## The rules The following behaviors are not tolerated within the official Obsidian community channels, including the [Forum](https://forum.obsidian.md), [Discord](https://discord.gg/obsidianmd), and [Reddit](https://reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD). ### Serious offenses Users committing these offenses will be immediately banned from all official Obsidian community channels. Timeouts may be applied while the ban is being processed. #### Harassment Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion, as well as sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual or romantic attention. #### Threats We don't tolerate any threats, physically or verbally. For example, threatening to publicize sensitive information about someone's personal life. #### Blatant -isms This includes saying things that are explicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. For example, arguing that some people are less intelligent because of their gender, race or religion. Small mistakes made in conversation aren't code of conduct violations. However, repeating something after it has been pointed out to you, or antagonizing or arguing with someone who has pointed out your subtle -ism is considered a minor offense. ### Other offenses Users who commit these offenses will receive a timeout and/or a warning. Repeated violations or failure to comply may result in a ban from official Obsidian community channels. Examples of **Other offenses** include: - The use of inappropriate images, including in a community member's avatar - The use of inappropriate language or profanity, including in a community member's nickname #### Belligerence Belligerence is deliberately attempting to make others feel bad, name-calling, singling out others for derision or exclusion. For example, telling someone they're not a real programmer or that they don't belong. #### Being especially unpleasant For example, if we've received reports from multiple members of annoying or rude behavior. #### Unsolicited messages to community members Refrain from unsolicited tagging, "pinging", or direct messaging of staff and moderators for general questions, bug reports, and feature requests. Given the size of our community, the team's attention must be prioritised for critical matters. **Security concerns**: You may directly message Obsidian team members regarding security-related issues. **Unsolicited contact**: Be considerate when pinging community members. You may only send direct messages if you have received explicit permission to do so publicly.  **Community plugins and themes**: For bug reports and feature requests, it is preferred to open a GitHub issue over pinging the developer in Discord. Instructions for reporting violations of our code of conduct can be found below in [[#Report violations]]. We appreciate your cooperation in following these guidelines to maintain a positive and respectful environment within the Obsidian community. ### Other behaviors The following behaviors, while not resulting in an immediate ban or warning, are strongly discouraged. Engaging in them may lead to a timeout and a reminder to review this code of conduct. Additionally, these actions greatly increase the risk of [[#being especially unpleasant]]. #### Sea-lioning [Sea-lioning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning) means continuously pursuing an agenda by questioning and provoking other members. Individual provocations and questions are often perfectly acceptable, but in the case of sea-lioning, they accumulate to unhealthy levels, creating a hostile and negative conversation. #### "Feed me" "Feed me" means asking others to solve problems for you without putting in any effort yourself. This is particularly egregious when the problem-solving is non-trivial and yet the user begs for someone else to do the work for them. #### Campaigning Campaigning is continuously making the same requests. This applies to both feature requests and to requests for help. Don't post the same question in multiple places in short time frames, and don't ask developers for the same features or bug fixes repeatedly. #### Excessive self promotion We encourage sharing what you made, for example guides, videos, utilities, and tools. It's awesome to see what Obsidian users are up to. As a content creator, it's inevitable that you will link to your own creations. **Exclusive** self promotion is the promoting and linking of your or others' content and initiatives without contributing to the community otherwise. We won't tolerate users whose only purpose in the community is to post links or solicitations to initiatives outside the community. Depending on the case, links may be removed, or warnings given. **Excessive** self promotion is a judgement call. Please be respectful of the community and prioritize active community participation before linking. We reserve the right to remove links we think breach this guideline. Note that linking to paid content made by oneself will be scrutinized even closely, as the likelihood of conflict of interest is highest with this type of content. #### Spamming Do not directly message any of our community member without asking for consent first. It's okay to ask publicly if you have a question. ## Encouraged behaviors Over the years of running the official Obsidian community channels, we've noticed some behaviors that positively contribute to the community. If you're looking to improve your communication skills as well as becoming a better community citizen, consider doing the following: - **Try before asking**: before asking for help, please first try searching the help docs and Discord/forum history to see if the question has already been asked. Help others help you, by sharing what you've already tried. - **Keep an open mind**: because of how customizable Obsidian can be, some people might have a completely different set-up or workflow from you. Don't judge others for their choices. - **Step away when heated**: the community is a place for us to grow together, not a debate competition. If a discussion escalates into an argument, try your best to step away and leave the conversation. ## Motivation We at Obsidian want to create the best community for knowledge management. We want everyone to be able to seek help, help others, and share their experience, without fear or embarrassment. In order to get there, all of our members are expected to be nice to each other in all interactions, whether it's on our Discord server or on our forum. "Be nice" is a vague instruction, though. To make sure we're on the same page what's nice and what's not, we've adopted the code of conduct above. As the community grows, we can't rely on all members to be nice, although the vast majority of our members show exceptional respect towards each other. Adopting a more formal code of conduct — and enforcing it — helps maintain a vital and healthy community. ## Report violations The code of conduct is enforced by our moderators, but we can't monitor every single interaction in the official Obsidian community channels. This is why we rely on our members to help us improve the official Obsidian community channels by reporting violations of our code of conduct. Even if you're not the victim, you can still report violations as a witness. We'll keep the identity of the reporter as confidential as we can. ### Report on Discord In \#bots-land-mute-me channel, or any other channel, type `/moderation report @offenderName Please write your reason here`. Your message will disappear immediately, and a report will be sent to our moderator only channel. If the `/moderation report` command fails, you **may** ping or direct message a moderator. ### Report on the forum Please flag the relevant conversation with a reason, and our moderators will investigate. ## Enforcement > [!abstract] Summary > A verified serious offense results in an immediate ban. > A verified other offense results in a warning; after that a second verified violation results in a ban. If our moderators witness or receive a report about [[#serious offenses]], we will contact the offender to have a conversation with them and verify what has happened. If verified, they will be removed from the official Obsidian community channels. If our moderators witness or receive a report about [[#other offenses]], we will contact the member involved to explain why their behavior was unacceptable, and warn them that a second code of conduct violation will result in us removing them from the official Obsidian community channels. ## Appealing a ban If you believe you were banned in error, you may [[Help and support#Contact Obsidian support|contact Obsidian support]] with your Discord, Forum, or Reddit username, along with the date of the ban. A member of the Obsidian team will review your case with the moderating team and provide a decision once the review is complete. Please note that all appeal decisions are final and cannot be further appealed. ## Credits Our Code of Conduct is heavily based on [Recurse Center's Code of Conduct](https://www.recurse.com/code-of-conduct). ## Changelog - **2024-10-18**: Added links to communities this may apply to. - **2024-09-25**: Added timeouts, and ban appeal. - **2024-09-12**: Added nicknames and avatars to [[#Other offenses]]. - **2024-02-23**: Updated [[#Unsolicited messages to community members]] to indicate when it is appropriate to direct message a community member. - **2023-10-28**: Moved blatant -isms from "Other offenses" to "Serious offenses", meaning they're now bannable on first offense.