Diplet code of conduct for discussions

Why this exists, and where it applies

Diplet is for reading together, and this code says how we talk to each other while we do. A group here is small and invite-only, so most of what keeps a discussion good is the care people already take with one another. These rules cover the rest.

The code applies to everything you write or record in the app, wherever it lives:

• Comments on a reading, including quoted passages and voice notes
• A meeting's discussion
• A group's general discussion
• Private threads, which only their members can see but which are still part of a group
• Mentions, reactions, and what you ask the AI

It also applies to what you bring in: the readings you upload or link, and the names you give groups. It does not reach outside the app, but how you treat other members elsewhere can still lead to a report here.

What we expect of each other

Argue with the text and with ideas, never with the person. A reading group works when people feel free to say what they half-think, so give others room to be wrong and to change their minds.

• Quote before you judge. Anchor a comment to the passage you mean, so the discussion stays about what the text says rather than what someone remembers it saying.
• Disagree in good faith. Say what you read differently and why. Read a comment in its most reasonable sense before answering it.
• Make room. Groups are small, and one person can fill a thread. Reply to others as often as you start threads of your own, and let a question sit before answering it yourself.
• Mention people for a reason. A mention notifies someone, in email and on their phone. Use it to bring them into a point that needs them, not to add weight to yours.
• Keep voice notes short and on the text. They are transcribed and read by the whole group, like any comment.
• Say when you have not read it. A group reads at different speeds. It is fine to be behind, and better to say so than to bluff.
• Spoilers are allowed. The reading is the point, so a discussion of a chapter may discuss all of it. Ahead of the group's schedule, mark it.

What is not allowed

These follow the terms of service, which every member accepted, and they hold in private threads and group chats as much as on a reading.

• Harassment. Insults, threats, mocking someone's identity, or keeping after a person who has asked you to stop. Blocking someone and then finding other ways to reach them counts.
• Hate. Content that attacks people for who they are. Discussing a text that contains such material is fine; using the discussion to repeat it as your own is not.
• Sexually explicit or violent content that the reading does not call for.
• Doxxing. Sharing anyone's address, workplace, contact details or private circumstances, inside the group or outside it.
• Impersonation. Posting as someone else, or giving a group a name meant to pass for another person or organisation.
• Spam and selling. Advertising, courses, referral links, fundraising and repeated off-topic posts. Recommending a book is welcome; a sales pitch is not.
• Illegal content, and anything meant to cause harm, such as links to malware.
• Getting around the app's rules. Reading content from groups or threads you are not in, probing for people you cannot see, scraping, or using an AI agent to do any of these for you.
• Reporting to harass. False or repeated reports about someone are treated like harassment.

Privacy

What is said in a group stays in the group. People speak freely here because the room is small and closed, and that trust is the whole point.

• Don't carry words out. Don't screenshot, quote or forward another member's comments, voice notes or transcripts outside the group without asking them. Your own words are yours to share.
• Private threads are private. Only the people in one can see it, and staff cannot open it. Don't paste its contents into the open discussion, and don't use a private thread to talk about a member behind their back.
• Mentions bring people in. Mentioning someone in a private thread makes them a member of it, with everything already said. Think before you do.
• Membership is not public. Who is in a group, and who has blocked whom, is nobody else's business. A person who blocks you is not told you are blocked, and you will not be told either.
• Leaving is final for your access, not for your words. Your comments stay for the group, under your name, unless you delete them first. Deleting your account keeps them under “Deleted user”.
• Exports are for you. The export of your data includes the group discussions you can see. Treat it like the group itself.

Readings and copyright

Add only what you may share with your group: your own work, public-domain or openly licensed texts, work you have permission to share, or uses the law allows. A link or pasted text is saved as a copy for the group, so it counts as sharing.

• Don't add articles from behind a paywall unless the subscription's terms allow it.
• Don't use read aloud or the AI to reproduce a whole work.
• When a rights holder sends a valid notice, the reading's file, text and audio are removed, the group's discussion of it stays, and the same content cannot be added again. The person who added it is told and can send a counter-notice, as the terms of service describe.
• Whoever adds a reading is responsible for it. A group owner who sees a reading that should not be here can remove it from the group's list.

The AI assistant and agents

The AI is a member of the discussion you can call on, not a referee. Mention it to ask about the reading, and it answers from the text, the web and the thread so far, with its sources listed. It never sees a private thread it was not asked into.

• It can be wrong. Check an answer against the text before you build on it, and say when you are quoting the AI rather than yourself.
• Asking is a choice for the group. A group can turn the AI off for its discussions. Where it is on, use it to go deeper into the text, not to settle an argument or to answer for people who have not spoken yet.
• You pay for your own questions. Each question counts against the asker's monthly allowance, including follow-ups in a thread the AI is already in. Don't run up someone else's by mentioning it in their thread again and again.
• Don't make it do what you may not. No reproducing whole works, no prompting it toward content this code forbids.
• Agents act in your name. An AI agent you connect works with your access and your token: it can file readings, suggest them to a group or make groups, and never reads comments. What it does, you did. Revoke its access when you stop using it.

If something goes wrong

Start with the smallest step that solves it. Most problems in a small group end with a word in the thread or to the owner; the app's tools are there for when that is not enough.

1. Say so. If a comment lands badly, say what bothered you, in the thread or in a private thread with the person. Most people did not mean it.
2. Block. Anyone can block a person they share a group with. Their comments collapse for you, they cannot mention you, bring you into a private thread or add you to a group, and you stop getting their notifications. They are not told. The rest of the group sees nothing different.
3. Tell the owner. Group owners run their group: they can remove a member, take a reading off the list and delete the group. What happens inside a group is theirs to settle first.
4. Report. Use the flag beside a comment, a reading or a person. Pick a reason (harassment, spam, illegal content, copyright, something else) and add a note if it helps. You can only report what you can see yourself.

When you report, the service's staff see the reported item and what they need to judge it: the comment with its thread, a reading's details and the start of its text, or a person's reported comments. That is the only way staff ever see inside a group, every look is logged, and they cannot open anything else. They may dismiss the report, delete the content, warn its author or suspend the account; a suspended person is signed out until the suspension is lifted. You are told when it has been handled, and whether action was taken, nothing more. The person you reported is not told who reported them.

A copyright report goes to the takedown process in the terms of service, and is judged on the notice, not on the text.

Changes to this code

This code sits beside the terms of service and the privacy policy, and where they differ the terms win. We will change it as the app changes, and a change that matters is announced in the app and by email, like a change to the terms. Groups may add house rules of their own, as long as they ask more of their members than this code, never less.