The Codex

If you are not a bully, transphobe or in general a hateful person, this ruleset shouldn't have many new things for you.

Hate speech, harassment, spam, breaking our stuff and doing illegal things are not allowed.

Keep in mind that #GENAI is prohibited, and that creators of artistic works are to be respected (#CREATIVE).

Additionally, #CWs (content warnings) and #ALTTEXT are mandatory.

The Purpose of Checksum Cooperative

This is an outline of the general direction Checksum Cooperative is aiming towards. All other rules provided are intended to be elaborations on how the Cooperative intends to enforce these.

• #INDEPENDENT. Checksum Cooperative provides open, private and reliable services free of corporate control and influence.
• #SAFETY. Checksum Cooperative provides a safe space for any kind of ethnical, racial, sexual, disability or other minorities, as well as those who do no harm to them.
• #FUN. Checksum Cooperative operates with the primary intent of both administrators and users having fun, without which there would be no point in all of this.
• #EXIST. To comply with those directives, Checksum Cooperative and the infrastructure it depends on must continue existing and operate in a stable manner.

Authority of Administrators

• #AUTHORITY. Administrators are acting in the interest of keeping Checksum going. Please listen to them. Disobeying or disrespecting the administrators will result in swift membership termination, as we are not obligated to host any unruly guests.

Safety of Individuals

• #IDENTITY. Respect identities of others. Do not misgender or otherwise mischaracterize people intentionally or in gross negligence.
• #MINORS. Do not interact with minors in a lewd or romantic way. If you are yourself a minor, do not do so with adults, or otherwise distribute any lewd content - for your own safety.
  
  Minors are defined as any individuals under 18 years old. Administrators will make rulings on a case-by-case basis in dubious situations regarding their safety.
• #BULLY. Don't bully. Do not insult other people - keep conversations civil. Do not pursue someone who explicitly expressed no desire to interact with you.
  
  “Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it's not satire, it's bullying.”
  
  Humor and irony are not excuses for bullying or insulting if the subject of the joke does not enjoy it.
• #DOXXING. Do not publish personal information of others without their consent.
• #BEHINDBACK. Do not say anything negative behind someones back that would classify as harassment if told them directly.
• #THREATS. Do not blackmail or threaten people with serious misfortunes, IRL or otherwise. Doing so will get your membership immediately terminated.

Safety from Discrimination

• #HATE. Do not engage in hate speech or discrimination against any ethnical, racial, sexual, disability or any other minorities and groups.
  
  Checksum Cooperative used to have separate rules about advocating for wars. Such situations will now be ruled as violation of this rule against those who would suffer from such a conflict.

Safety and Accessibility of Content

• #ALTTEXT. When capacity to do so is provided by the service (provided the service is not a real-time chat, although it's still a recommendation there), include alt-text (text descriptions of image contents) with any images you distribute OR mark them as not having any with a content warning (see below).
• #CW. Hide and provide content warnings for any content that might be triggering or disturbing to someone.
Details...
• Warnings are mandatory for the following content: pornography, violence, gore, intense flashes (danger of seizure), negative newscasts, malicious links or software (provided for educational purposes), images or video without alt-text (on platforms where alt-text functionality is available).
• Please listen to people around you and place warnings on any other content they might find disturbing.
• If you are not sure if something should be placed under a content warning, place it. You cannot be too safe.
• On platforms where safe and unsafe content (like pornography) are separated, publish such content only in specialized areas. An example of a suitable area would be a NFSW channel in a Discord community.
• If sensitive content cannot be hidden under a warning, it should not be published at all.
• #CATEGORIES. In places where user content is sorted or categorized, like forums, Discord or Fluxer communities, channels/topics are to be used for their intended purpose.
  
  Pay attention to any additional rules potentially provided in those.

Authencity of Content

• #GENAI. Distribution of content made using generative AI models or promotion of said models is prohibited.
• #CREATIVE. Do not distribute, modify, trace or use in some other ways artwork someone's work of art/passion against their wishes.
  
  This protection applies to independent creators. Presumption is made that distribution/usage and tracing without stated source, as well as AI training are prohibited if no conditions are given by the artist.
  
  Copyright-related takedowns by corporate entities will be dealt with under rule #451 instead.

Sabotage or Generally Hazardous Conduct

• #SPAM. Do not distribute spam, scam people or publish malicious advertisements.
• #SABOTAGE. Do not attempt to break, hijack or otherwise interfere in work of Checksum Cooperative, its services, other Fediverse instances, Fediverse itself or any other crucial infrastructure the Cooperative depends on.

Legalese

• #451. Do not use Checksum Cooperatives services for anything illegal. The Cooperative is under jurisdiction of Germany, their laws apply. Laws of jurisdications that do not have control over the Cooperative, like Russian Federation, do NOT apply.
  
  Should Checksum Cooperative ever receive a legal demand for any action, it should organize a full transparency disclosure, regardless of if the request will be approved or not. A transparency page will be organized if that ever occurs.

Behaviors outside Checksum Cooperative

It is not allowed to be a bad person, both on and off Checksum Cooperative's platforms. #HATE speech and such will be punished regardless of it taking place on our services or not.

Codex Application to Remote Instances

In federated environments like the Fediverse, Administrators apply all rules of the Codex on remote instances and users.

It is generally presumed that administrators of remote instances "do not give a damn" about our rulings, which is only fair considering we are not any kind of absolute Internet authority, nor do we want to be one.

Punishments on remote instances are likely going to be more severe merely due to our inability to hand out remote warnings for reasons outlined above. As such, a suspension may be done in a situation that only warrants a warning.

Remote administrators are encouraged to contact us in case any such decision will be deemed harmful by them, as a more peaceful resolution will likely be possible.