These policies are frequently updated; please check back regularly. Last update: 2 September 2016.
General policy for all interactions in Story Hospital spaces, including comments and Story Hospital Slack
Treat other people with kindness and respect. Do not use sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, and otherwise bigoted language, or engage in personal attacks, harassment, and insincere “debate” tactics such as setting up straw man arguments or playing devil’s advocate. Do not attempt to diagnose anyone with a medical or psychological condition.
If someone is discussing a particular type of marginalization that you don’t share, please think twice, and then think again, before chiming in with your perspective. You and the other commenters may gain far more if you sit back and read the discussion and learn from it than if you jump in to share what you already know.
Use they/them pronouns for anyone who doesn’t make an explicit request otherwise.
Policy for comments on the Story Hospital site and Patreon
Comments are welcome on both the Story Hospital site and Patreon. All comments are moderated and may be edited or deleted by a moderator.
Letter writers are human beings who have generously made themselves vulnerable in order to receive advice in a way that others may learn from. Please treat them kindly.
Repeated or egregious violations of this comment policy will lead to you being banned from commenting on the site or being a Story Hospital patron on Patreon.
Policy for Story Hospital Slack
Story Hospital Patreon patrons at the Interact level and higher have access to the Story Hospital Slack (SHS). You pay nothing to use it (other than your Patreon pledge) and can access it through Android and iOS apps, Windows and Mac desktop apps, and your favorite web browser.
If you reduce your pledge below the Interact level, your SHS account will be deactivated; if you increase your pledge again, your SHS account will be reactivated and you can pick up where you left off.
SHS is a congenial community of writers who support one another. Please keep conversations kind, thoughtful, and on topic. All SHS channels are for discussing writing, except for #off_topic and #admin; #iso_advice should be used for writing advice, #rants_and_vents should be used for complaining about writing, and so on.
The #rants_and_vents channel is a strict no-advice zone. The #iso_advice channel is a place for soliciting and offering advice. Outside of those channels, please check whether advice is wanted before making suggestions. Do not use the #rants_and_vents channel to complain about another member of SHS, or about SHS itself. (If you have concerns about how SHS is run, please share them in the #admin channel or DM @storynurse.)
Do not post images of graphic violence or sex in SHS. Please keep the use of images minimal; smaller is better, and emoji may be used with abandon. Anyone can add emoji or Slackbot responses. Please don’t abuse this privilege.
Please make use of Slack’s Do Not Disturb feature and notification settings to ensure that other people’s comments to you don’t wake you or otherwise bother you at an inconvenient time.
In response to repeated or egregious violations of this policy, moderators may ask you (in public or via DM) to edit a comment to remove offensive language, delete comments, or deactivate accounts temporarily or permanently. If your account is temporarily deactivated, your Patreon pledges will be refunded for as long as the deactivation lasts, and you will lose access to patron-only content during that time. If your account is permanently deactivated, you will be blocked from being a Story Hospital patron.
At present, it’s not possible to mute, block, or ignore people in Slack. If you have a significant interpersonal issue with another SHS user, or concerns about another user’s behavior, please DM @storynurse to discuss options.
Questions and comments
If you have a question, comment, or concern related to SHS, please DM @storynurse.
If you have any questions or comments about these policies, use this contact form:
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