As a community member with AAChats, you are part of a large and diverse community filled with people who are dealing with problems related to alcohol. Like most communities, whether online or in the physical world, AAChats has some basic ground rules to keep the environment safe and encouraging for everyone who wants to stop drinking.

Please help create a healthy environment by respecting the following standards when in the AAChats community:

Be polite.

Treat your fellow members with respect.

Insulting, condescending, or abusive words will not be tolerated.

Do not harass others.

Polite debate is welcome as long as you are discussing the ideas, not attacking the person.

Post appropriate content.

Content that violates these guidelines or Discord’s Terms of Service is not permitted.

Do not post inappropriate (e.g., pornographic or obscene) content.

Do not post copyrighted content.

Do not perform any advertising or promotion of any kind.

Do not spam public channels or users with repetitive content.

Do not solicit, offer, or accept financial or material support.

Do not post any identifying photos, screenshots, or videos (or links to them) in a public channel (exception: your profile pic can be a "safe-for-work" picture of you).

Do not post any personal information (yours or someone else's) in any public channel, including:

Full name, email address, phone, etc

Workplace name or address

Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, or other social media account name or link

Full name, email address, phone, etc Workplace name or address Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, or other social media account name or link Do not give medical advice in any public channel, even if you are a medical professional. This includes talking about medication or supplement names, dosage amounts (even if they are legal, nutritional, or over-the-counter items). This helps avoid disruptive debating and/or possible unintended provocation of other members.

Do not use excessive profanity

Messages that violate these guidelines will be deleted by a moderator.

Be here for the right reasons.

The AAChats community is for people who have a problem with alcohol and want to stop drinking.

If you are in crisis or an emergency, please call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 immediately as we are not trained to help in a safe and effective way. To protect you, messages involving self-harm or harm to others are removed immediately.

as we are not trained to help in a safe and effective way. To protect you, messages involving self-harm or harm to others are removed immediately. Members must have a desire to stop drinking.

Family members and friends of alcoholics are prohibited from joining, unless they have a problem with alcohol and desire to stop their own drinking.

Advertising or promotion of any kind is prohibited.

Research, surveys, interviews, or observation for nursing/medical programs is prohibited.

Trolling of any kind is prohibited. Trolling is defined as disrupting normal, on-topic discussion by posting inflammatory, shocking, or off-topic messages with the intent of provoking readers into a strong emotional response.

Stay in the solution.

Members who are still currently drinking are welcome to join, but please refrain from participating while you are impaired.

Do not chat while drunk or impaired. Feel free to read along, but please do not send any messages until you are sober.

Do not post messages describing the act of drinking or using.

Members who repeatedly break these rules may be removed from the community.

Messaging Guidelines

Remember that AAChats is an online, global forum with members from many different cultures and backgrounds who at various stages of recovery. Use the following guidelines when sharing your thoughts so others can get the most out of them.

Be kind, thoughtful, and open-minded when discussing race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or controversial topics since others likely have differing perspectives

Be careful when you use humor and sarcasm as these messages are easy to misinterpret.

Make sure you’re understood, even by non-native English speakers.

Be civil. If you disagree, explain your position with respect and refrain from any and all personal attacks.

While other addictions may be a part of your story, please keep the focus on alcohol-related topics in rooms that have a recovery-based topic.

Avoid giving out instructions on what others SHOULD do - even if other members ask. Instead share your own experience, strength, and hope based on your life experiences.

Have tolerance for people in various stages and styles of recovery. Be mindful that “Tough Love” can come across differently than you intended in an online community.

Avoid posting messages that focus excessively on drunk-a-logging, long war stories, beating yourself up without moving on to the solution, or constant reminiscing about the drinking days.

Avoid gossip.

Ignore violators and report them immediately.

More About Rules and AA

Whenever people attend events in the physical world, they adhere to a group of rules and laws that come from the local venue as well as from local, state, and federal law. For instance, the venue may have a rule that prevents smoking indoors or disallows pets from coming inside the building. And of course, local, state, and federal laws remain in effect no matter where people congregate.

These rules and laws also apply to the members of Alcoholics Anonymous when they gather together at meetings and events in the physical world. Although the only requirement for being a member in AA is a desire to stop drinking, AA also maintains respect for the rules and laws of the surrounding environment. So when members go online to meet on AAChats, they adhere to the rules and laws of this online venue.

Since AAChats meets using the Discord chat platform, the meeting space is bound by Discord’s Terms of Service. In addition, due to the nature of online communities, this venue sets forth a basic Code of Conduct that helps users participate safely.