To all Kodular Community members,
The Community has been buzzing with activity from all of you, more so especially in the past few months. We welcome and encourage greater discourse on Kodular and app development in our forums, with the hope that everyone will mutually benefit from the discussions. There are more Community members now than ever before, and that’s all thanks to you, our fellow Koders.
However, both users and staff members have also noticed an uptick in off-topic comments and threads over the past few days, which we believe does not contribute to our motto of sharing knowledge and relevant information. While we have been consistently lenient about topics which were not related to Kodular or programming in any way, we understand that the Community has recently been flooded with unnecessary (and sometimes duplicate) discussions. The staff and moderation team recognise that some limits have been crossed, and we can no longer continue tolerating the dilution of our Community.
We have long allowed birthday wishes, festivals, national holidays, and other off-topic discussions to feature in our forums, with the hope that these shared identities will bring Koders closer as one Community. While they did not directly add to the knowledge-base of the Community, they indirectly helped members talk about their interests and passions, which in turn encouraged a greater contribution to discussions.
Unfortunately, at some point in the past few months, our leniency was falsely conflated to a disrespect for the rules and etiquette expectations in the Community. From immature ad-hominem attacks on users to inappropriate content being posted, we have seen a rise in the deviation from the core principles our Community believes in. These incidents not only lower the bar for discussion in our forums, but also encourage others to break these rules themselves with no fear of consequences.
We wish to remind everyone that we do not tolerate brigading, doxxing, or harassing any member of the Community. This includes posts and content made outside the Community with the intent to defame an individual or group. One of our moderators recently received threats and suffered harassment from users who did not agree with actions taken by the mod. We carefully review every decision made by the moderation team, and know that with their record of abiding closely to the rules of the Community, there was no misuse of power by any party. Penalties were handed over to some users because they broke the language use rules of the Community and threatened other users, not because of the content of the topics posted. We believe our penalties should serve as reparations and not as punishment. With this in mind, the moderation team is always open to appeals for any penalties we hand out.
We also want to emphasize avoiding converting punished users into martyrs, by confusing the real reason of the ban that falls under the Community rules with the content of the post.
Our moderators and admins have been in the no-code app development arena for years now and have interacted with thousands of enthusiasts and fellow developers. The team at Kodular fully respects their judgement and discretion because they know best how to ensure the discourse in the Community remains on the right track. They go to great lengths by voluntarily taking time out of their day to ensure the discussion here is always healthy and relevant. We trust all moderators to always follow the Community’s rules while enforcing them.
We at Kodular have always actively encouraged our users to share their experiences, interests and passions. However, this cannot come at the cost of downplaying the lives and identities of other users, nor at the expense of alienating them. The Community is a place where everyone identifies as a Koder, and not anything else. We cannot continue to allow the formation of sub-identities in the Community, where everyone who doesn’t belong feels left out. Be it restricting conversations to English, or preventing the abuse of an individual or group based on their identities, we take our responsibilities very seriously to ensure every Koder feels at home when using Kodular.
In light of the recent events that have unfolded in the Community, we wish to clarify that Kodular welcomes discussions as long as they do not alienate other members. Contrary to some users’ claims of their rights being violated, the staff and moderation team understand that appropriate actions were necessary to ensure the Community remains as inclusive as it always has been. Members are always welcome to post all their thoughts and ideas, as long as they do not estrange or disrespect anyone.
We wish to remind everyone that the Kodular Community is agnostic to national origin, religion, ethnicity, race, colour, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. We welcome everyone in our Community, and ensure that we as staff remain neutral to these legally protected statuses.
The rules and regulations of the Community are in place to ensure we provide a safe and healthy space for discussion. We would like to reiterate the core ethos of our Community so as to remind everyone what we as Koders stand for.
- We keep our religious differences and backgrounds aside. Everyone respects everyone else and ensures nobody makes remarks that discriminate or isolate other members.
- We stay out of political discussion. Kodular is not the place to discuss the latest political events, nor is it a place to campaign for a person or party. Political neutrality that ensures free and open discourse is expected.
- We refrain from making jingoistic statements. We set our national identities aside when in the Community.
- We keep the discussion about Kodular and app development.
- We do not condone violence or its projection in any form, including words, imagery, or threats.
- We maintain all discourse in English, a language that is widely understood, so as to ensure every Koder can keep up with the discussion. Being an international forum, the Community has members from all over the world, and we must ensure nobody feels left out.
Any topic that goes against our ethos will be automatically closed, unlisted, and the author of that topic will risk a permanent ban from the Community and their Kodular Account. The moderators also reserve the right to terminate the accounts of anyone found harassing anyone, without any prior notice.
We understand the demographic make-up of our users and the natural consequences of such a distribution. It is inevitable that the identities of these users arise in mainstream discussions. While the team at Kodular encourages the expression of these identities, we must ensure that this expression does not come at the cost of driving a wedge between different identities.
After careful consideration of the situation, we have decided that we restrict topics not related to Kodular from the Community. The #off-topic category will be removed entirely and no more topics will be allowed to be posted in that category.
The staff and moderators at Kodular wish to ensure the Community continues to remain a free space for everyone to participate in, and we will continue to maintain our neutral stance on the matter. We hope you will continue to Kode apps that transcend our individual identities.
Best regards,
@Kodular Staff