AAChats/FoAA Chat Room Code of Conduct

Welcome to the AAChats website and Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous (FoAA) Discord chat! These “chats” exist to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous to the alcoholic who still suffers. We are NOT affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous in any official way, but we host AA meetings in our chat room that are an official online group of Alcoholics Anonymous.

As a community member with AAChats/FoAA, you are part of a large and diverse community filled with people who are dealing with problems related to alcohol. Like most communities, whether online or in the physical world, AAChats/FoAA has some basic ground rules to keep the environment safe and encouraging for everyone who wants to stop drinking.

Please help create a healthy environment by respecting the following standards when in the AAChats/FoAA community:

Be polite.
Treat your fellow members with respect.

  • Insulting, condescending, or abusive words will not be tolerated.
  • Do not harass others.
  • Polite debate is welcome as long as you are discussing the ideas, not attacking the person.

Post appropriate content.
Content that violates these guidelines or Discord’s Terms of Service is not permitted.

  • Do not post inappropriate (e.g., pornographic or obscene) content.
  • Do not post copyrighted content.
  • Do not perform any advertising or promotion of any kind.
  • Do not spam public channels or users with repetitive content.
  • Do not solicit, offer, or accept financial or material support.
  • Do not post any identifying photos, screenshots, or videos (or links to them) in a public channel (exception: your profile pic can be a “safe-for-work” picture of you).
  • Do not post any personal information (yours or someone else’s) in any public channel, including:
    Full name, email address, phone, etc
    Workplace name or address
    Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, or other social media account name or link
  • Do not give medical or legal advice in any public channel, even if you are a medical or legal professional. This includes talking about medication or supplement names, vitamins, dosage amounts (even if they are legal, nutritional, or over-the-counter items). This helps avoid disruptive debating and/or potential unintended harm to other members.
  • Do not use excessive profanity

Messages that violate these guidelines will be deleted by a moderator.

Be here for the right reasons.
The AAChats/FoAA community is for people who have a problem with alcohol and want to stop drinking.

  • If you are in crisis or an emergency, please call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 immediately as we are not trained to help in a safe and effective way. To protect you, messages involving self-harm or harm to others are removed immediately.
  • Members must have a desire to stop drinking.
  • Family members and friends of alcoholics are prohibited from joining, unless they have a problem with alcohol and desire to stop their own drinking.
  • Advertising or promotion of any kind is prohibited.
  • Research, surveys, interviews, or observation for nursing/medical programs is prohibited.
  • Trolling of any kind is prohibited. Trolling is defined as disrupting normal, on-topic discussion by posting inflammatory, shocking, or off-topic messages with the intent of provoking readers into a strong emotional response.

Stay in the solution.
Members who are still currently drinking are welcome to join, but will be held to the code of conduct.

  • If you are unable to chat without being disruptive, please refrain from participating while you are impaired.
  • Do not post messages describing the act of drinking or using.

Members who repeatedly break these rules may be removed from the community.

Messaging Guidelines
Remember that AAChats/FoAA is an online, global forum with members from many different cultures and backgrounds who are at various stages of recovery. Use the following guidelines when sharing your thoughts so others can get the most out of them.

  • Be kind, thoughtful, and open-minded when discussing race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or controversial topics since others likely have differing perspectives
  • Be careful when you use humor and sarcasm as these messages are easy to misinterpret.
  • Make sure you’re understood, even by non-native English speakers.
  • Be civil. If you disagree, explain your position with respect and refrain from any and all personal attacks.
  • While other addictions may be a part of your story, please keep the focus on alcohol-related topics in rooms that have a recovery-based topic and refrain from naming/discussing other substances in the chats. Using terms such as “outside issues” or “other stuff” etc is acceptable.

  • Avoid giving out instructions on what others SHOULD do – even if other members ask. Instead share your own experience, strength, and hope based on your life experiences.
  • Have tolerance for people in various stages and styles of recovery. Be mindful that “Tough Love” can come across differently than you intended in an online community.
  • Avoid posting messages that focus excessively on drunk-a-logging, long war stories, beating yourself up without moving on to the solution, or constant reminiscing about the drinking days.
  • Avoid gossip.
  • Ignore violators and report them to FoAA Moderators or Maintenance immediately. Please refrain from engaging violators directly to help maintain server safety and help keep chats focused on recovery/sobriety, the solution and carrying the message.

More About Rules and AA

Whenever people attend events in the physical world, they adhere to a group of rules and laws that come from the local venue as well as from local, state, and federal law. For instance, the venue may have a rule that prevents smoking indoors or disallows pets from coming inside the building. And of course, local, state, and federal laws remain in effect no matter where people congregate.

These rules and laws also apply to the members of Alcoholics Anonymous when they gather together at meetings and events in the physical world. Although the only requirement for being a member in AA is a desire to stop drinking, AA also maintains respect for the rules and laws of the surrounding environment. So when members go online to meet on AAChats/FoAA, they adhere to the rules and laws of this online venue.

Since AAChats/FoAA meets using the Discord chat platform, the meeting space is bound by Discord’s Terms of Service. In addition, due to the nature of online communities, this venue sets forth a basic Code of Conduct that helps users participate safely.

How we uphold our Code of Conduct

AAChats/FoAA uses a Moderation system to uphold our Code of Conduct on our server and in our chats. We have Moderator service positions and those Moderators are responsible for ensuring all users respect the servers Code of Conduct which keeps things safe for everyone. When issues arise (as is bound to occur), these Moderators respond and handle situations following strict guidelines set forth within AAChats/FoAA’s Moderation Policies. These policies outline how to handle different types of infractions and what the protocol is, that way it’s ensured that every user in each situation is treated equally and fairly, being held to the same rules we all are.

  • Usually, if an infraction occurs, a simple warning is issued and everyone learns and moves on with no further issues.
  • If a user requires more Moderator intervention (such as repeated warnings, muted time outs or a temporary ban), those individual situations are handled case by case, per the Mod Policies and are discussed and then voted on by both Moderators and Maintenance service members to ensure both thorough and fair evaluation and equal treatment of all members and situations.
  • If something arises that Moderators and/or Maintenance feel requires a permanent removal/ban (extreme cases), that situation is carefully reviewed and voted on by all Moderation, Maintenance and Steering Committee members before action is taken.
  • There is rare exception to this made in regards to people found to be making verified racist comments, sexual orientation based derogatory comments, immediate violent threats, NSFW commentary and xenophobic based derogatory commentary. In these circumstances, Moderators and Maintenance retain the decision to immediately take any Moderating/permission based actions they feel necessary to ensure server and member safety at all times.

About AAChats/FoAA’s Code of Conduct and how to be of service

This Code of Conduct is reviewed and amended upon an approval vote by AAChats/FoAA Steering Committee Members. Suggestions regarding this Code of Conduct can be posted in the FoAA Suggestions Channel found on the FoAA Discord Server for community vote. Suggestions that receive a majority of favorable votes are then brought to vote within the Steering Committee for final decision.

A full list of requirements for all service positions is available in the Requirements channel on the FoAA server and we encourage those who desire to be of service to reach out with any further questions regarding service positions.