Hey all,
In light of recent events concerning one of our communities (/c/vegan), we (as a team) have spent the last week working on how to address better some concerns that had arisen between the moderators of that community and the site admin team. We always strive to find a balance between the free expression of communities hosted here and protecting users from potentially harmful content.
We as a team try to stick to a general rule of respect and consideration for the physical and mental well-being of our users when drafting new rules and revising existing ones. Furthermore, we've done our best to try to codify these core beliefs into the additions to the ToS and a new by-laws section.
ToS Additions
That being said, we will be adding a new section to our โterms of serviceโ concerning misinformation. While we do try to be as exact as reasonably able, we also understand that rules can be up to interpretation as well. This is a living document, and users are free to respectfully disagree. We as site admins will do our best to consider the recommendations of all users regarding potentially revising any rules.
Regarding misinformation, we've tried our best to capture these main ideas, which we believe are very reasonable:
- Users are encouraged to post information they believe is true and helpful.
- We recommend users conduct thorough research using reputable scientific sources.
- When in doubt, a policy of โDo No Harmโ, based on the Hippocratic Oath, is a good compass on what is okay to post.
- Health-related information should ideally be from peer-reviewed, reproducible scientific studies.
- Single studies may be valid, but often provide inadequate sample sizes for health-related advice.
- Non-peer-reviewed studies by individuals are not considered safe for health matters.
We reserve the right to remove information that could cause imminent physical harm to any living being. This includes topics like conversion therapy, unhealthy diets, and dangerous medical procedures. Information that could result in imminent physical harm to property or other living beings may also be removed.
We know some folks who are free speech absolutists may disagree with this stance, but we need to look out for both the individuals who use this site and for the site itself.
By-laws Addition
We've also added a new by-laws section as well as a result of this incident. This new section is to better codify the course of action that should be taken by site and community moderators when resolving conflict on the site, and also how to deal with dormant communities.
This new section provides also provides a course of action for resolving conflict with site admin staff, should it arise. We want both the users and moderators here to feel like they have a voice that is heard, and essentially a contact point that they can feel safe going to, to โtalk to the managerโ type situation, more or less a new Lemmy.World HR department that we've created as a result of what has happened over the last week.
Please feel free to raise any questions in this thread. We encourage everyone to please take the time to read over these new additions detailing YOUR rights and how we hope to better protect everyone here.
https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/#80-misinformation
https://legal.lemmy.world/bylaws/
Sincerely,
FHF / LemmyWorld Operations Team
EDIT:
We will be releasing a separate post regarding the moderation incident in the next 24-48 hours, just getting final approval from the team.
EDIT 2 (2024-08-31):
We've posted a response, sorry for the delay.
I'm normally a Vegan hater but this is a whole new level. ๐
Yeah few vegans would steep as low as feeding a cat a vegan diet. So not really sad to see the particular individuals gone.
It's perfectly possible to give animals vegan diets.
Yes, until the poor animal dies due to malnutrition. Just get a vegan pet
More animals die because non vegans decide that allowing one pet to live is fine but then go and pay in the supermarket to have some freshly slaughtered other animal.
Please don't be a hypocrite.
It's ridiculous that you don't seem to realize how much this applies to your first post. ๐
Hahahah. This ignorance from the carnivores here truly knows no boundaries.
I'm not a carnivore? Been a vegetarian since for-fucking-ever, considering my age probably long since before most here knew about a word like "vegan" existing, on account of existance. Seriously, the fuck where did you take that from?
Don't project, please.
Because with all the hate I'm getting I'm sure other living beings matter nothing to these people.
Also, as a vegetarian you're still supporting the industries that exploit and abuse animals. Consider vegan instead.
I mean, people who buy vegan cat food support an industry that abuses animals, too. ๐คท
But yeah, not much that isn't vegan left in my diet anyways. Some cheese, for the rare time I'm baking one of a handful of specific things some milk, and that's mostly it. The rest is all vegan. Just don't abuse animals, don't feet a carnivore a vegan diet. ๐ฅน
lol, who's the hypocrite here? People who openly admit to eating meat and not having a problem with animals getting killed for that purpose? Or maybe it's a group of people who vehemently insist on animal rights but they end up abusing their own pets. What a twisted logic, mate.
You are incorrect. A vegan diet for animals is perfectly possible. You are thinking of vegans giving them salad, but vegans are actually carefully selecting and giving them the nutrients they need.
As I said, don't be a hypocrite. You know jack shit.
Posting that ignorant video is something I'd expect from somebody calling educated people pathetic. Stop projecting.
Please explain how this video is ignorant
Sure. It's also possible to feed your animal a bad diet. Notable, and in this particular case and for the particular animal, the two happen to go together, when you feed a cat a vegan diet, that's a bad diet for a cat.
Will the cat immediately keel over? No.
Will some cats live long lives and be pretty healthy? Sure.
But on average, will your cat live shorter and worse if you feed it a purely vegan diet, respectively if you let it roam outside, will it be a seriously ferocious hunter as it tries to re-balance it's diet? Yes, definitely.
Whether that's consciable to you, that's something you have to decide. I would however hope that especially someone who subsides on a vegan diet for their human diet would be against animal cruelty, and hence just feed their cat a mostly meat-based diet (not entirely, that's not healthy either).
I was under the impression that most criticism was directed not towards veganism per se but rather feeding a carnivore vegan diet which is animal abuse .
It isn't animal abuse, it's perfectly possible.
Obligate Carnivore: Cats, Dogs, and What it Really Means to be Vegan by Jed Gillen
Great read!