We are Smashboards (referred to in this document as “we”, “our”, or “us”), and are committed to keeping our website an inclusive space. This page will go over our website's Diversity and Inclusivity policy. If you have any additional questions about our methods and guidelines regarding inclusion, you may contact us via Staff Announcements and User Feedback Forum.

Smashboards is a friendly place for people of all backgrounds and walks of life to find common ground and communicate with each other. Diversity and inclusivity are at the heart of the Smash community, and Smashboards is no exception. Personal expression is an important facet of the Smashboards userbase, but it’s critical that we foster community in a way that doesn’t discourage expression from others. For us, that means preventing and moderating hateful behavior. Of course, we don’t mean to discourage diverse or unpopular points of view; intent and context is important here. If your point of view is communicated with clear and good intentions, you should have nothing to worry about. Smashboards staff aims to operate without bias as they uphold the Terms and Rules. This policy aims to define and describe certain behaviors that the Terms and Rules refer to.

Hate Speech

Hate speech is prohibited on Smashboards. Hate speech is any content that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, harassment, violence, or hatred against individuals or groups based on the following characteristics: Age

Culture

Disability

Gender or gender identity

Ethnicity

Mental or physical health

Nationality or national origin

Race

Religion or lack of religion

Sex

Sexual orientation

Socioeconomic status We recognize that society is constantly evolving; other characteristics not listed here may be protected under this policy if the staff view the intent of the content to be hateful in nature. In matters of potentially hateful content, Smashboards staff will use context to derive intent. In addition, Smashboards and its staff have ultimate authority over what constitutes hateful content as it pertains to this website. If the staff have deemed certain content to constitute “hate speech” as defined, it is no excuse/defense to say that the content was e.g. political or religious in character or intent. Hate speech can take many forms, including, but not limited to: Claiming that a negative aspect about a group or individual is attributed to one of the above characteristics

Attempting to promote, recruit for, or positively describe a known hate group

Using racial epithets, in general or to attack another user

Claiming that a group or individual should “go back to” a country that has a high population of their race or ethnicity

Deliberately deadnaming an individual, be it their previous screen-name or their real-life name, particularly if they have communicated their preferred name to you in the past

Deliberately misgendering another user, particularly if they have communicated their preferred pronoun to you in the past

Claiming that “there are only two genders,” particularly as a direct response to an individual that identifies as non-binary The above list is not meant to be exhaustive and only scratches the surface. Smashboards views hate speech to be more heinous than traditional “flaming,” and its staff will moderate accordingly.

Harassment

Harassment is any content or activity that aims to intimidate, threaten, degrade, or bully others, or create a hostile environment for others. Harassment includes the general activity of refusing to leaves someone alone when asked to do so. Harassment is prohibited on Smashboards. Harassment takes many forms, including, but not limited to: Bullying, such as repeated name calling

Instructing someone to harm or kill themselves

Revealing someone else’s personal information against their wishes, or with intent to harm them

Deliberately submitting false reports in hopes of getting a specific user in trouble, or encouraging others to do the same

Instigating or encouraging others to harass

Unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment

Repeated attempts to embarrass someone

Threatening specific individuals with physical harm

Claiming that a tragedy is a hoax or other such conspiracy theories, particularly toward a victim/someone who personally knew victims

Unwanted profile posts, particularly if previous profile posts have been deleted by the user

Engaging with intent to provoke a user to break the rules

Antagonizing users based on their political affiliation

Antagonizing users that want/don’t want a particular character to join the Super Smash Bros. roster

Antagonizing users based on which character(s) they main or how they like to play Smash Harassment frequently surfaces when a specific user has a history of misbehavior directed at a particular user, or group of users that share a common attribute. Smashboards views those who would antagonize other users and aim to make their time here unpleasant to be particularly distasteful. Smashboards staff will take steps to swiftly correct this behavior.

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