We’re using this site to do real work together — drafting the successor, taking care of each other, holding the memory. These guidelines exist to keep the work possible.
The short version
Be useful. Be kind. Argue with ideas, not people. Don’t post what you wouldn’t want quoted in five years (because it might be).
The longer version
1. Assume good faith — and earn it. Most of us are tired, grieving, and improvising. Read the most generous interpretation of what someone wrote. When in doubt, ask before reacting.
2. Disagreement is welcome. Contempt is not. Hampshire was built on argument. We expect strong, thoughtful disagreement, especially in The Successor and the working groups. We don’t expect — and won’t host — contempt, sneering, or character attacks.
3. Slow > fast. This site is for things that benefit from time. If your reply needs ten more minutes of thought, take them. Discord is for fast.
4. Cite, link, and quote. If you’re making a claim about what the college did, what NECHE said, what a working group decided — link to the source. If you don’t have one, mark it as “memory” or “rumor.” We are building a record.
5. Working groups are open by default; private when they need to be. Most working group threads are public. Some — sensitive personnel matters, individual financial situations, legal strategy in progress — are not. If a thread is private, it’s marked, and that’s enforceable.
6. Mutual aid is real aid. Don’t post asks you can’t follow up on; don’t post offers you can’t deliver. People are depending on the threads in 
Opportunities & Mutual Aid.
7. Don’t dox, don’t out, don’t share private communications without consent. Including screenshots from the Discord. Including DMs. Including emails from Hampshire administration. If you need to discuss something sensitive, contact the moderation working group.
8. The closure is a fact, not a debate. We won’t moderate against grief, anger, or critique of what happened. We will moderate against threads that re-litigate the decision in ways that block forward motion. There are venues for that work; this site is for what’s next.
9. Keep the people who weren’t here in mind. Faculty, staff, and student family members are part of this community. So are people who went to Hampshire for a year and left. So are people connected via Five-College and the broader network. The voice we use should make space for all of them.
10. When in doubt, ask. Use the 
Burning Questions category, or post in 
Meta → Welcome, or message a moderator. There are no stupid questions in a community this scale.
Moderation
Moderation is a working group, not a single person. Mods can:
- Edit category placement and titles for findability
- Move threads to
Library → Archive when they’re done - Flag, hide, or remove posts that violate these guidelines
- Issue warnings and, in repeated cases, suspensions
Mod actions are logged in Meta so they’re visible. If you disagree with a mod action, reply in the Meta thread or message the working group.
Reporting
Use Discourse’s flag function. Flags go to the mod queue. For anything sensitive — harassment, doxxing, safety concerns — message a moderator directly.