Week 12 Process Post: Community Guidelines

When I look at where community guidelines within the NA community, most blogs do not have a set of rules. Where strict community guidelines come into play is in the Facebook groups set up by Authors and monitored by their assistants and others hired to monitor the groups. My own set of community guidelines is inspired by these groups as the audience for these groups will be quite similar to those reading my blog.

Here are my community guidelines:

1. Be nice and be respectful.
   • Treat others the way you would want to be treated.
     • This is the ultimate rule
2. No bashing of authors, and books.
   • This blog is supposed to be a positive place.
     • It is okay not to like a book, but please do not attack an author or writing it or a community member for liking it
3. No xenophobic slurs or language.
   • The term xenophobia encompasses (but is not limited to)
     • Racism
     • Sexism
     • Ageism
     • Homophobia
4. No shaming of community members
   • For such things as:
     • What people chose to read
     • How people live their lives
5. ClaryNathanWill reserves the right to delete any comments that break any of the above rules

My experiences in online communities for the majority of my time on the social internet has made me a fan of community guidelines. Prior to reading NA the majority of the time, my world revolved around Young Adult books. The communities surrounding Young Adult books are toxic environments. My mind immediately goes to Cassandra Clare and the Shadowhunters fandom. It blows my mind that there is a portion of the fandom that loves the books but hates Cassandra Clare, to the point that she is not comfortable at a book signing without a bodyguard due to the huge amounts of death threats she receives. She has been pushed off of her Twitter and Tumblr many times over the last few years, and every time she does come back I consider us very lucky. She shares so much on Twitter and Tumblr for her audience from snippets and teaser from her upcoming releases and to beautiful fan art. To see her receive so much hate, enough to make her take social media breaks for her own health has always hurt me, as I want so much better for her. If more people in that community would work towards being respectful, I really believe a positive corner of the internet could be built.

For me having joined the NA community was finding that positive corner of the internet. NA fans are some of the most progressive, open-minded, and respectful people I have ever encountered online. From authors holding retreats for fans at their houses to holiday card exchanges within the community, NA communities are positive in ways the YA communities could never be. Maybe it is an age thing? Less angsty teens, more moms. I believe it stems from the attacks against NA readers and NA books outside of the community bubble, these attacks make us cherish the positivity in our community and only bring us closer together. As YA becomes more mainstream I fear only more drama and negativity rising up among YA communities.