I now added a server description in the sidebar on the main page https://diyrpg.org/, where I outline what I think this instance should be about and what is considered appropriate or not.

I really don’t think piling up lots of rules that are meant to be binding and clearly define what is or isn’t allowed doesn’t actually help at all with maintaining basic politeness and civility in conversations and discussions. And I don’t want to be policing people’s opinions or ideas of creativity. It doesn’t make people more restrained or cordial, probably rather the opposite.

I think people overstepping is something that ultimately has to be judged case by case on how it comes across instead of technicalities about the specific phrasing of rules. This means I am claiming the authority to make arbitrary judgements about what gets deleted or who gets banned, but I think the general policy of not tolerating when people start making attacks against specific people or groups or spreading general hostility should really be able to cover the vast majority of problems that could show up in a space that will maybe have a hundred people at the most.

My whole goal is to maintain a space where people can share their silly and crazy ideas on having stupid fun, and that does sometimes end up going to places that others might consider gross or inappropriate. And I don’t want to be the judge what creative experiments are okay or not okay. Nor do I want this to become a place where only one accepted way of tinkering with games establishes itself. But when people or groups are getting vilified for what they are rather than for the harm they individually do, that’s certainly not okay. I feel that that’s a good hard line to draw. Anything else can usually be addressed by politely asking people to keep things civil. And then you can still ban them if they start making a fuss.

But that’s my opinions on that thing. And I certainly don’t have perfect universal solutions to everything. If you think there are certain things that really need to be addressed specifically, or that my policy is too vague and inviting shitty behavior from people looking for trouble, I am fully open to suggestions. I might not implement everything you ask for, but I’ll more than happily include other views and concerns in my considerations on this subject.