Code of Conduct

At Hardcover, we aim to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels protected, respected, and appreciated. All of this is in line with our values of inclusivity, respect, and appreciation. 

This code of conduct applies to everyone in the Hardcover spaces, including private/public channels and direct messaging both online and offline. We enforce a strict zero-tolerance policy and anyone who violates our code of conduct will be immediately banned at the decision of the Board. The Board also reserves the right to expel users at any time for the reasons listed below.

Types of Harassment

• Comments that demean people based on gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, immigration status, religion, or other identity marker.
• Comments that criticize lifestyle choices and practices related to health, parenting, drugs, and employment or other practices.
• Deadnaming and misgendering, sometimes informally called “deadnaming”.
• Sexual content / behavior in spaces where they’re not appropriate.
• Non-Consensual physical contact of any form.
• Any forms of violence such as:
  • Physical Violence: occurs when someone uses a part of their body or an object to control a person’s actions. 
  • Sexual Violence: occurs when a person is forced to unwillingly take part in sexual activity.  
  • Emotional Violence: occurs when someone says or does something to make a person feel stupid or worthless.  
  • Psychological Violence: occurs when someone uses threats and causes fear in an individual to gain control.
  • Spiritual Violence: occurs when someone uses an individual’s spiritual beliefs to manipulate, dominate or control that person.  
  • Cultural Violence: occurs when an individual is harmed as a result of practices that are part of her or his culture, religion or tradition. 
  • Verbal Abuse:  occurs when someone uses language, whether spoken or written, to cause harm to an individual. 
  • Financial Abuse: occurs when someone controls an individual’s financial resources without the person’s consent or misuses those resources
  • Neglect: occurs when someone has the responsibility to provide care or assistance for an individual but does not. 
• Deliberate acts such as intimidation, stalking, harassment, disruption of discussions/chats.
• Unsolicited sexual content.
• Non-consensual publication of private communication. 
• Microaggression: which takes the form of jokes, insults, or comments that cause severe psychological distress to a user/group.

The administrators will not action complaints regarding:

• Feasible communication around boundaries: “Go away”, “I am not going to discuss this with you”, “don’t bother me”, etc.
• Tone of users you do not find agreeable.

Reporting 

If you believe that you are being harassed by a member of Hardcover, or notice someone else is being harassed, please escalate to the Hardcover admins directly (on the contacts page). 

The admins reserve the right to ban people from Hardcover based on their actions and behaviors inside and outside of the Hardcover space. We will not disclose victims of harassment without their consent. 

Consequences

We mandate all of our users comply with the code of conduct in order to use our platform. If a participant engages in unwelcoming behavior, the administrators will take any action they deem appropriate, up to banning from all Hardcover spaces and disclosing harassers to other Hardcover users or the general public. 

Code of Conduct Updates 

We reserve the right to make changes to the code of conduct at any time. Updates will be disclosed to all Hardcover users when they are made. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for our code of conduct, please contact the administrator and they will get back to you.