These community guidelines exist to support meaningful exchange in a safer, respectful environment for Ephemeral Record community members.
Lead with care and respect.
Engage with one another generously and in good faith. Treat people, histories, and sources with respect, especially when discussing marginalized identities, lived experiences, and contested pasts.
Harassment, hate speech, intimidation, or discriminatory language of any kind will not be tolerated.
Consent and privacy matter.
Respect each member’s boundaries. Do not pressure others to disclose personal, professional, or identity-related information.
Honour pseudonyms, anonymity, and privacy settings.
Do not share content from Ephemeral Record outside the community without explicit permission. This includes quoting posts, screenshots, or referencing others’ participation.
Be thoughtful with histories and sources.
Queer and trans histories often involve vulnerability, trauma, and risk.
Use content warnings when appropriate. Avoid sensationalizing violence or harm.
Attribute sources and credit labour, including community knowledge and archival work.
Be mindful when discussing living people, especially those without public profiles.
Embrace multiple forms of knowledge.
Ephemeral Record values academic scholarship, community history, oral history, personal narrative, and creative work.
Disagreement is welcome; dismissal is not. Engage critically without demeaning others’ methods, experiences, or positionality.
No exploitation or extraction.
This community is not a site for unpaid labour or unreciprocated research. Do not solicit interviews, archival access, or emotional labour without transparency and consent.
Be clear about intentions when seeking collaboration or feedback.
Respect when others decline to participate.
No spam or unsolicited outreach.
Self-promotion is allowed when relevant and transparent, but spam, scraping, or use of the directory for unsolicited outreach is not permitted.
Accountability matters.
Moderators are here to support the health and safety of the community. They may intervene, remove content, or restrict access when guidelines are violated.
Repeated or serious violations may result in removal from the community and termination of membership.
Concerns can be raised privately with moderators.
The goal is not punishment, but member safety, accountability, and repair when possible.
This is a living document.
These guidelines may evolve in response to community needs. Members will be notified of significant changes.
Last updated: 29 December 2025