrote about me here: {insert link}. {insert quote of offensive statement}.
You may ask the offender to delete or edit the comment in order to erase the offense. In case the comment has replies, it is YOUR job to ask everyone who has replied to delete or edit their replies accordingly, so that the offender can delete or edit their comment accordingly.
If you have done all of the above, but then later, after some discussion with the author of the statement (or anyone), you realize that you’ve actually misunderstood the statement, you should apologize for the unnecessary stress you have caused.

If you are the presumed offender:

You must remove the offensive statement within one week (if that was requested by the offended of course).
Before that, you may discuss as much as you want IN PRIVATE with the offended to convince them that you weren’t trying to be insulting. But if, despite of everything, the offended still feels offended (even if you think it’s unreasonable), then you should apologize for the harm you have caused to them.

Case nº2: The statement mentions a group of people

If you are part the targeted group and feel offended:

You may contact the offender in a private message to say that you feel offended. Again, there is no need to make a scene, just make it simple.
You may not ask the offender to delete or edit the comment in order to erase the offense. The author of the statement will have the final decision on that.

If you are the presumed offender:

You must find, within one week, a sufficient number of people to “defend” you, otherwise the statement will be considered offensive. Ex: If two people contacted you to express that they feel offended, you must find at least 8 other people belonging to the targeted group who will disagree on the fact it is offensive.
The people in your defense must send a message to TatoebaPeaceKeeper.
The offended will owe you apologies if your statement is not considered offensive.
You will need to apologize to the offended if your statement is considered offensive.
You should really consider removing your statement if many people believe you were crossing the line.

Harassment

What do we consider as harassment?

You are in right to feel harassed if you feel repeatedly bothered by a person or a group of people.

The person or group of people must have sent/posted at least fiive messages addressed to you, or talking about you. You cannot accuse someone who talks to/about you for the first time to be harassing you.
The messages may be private or public.
The messages may be addressed to you explicitly, or addressed to a group to which you belong. You cannot claim to feel harassed by a message that has nothing to do with you.
More than 20% of those messages, makes you feel bothered and wish that these people could just leave you alone.

Rules

If you feel harassed:

Ask someone you can trust to tell you if you have a good reason to feel harassed, or if you’re being a bit too paranoid.
If you do have reasons to feel harassed, you will have to kindly ask them to stop bothering you. Also send a copy to TatoebaPeaceKeeper. There is no need to make a scene, just make it simple. Ex: “Hello {insert username}, I would like you to stop talking to me because it feels like you are harassing me. Thank you.”
After sending this message, you must stop sending them private messages, you must stop talking to them or about them in public, you must stop posting comments on their sentences.
If the presumed harasser(s) won’t stop, you must send to the presumed harasser(s) and to TatoebaPeaceKeeper a list of messages (private messages, comments, replies on the Wall, sentences...) that made you feel harassed.

If you are the presumed harasser(s):

If someone asks you to stop bothering them, then you must to stop sending them private messages, you must stop talking to them or about them in public, and you must stop posting comments on their sentences, even if it’s just to mention a mistake (you can always ask someone else to do this).
If for some reason, you still haven’t stopped, and the presumed victim files a complaint, then for every message that made the presumed victim feel harassed, you must provide at least 4 other messages written by you, and that did not make them feel harassed.
The messages must of course have a date prior to the date of the complaint.

If you witness a potential harassment:

Don’t talk to the presumed harasser.
You may send a private message to TatoebaPeaceKeeper to express your concerns.
You may talk to the person being harassed to make sure they follow the instructions above.