Purpose, Rules & Guidelines for @kratom

Hello and welcome to a new community on kbin.social which is all about kratom!

This is intended to be a living document so please post comments.

Purpose of this community

The purpose of @kratom is to provide a welcoming and level-headed place to discuss kratom (Mitragyna speciosa).

Some examples of the kinds of things that would be on topic here:

  • Community and peer support between kratom users
  • News related to kratom
  • Scientific research regarding kratom
  • Safe and effective use of kratom
  • Problems related to kratom use
  • History of kratom
  • Future of kratom
  • Legal statuses of kratom
  • How to use kratom
  • Kratom production at industrial/commercial scale
  • Trade news
  • Kratom gardening
  • Organizations which have positions on kratom
  • Kratom use around the world
  • Ethnobotany of kratom
  • Chemistry of kratom
  • Other forums where kratom is discussed
  • Community creation of resources
  • Media coverage of kratom
  • Upcoming events, online or in real life
  • Attitudes of health care workers towards kratom
  • Traveling with kratom
  • Stopping use of kratom

This community has a bias

This is intended to be a broadly “pro kratom” community. Since nothing is perfect, not even kratom, it is also OK to discuss problems.

However it is not necessarily an “advocacy” community. Community standards are not primarily set on the basis of how they will make kratom “look” to outsiders.

Rules

Rule #1: Do not spread misinformation

Do not spread misinformation. Post in good-faith. Speak honestly but do not incite fear or panic, particularly when speaking of safety or legality.

If you believe a participant is intentionally spreading misinformation, please report it.

Rule #2: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

Self-reports that make extreme claims of catastrophic harm or beneficial results beyond what is identified in scientific research literature may be removed and held for review.

The moderators may request additional information from participants before approving these items.

Rule #3: Non commercial only

The purpose of this rule is not to avoid “illegal activity”. I am simply not interested in running a marketplace.

This rule extends beyond kratom or its derivatives. It includes sales of books, t shirts, patreons, classes, professional services or anything else.

Lots of communities on topics which are totally not stigmatized, legal the world round and uncontroversial have similar rules. It could be laptops or puppies or knitting. The intention is similar here.

No transacting

This community is intended to be non-commercial and non-transactional.

Examples of commercial or transactional activity:

  • vendor ads, linking to vendors
  • posts which heavily imply someone is a vendor in order to get people to PM you
  • requests for vendor information, referrals, experiences
  • vendor reviews
  • posts selling your personal kratom
  • discount codes, promotions, sales
  • advertisements for businesses or anything for sale
  • affiliate links or codes
  • give-aways, vendor or otherwise
  • links to products for sale
  • photos of packaging
  • swaps

If the likely, immediate result of a post or comment is someone making money or otherwise gaining materially, then it is prohibited.

Obviously, obtaining kratom is important to a lot of us, myself included. I am not opposed to linking to other reputable communities where transactions are approved.

No sourcing

To be extremely clear: No sourcing.

Includes plants and seeds. No vendor participation. No discussion of vendors/brands. This rule also applies to recommending American Kratom Association (AKA) approved vendors. No requesting/offering vendor recommendations - directly or via PM. PMs are your own private business but mentioning them on the community makes them public community business. Violations may result in a ban from the community.

Do not discuss payments

Discussing payments for goods in any capacity is strictly forbidden. This includes CC processors, online processors and apps (PayPal, Amazon Pay, CirclePay, Venmo, Square, Zelle etc.), and services like Coinbase. Legality notwithstanding, kratom is against their terms of service and they have been aggressively enforcing this. Consequently, vendors have difficulty maintaining payment processors.

Rule #4: No bigotry

This community is intended to be welcoming to a diverse range of people.

Shit talking will be especially frowned upon when it has its basis in:

  • diagnosis, illness, health issues
  • body size, personal appearance
  • other substances, drugs, or medication used
  • visible or invisible disability
  • gender identity and expression, sexual identity and orientation
  • education, socio-economic status
  • nationality, immigration status
  • race, caste, color, ethnicity
  • level of experience
  • incarceration
  • religion
  • age

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

  • The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
  • Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
  • Public or private harassment
  • Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
  • Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Guidelines

A guideline is more flexible than a rule.

Be nice

Treat each other with respect. Do not be hostile or rude. Do not call people names. Insults will not be tolerated and may result in a ban from the community.

Everyone has their own individual experience. Share your own and do not judge that of others. Do not generalize your experiences to suggest that what happened to you will happen to everyone.

Avoid stigmatizing substances

It doesn’t help kratom or kratom users to knock down people who use, or have used other substances.

People use illicit substances, prescription medications, research chemicals and other chemical tools for all kinds of reasons. They might want to start or stop using these at different times in their lives.

It is not “more legitimate” to use kratom for one reason than for another.

Debates about chemistry, effects, are fine. Sharing your history and what led you to be the person you are today is fine.

Not everyone shares your context

When talking about laws, attitudes, conventions etc, don’t assume everyone is in a similar place to you. If you are requesting or sharing information that is highly context-specific, you will need to mention that.

We are learning and growing together

Everyone in the community should give each other the benefit of the doubt that they are acting in good faith.

Kratom brings together people from all around the world. We all have our own histories and baggage.

Nuts and bolts of @kratom

Where @kratom lives

This community lives on the “fediverse”. It is a network of websites looking to replace monopolistic social media with a more dispersed model. It is a pretty new way of doing things, so expect changes in how it works. We are making the road by walking it.

It is possible to view and interact with the community from a variety of different “instances” or websites.

This community was established on kbin.social. The most accurate and complete view of it is to visit through this URL: https://kbin.social/m/kratom

Who moderates?

This community was created by @noban who is currently the sole moderator.

If you are viewing the community in the “fediverse” (from a website other than kbin.social) it may list another person as the moderator. Usually whoever runs the website. That person likely has no actual interest or involvement here.

Moderation guidelines

Mods are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Mods have the right and responsibility to remove, restrict comments, posts and other contributions that are not aligned with the community purpose, rules and guidelines, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.

Moderator responsibilities:

  • Abide by all of the above rules as would be expected of anyone else
  • Solicit feedback
  • Integrate feedback into moderation practices
  • Explain decisions when required or requested
  • Enforce rules evenhandedly
  • Admit to mistakes

That being said, one forum isn’t going to be all things to all people. As the community evolves we might find that there are fundamental differences of opinions and goals. Cross that bridge if we get to it.

Moderation log

The kbin software that runs the forum records all mod actions. There are publicly available in the Moderation log

Last Revised

  • July 23, 2023

Inspiration and sources

To create this, I borrowed from existing work done by others: