SIGN-SPEAK COMMUNITY GUIDELINES
Community Guidelines
As more Deaf and hard of hearing individuals join we expect these guidelines to change. If you have any feedback or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

These community guidelines are meant to help you better understand:
*The rules we expect you to follow when using Slack
*What you can do if you come across inappropriate behavior

Principles
Below are a few important principles to keep in mind:
*Be respectful to every person at all times regardless of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing/Hearing status, preferred sign language, economic status, ability, and other diverse backgrounds.
*Be yourself and sign how you do in everyday life.
*Be inclusive by tolerating, welcoming, and embracing people with different sign levels.
*Be empathetic and engage in conversations in good faith.
*Be accessible and caption everything!

Please note that these are essential principles. If you are interested in knowing what can get people kicked off ASLing and Slack, please see the Rules section below.

Rules
When using Slack you agree to the following rules at all times.
*You must use your real identity on the service.
*You must be at least 18 years old.
*You will not engage in abuse, bullying, or harassment of any person or groups of people.
*You will not discriminate against, engage in hateful conduct directed at, or threaten violence or harm against any person or groups of people.
*You will not engage in intentionally disruptive activity that negatively affects the experience of other users.
*You will not spread false information or spam or artificially amplify or suppress information.
*You will not share or promote information (or synthetic or manipulated media) that is intended or likely to cause physical and emotional harm to any person or groups of people, including minors.
*You will not use the service for the purpose of conducting any unauthorized or illegal activities.
*You will not post nudity of any kind.
*You will not violate others’ intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark.
*You will not promote any content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information.
*If you witness any of these Community rules being violated please follow the instructions below to report it. If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions please let us know at management@sign-speak.com

Reporting
If you believe a user has violated a Rule, you can report a Safety incident. Note: Inappropriate use of the incident reporting system or intentional, false reports are against our rules and are taken seriously.
Here’s what you should know about reporting another user for a Rule violation:
*If you submit a report, we will not share your identity with the person you have reported.
*All reports that are submitted will be reviewed and investigated. The need for and type of corrective or disciplinary action needed will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
*We seek to be fair, consistent, and responsive in addressing all reported incidents.
*We will update you on the resolution if the violation was directly related to you.

If another user has reported you for violating a Rule, here’s what you should know:
*If a report has been filed against you, we may contact you with information about the nature of the report. We may keep some details private in order to protect the reporting user(s). If we are unable to reach you, we may restrict your account access temporarily until we are able to do so.
*If you believe a report has been falsely filed against you or you would like to appeal a decision, please contact us, including as much context as possible.
*Any attempt to retaliate against users who participate in reporting or investigation is a violation.

If your account has been suspended, please follow this process for appeal:
*If your account is flagged for a potential violation of our Rules, your account may be temporarily or permanently restricted or removed from the platform.
*If you believe your account did not violate our Rules, contact our management team at management@sign-speak.com. Please include your ASLing username, verified email address, and reference to the original decision notification you received.

Please keep the following in mind when submitting an appeal:
*Decision appeals must originate from the user who received the notice.
*Submitting multiple appeals concurrently may result in a delay in review.

Once you submit the appeal, we will decide whether or not to review it based on the Rule violation in question.

These are examples of potential consequences for Rules violations (non-exhaustive):
*Provide a warning for a first offense of low-severity and impact as determined by our team
*The removal of the content in question
*Restrict the reported account’s ability to participate in some or all conversations
*Temporarily or permanently disable or remove the account
*Notify law enforcement when there is risk of physical harm or a threat to public safety

Legal Note
Finally, please keep in mind these legal notes on our Community Guidelines, violations, and how we may enforce them:
*You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users, and you agree that we will have no liability or responsibility with respect to those interactions.
*We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change portions of these Community Guidelines at any time. If we do this, we will post the changes on this page and will indicate at the top of this page the date these terms were last updated.

Contact
We take our Community guidelines very seriously and ask that all users to follow them in the spirit in which they are intended. We ask to be contacted if there are any questions, suggestions or comments at management@sign-speak.com.

Thank you for your time and help in building an inclusive community.

Good job making it to the end!

Team Sign-Speak