[Image – the Genderverse Furries logo: a purple planet with blue and pink stripes and the trans, nonbinary and agender symbols in black. The planet is surrounded by a dark purple ring on one side, and on the other side, a long purple tail with green fluff, a gold ring and a little orb at the tip]

If you have any questions or concerns about these guidelines or the group in general, please ask to PM an admin in the Telegram or Discord groups, or email info@genderversefurries.com

Community Guidelines

These guidelines are applied in all online and offline Genderverse Furries spaces. While not optional, they also can’t cover every situation. Some cases require flexibility, and some of these guidelines might be unfamiliar, so we try to communicate that you’re not bad or wrong for struggling to follow or learn them, as long as you’re not intentionally causing harm.

Genderverse Furries admins/leaders have the final say on implementing these guidelines. In exchange, we do our best to be accountable and transparent with all of our actions and decisions. We try our best to make our guidelines as accessible as possible while not being alienating or ableist. We are only human – we make mistakes too – but we are dedicated to supporting and upholding the integrity of this space for all.

13+ Safer Group

Genderverse Furries is a 13+ English-language space. Mature topics are allowed with appropriate warnings, but no erotic content, graphic violence, or casual drug references (including profile pictures). This is not only because the space is 13+, but also because we want a space free from sexual advances, innuendos, violence, and other content which could activate our members’ trauma.

Visual Accessibility (Image Descriptions)

If you have the capacity, please add (brief) image descriptions when you send images, and link previews that include images (and stickers on request). If you send a video, describe what happens in the video and mention if it’s captioned or not. This is important because it allows people who are blind, visually impaired, or have a visual processing issue, to fully participate and enjoy content in the community. On Discord, if you need assistance with image descriptions, you can post the image in the #need-image-descriptions channel and ping (@) image desc volunteers. Someone will write a description which you can copy-paste where you want to put the image. Be sure to credit the person who helped you with the image! On Telegram, you can ask to PM someone to have them help you with an image description, and then you can paste that description into the chat.

Below is an example of what an image description would look like!

[Image – Tanby, the group mascot. They are a purple and white cosmic being with green hair and pointy ears, and they are joyfully pumping their fist in a cheer!]

Accountability (editing and deleting messages)

Accountability is a fundamental part of our values, and one important way we demonstrate that is through how we deal with editing and deleting messages.

If you edit a message, please note that you did so at the end of the message and briefly explain why. This is especially important during serious discussions where an edited message could make the situation confusing or make others in the conversation look like they’re responding to something different.

Only delete messages if a mod or admin asks you to. This is important because deleting messages disrupts the flow of conversation and is generally impolite. If you absolutely must delete a message, as a last resort, please leave a message explaining why you’ve done so.

Content Warnings

When discussing sensitive topics, please provide a content warning (CW). This allows us to discuss topics which are important but may be triggering to others – while giving people a chance to opt out of the conversation if they need to.

On discord we use spoiler tags for this – it would look like this:

CW: example || text of CW ||

For a list of common and requested content warnings, go here.

Harm-Reducing Language

We work to avoid harmful language, including all ableist, racial, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, ageist, and LGBTQIA+ antagonistic terms and slurs. Please don’t insult yourself or others, even if it’s something you’re used to doing. Sometimes we might ask you to stop or explain your messages or behavior.

We try to use “call-in” instead of “call-out” because everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Our goal is to compassionately invite the person who made the mistake to learn to be more inclusive alongside us!

Here is a good resource that explains how to respond when you are called in about language use, or any mistake in general:

[Video description: Chescaleigh, a black woman, talking to the viewer about how to apologize]

Respect + Consent

Respect others, including honoring their names, pronouns, identities, personal space, and privacy. Ask for permission first before DMing or “touching” someone. Please don’t screenshot Genderverse Furries conversations or send screenshots of private, outside conversations without consent. Respect and consent are important for maintaining a space where everyone feels comfortable to participate and be themselves.

You’ve reached the end of the Community Guidelines. Optional Reading Follows.

Due Process and Admin Transparency

As admins, we have a responsibility to all community members to conduct ourselves with transparency and good faith, following the spirit of the Genderverse guidelines. As such, admins will conduct ourselves as follows:

We will, to the best of our ability, give clear and direct reasons for admin-specific actions, including but not limited to deletion of other members’ content, temporary read-only status, and member removal.
We will, when possible, make it clear when we are speaking from an admin standpoint rather than a personal one, or if it is a combination of both.
If multiple admins and/or other members question an admin’s behavior, please tag and/or request to PM another admin.

How we Apply the Guidelines

We understand that many of the above guidelines might be different from what you are used to.

While the guidelines are important, a sense of community is equally important to us. If you make a mistake, we will try our best to help you learn, following this general process:

Efforts will be made to discuss in a constructive manner the best way(s) to follow, and the importance of, the guideline that was broken.
If a guideline was broken in a way that is harming or could harm other group members, you will be asked to edit and/or delete the related comment(s), and/or an admin may delete the comment with explanation if you are not responding.
If you refuse to acknowledge the guideline after it is explained to you, and/or you display general bad faith towards the requests/needs of others in the group, admins may take the following action on their discretion: temporary read-only access, temporary removal, and/or permanent removal.

Changelog

March 31st, 2019: New version of guidelines created.
April 20th: Clarified guideline #1 to include the ‘nsfw’ keyword.
September 1st: Added link to apology video
August 5th, 2020: Added an example of an image description
Februrary 4th, 2021: Edited guideline 8 to add note about video transcripts
February 5th: Major overhaul of guidelines – simplification and cutting out unnecessary parts.
February 16th: Added headings to guidelines
April 15th: Added more explanations/reasoning to the guidelines
January 17th, 2023: Made the guidelines easier to read, embedded YouTube video, added image descriptions.

FAQ