There seems to have been some misunderstanding and some things appear to be unclear. Let me clarify the intention and the scope of the Emerald Legacy code of conduct in today’s post.
(Non-)Display of Power
First and foremost, this code of conduct ist by no means an attempt of the Emerald Legacy team to exercise power over others—others being people, discord servers, communities and so on. It is simply called “Emerald Legacy Code of Conduct” because we made some adjustments to the original Berlin Code of Conduct. Also, I (Hida Amoro) thought the name fitting. If some of the wording seems unfamiliar or halting to you, it may be because the Berlin Code of Conduct was originally designed for conferences and (software) communities. We are always open to feedback and welcome any addition that makes it easier to understand and adopt.
In Harmony
The reason why I wanted to install such a code of conduct was mainly because I wanted a civilised, peaceful and harmonic behaviour and cooperation within the ranks of the Emerald Legacy team and the play testing group. This is a volunteer project after all, and everything that can be done to make volunteers feel welcome and save might help us to get more volunteers and keep this project alive for a while.
However, there’s no reason to limit this code of conduct to ourselves. We want to offer it to the Emerald Community (that is you 🙂 ), any community that is looking for such a conduct. You can show your colours (well, ours, technically) by adopting it and showing your support to the Emerald Legacy. Maybe you already have such a thing (server rules, for instance) or maybe you think this is all common sense (unfortunately, it isn’t, especially not in the web). Yet, you can choose to also and additionally use our code of conduct or even replace yours with it.
Recalled Defenses
We also want to use this code of conduct for our official Emerald Legacy tournaments. We want to make sure that each and everyone participating in our tournaments can feel safe and welcome, whilst at the same time having the possibility to call for help if needed. We hope, of course, that it never comes to this, but if it does, we want to be prepared. We need a foundation for our actions, should we have to warn or even ban players who are misbehaving.
Appeal to Sympathy
If it comes to a violation of the code of conduct, we—and I can only say that for events organised by us or our team—will make sure that there is no “unreasonable ban for nothing”. We will always talk to both parties, separately as well as together, to try to get an overview over the situation and to determine the best action. We believe in good will and cooperativeness of each and everyone. Maybe it was just a bad misunderstanding, a misinterpretation of text or intention. A truthful “Hey, look, I am sorry” can already heal so much and make arguments disappear in no time.
We cannot demand the same from others who adopt our code of conduct. However, if they already choose to use the conduct, they will most likely be reasonable in their judgement, too. 🙂
Clarity of Purpose
I hope that I could clarify some things and make our intentions and the scope of the conduct more clear. If you still do have any questions or want to provide feedback, please get in touch. Write a comment, send me a private message on Discord or mention me in one of the L5R discord servers.
And apologies, that I mainly used Phoenix cards, but the names are just so fitting! 😀
