Community Guidelines

Revised December 7, 2023

By outlining what we think a safe, welcoming, and productive community looks like within Charles Burns Family Association, we hope to further understanding on how best to interact and collaborate on our platform in line with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policies.

We encourage our community members to communicate expectations clearly, moderate their projects whenever or wherever possible, and report any content that may violate our Terms of Service and other policies. Charles Burns Family Association will investigate any reports of abuse, and may moderate Content on our site that we determine to be in violation of our Terms of Service.

The primary purpose of the Charles Burns Family Association is to collaborate on the research and recording of the history and genealogy of Charles Burns and to have fun while doing so.

We are committed to maintaining a community where users are free to express themselves and challenge one another's ideas. At the same time, it's important that users remain respectful and allow space for others to contribute openly. In order to foster both a safe and productive environment, we encourage our community members to look to these guidelines to inform how they interact on our platform. Below, you’ll find some suggestions for how to have successful interactions as a valued member of the Charles Burns Family Association.

Be welcoming and open-minded. New users join our community each day. Some are expert genealogists, while others are just beginning. Be open to other ideas and experience levels. Make room for opinions other than your own and be welcoming to new collaborators and those just getting started.

Be respectful. Working in a collaborative environment means disagreements may happen. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Share thoughtful, constructive criticism and be courteous to those you interact with. If you’re unable to engage respectfully, consider taking a step back or asking for help to deescalate a tense situation.

Be empathetic. The membership of the Charles Burns Family Association comprises people from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives, many of which may differ from your own. Try to put yourself in others’ shoes and understand their feelings before you address them. Do your best to help make the Charles Burns Family Association a community where others feel safe to make contributions, participate in discussions, and share different ideas. While not all intentions are good, we ask that you start by assuming best intentions/not ill-intent instead of assuming worst intentions.

Ask permission. Recognize that the copyright of personal communications, such as oral histories, letters, diaries, phone conversations, recipes, and email communications belong to the person who communicated their family history to you. It may be acceptable to cite a person as the source without reproducing the original work, but only with explicit permission.

Be sensitive. Request permission to include potentially sensitive information from those who might be impacted if it is shared.

Legal may not be right. Whether legal or not, respect the rights and desires of others, especially if you want them to share information with you in the future.

If you feel offended:

• Acknowledge the other party is human.
• Say, “Ouch!”
• Express your understanding of their statement or action.
• Ask if your understanding is accurate.
• Express your feelings about their intent.
• Ask the other party to stop the offending language or behavior.

If someone expresses offense by your words or behavior:

• Don’t assume the other party thinks you are a bad person and respond emotionally.
• Consider what you do not know about the offended person and their experiences.
• Don’t discount the other person’s feelings.
• Focus on understanding the other person’s perception of what was offensive.
• Apologize―express your respect and esteem.
• Review your words and actions and think of alternative approaches.
• Ask to move forward collaboratively to achieve mutual goals.

We rely on reports the community to help ensure that Charles Burns Family Association is a safe, welcoming, and productive platform for members. There are a variety of factors we consider when we’re made aware of behavior or content not in line with our policies. However, our policy enforcement and content moderation approach prioritizes our vision to be the home for all members of the Charles Burns family. This means:

• We optimize for collaboration. We recognize historical and genealogical research is complex and relies upon discovery, re-evaluation of long-held conclusions in the light of new information, and that available information varies in terms of quality, completeness, and accuracy. The Board for Certification of Genealogists book Genealogy Standards (revised 2021) is helpful for establishing the reliability of genealogical conclusions with reasonable certainty.
  
  
• We take a human-centered approach to content moderation and we tailor our responses to meet the needs of a specific situation. This could include taking into account potentially offensive content being posted in a way that lacks context or understanding of cultural differences. In those instances, we may favor moderation in order to safeguard our community.
  
  
• Our decisions are rooted in our core belief that serving an interconnected community through collaboration requires a commitment to diversity and belonging.

Please refer to our Terms of Service, Section 3 Acceptable Use for information on how Charles Burns Family Association may respond if we decide that moderation has not worked and additional action is warranted.