This is a Place for Respectful Public Discussion
Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. The Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG) Discussion Forum is a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
These are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a kind place for public discourse.
Improve the Discussion
Help us make this a great place for discussion by adding something positive to the discussion, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.
The topics discussed here matter to the IGWG, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
- Name-calling
- Personally attacking the poster
- Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
Instead, contribute to the conversation by sharing thoughtful insights that introduce new perspectives and help further meaningful discussions
Your Participation Counts
The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.
Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.
If You See a Problem, Flag It
Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators.
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators are responsible for previewing new posts though there may be instances where inappropriate content may appear on the Discussion Forum before the IGWG Team has a chance to take it down. To learn more about the IGWG Team’s efforts to monitor the Discussion Forum and content that may be considered as inappropriate, read the platform’s community guidelines.
Always Be Respectful
To keep conversations on the platform respectful, please:
- Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
- Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
- Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
- Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.
These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of a major news site.
This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.
Keep It Tidy
Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:
- Don’t start a topic in the wrong category; please read the category definitions.
- Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
- Don’t post no-content replies.
- Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
- Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.
Post Only Your Own Stuff
You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.
Powered by You
This site is operated by the IGWG Secretariat and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, you can share feedback with the IGWG Team by filling out this Contact form. If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.
Terms of Service
Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.