Company values

The owner, employees, volunteers, moderators, and contributors are expected to uphold these values. While we mostly aren't (yet) meet the standards outlined here, it is what we are continuously striving toward. Think of this more like a manifesto.

We post them publicly here for the sake of accountability and community input. You can help us make sure we uphold these values!

Put users first

• Trust takes time to be earned, is precious, and should be protected.
  • Don't annoy. Don't spam.
  • Users are not products. E.g. Do not violate user trust by selling their information
• Usability
  • Simple easy to understand interfaces. Treat users with compassion when they have technical difficulties.
  • Accessibility for assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers). Be inclusive of those with disabilities.
  • Mobile friendly
• Treat customers like human beings. Customer service
• Don't marginalize users. Support and advocate for freedom of expression
• Respect and act responsibly with user data
  • Respect the Privacy of users. Defend user data by making security a priority.
  • Take measures to protect user data from loss (e.g. regular backups, migrations)

Pursuit of business but not at the expense of employee or user health or wellness

• Work life balance
  • "Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back."
  • Work should not come at the expense of health, wellness, or quality of relationships with family
• Users have a right to psychological safety
  • Not empower bullies.
  • Give users tools to protect themselves (e.g. block a user, capture repeat offenders).
    • ideally we would ban someone who's not following the community guidelines however there are also times when a user may want to block someone who has behaved within the guidelines.
• Create an app that is accessible, healthy, and humane.
  • Community activities are a tool for development, not an obligation
    • Users may participate as little or as much as they want in challenges, community events, etc. While we do encourage participation through points and rewards, there is no obligation or expectation.
  • Be mindful of mental health and neurodiversity when designing products
  • Our app should be mindful of and assist users with
    • ADHD and Executive functioning challenges
    • Confidence issues
  • Avoid ads, especially ones for material possessions as these lead to junk values that cause mental health harm

Be useful. Provide value to users

• Create quality content. Educate, positivity, motivation, resources
  • Be authentic, relatable, honest, vulnerable, human.
• Cultivate growth. Motivate, inform, Inspire and encourage users
  • Inspire users to take action, be creative, learn, and be there for one another. Encouraging each other to be active provides support
  • Provide positive reinforcement for positive tasks (completing art challenges or lessons)
  • Make PaperDemon a fun, distinct, unique place to hang out.

Cultivate a healthy, positive, inclusive community focused on growth and learning

• Where artists can thrive through sharing, critique, and a drive to be better and continuously learn
• Moderators to act with Compassion, Empathy, Directness and Fairness
  • When dealing with disagreements in the community, listen to both sides before taking action. "Seek first to understand. Then to be understood"
    • For example: be mindful of disagreements. Sometimes people get angry at constructive crit. Given how easily miscommunication happens over digital communication, where possible, try to do voice or video conversations to resolve disputes.
  • Be direct. If someone isn't following community guidelines, gently tell them and give them the opportunity to correct the behavior.
  • Have empathy and compassion for users
    • Assume no ill intent. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Give second chances.
      • E.g. Start first with a temporary suspension.
      • This is critically important. In other communities where this is absent, it tends to cultivate a hostile environment and creates stress for users.
• Make it easy for users to report problems (e.g. report user button or flag button) but require justification to balance this to avoid abuse
• Inclusion and Acceptance
  • A sanctuary for creatives to be creative without boundaries or judgement
  • Freedom of expression as much as possible while operating within the law
  • Mental health challenges, physical disabilities, accessibility
  • Sex positive
    • Be defiant against the shame and taboo of sex. Foster positivity and acceptance of all forms of sexuality, so long as they aren't harmful to others (e.g. child porn).

Be transparent

• Open communication
  • Community members collaborate to make key decisions for the community. BogusRed doesn't pretend to know what's best for everyone.
• Owner's mindset
  • the community is collectively owned by all of us. Customers and employees alike should feel empowered to get involved in improving our community
• Admit to mistakes and commit to fixing them

Be sustainable

• Create a sustainable business model. This can't be a charity (as in work for free). We have a responsibility to grow and generate income to ensure we can continue to exist and maximize our impact.
• Focus on long-term sustainability rather than short-term profits. This should be a natural consequence of focusing on the user.
• Be agile with site development so users don't experience a complete loss.
  • E.g. do a series of releases of features. Don't take the site down entirely for a rewrite as others have done.