Guiding principles

The goal of the DGF project is to make and provide tools for individuals to engage with their communities and for communities to organize in pursuit of their values. The following guidelines encourage cooperation toward these goals.

Individual code of conduct guidelines

1. Non-pettiness
2. Integrity
3. Communal effort
4. Civic responsibility
5. Radical self-expression
6. Selfless constructive criticism of group decisions
7. Selfless constructive contrarianism to group behavior
8. First principles reasoning

These values are contrary to natural individual behavior. The primary motivation of individual behavior is to maximize the individual’s success and reap the maximal benefit they can extract from the group. That is the entire purpose behind joining a group.

However, the group cannot remain worthy of participation if all of its members do not contribute selflessly, at least to some degree. This list consists of values our members have identified as useful behaviors for fostering such selfless cooperation.

These principles should not be enforced by official group power, unless something goes seriously wrong. This list is here to help guide people’s interactions in the hope of encouraging cooperation between individuals through the soft power of group opinion. Official group power to stifle individuals should most often be passive, ignoring bad contributions through the basic programmed mechanism of filtering attention. When slashing reputation and banning members is necessary, it represents a serious failure of group operations that signals the need for rethinking the protocols.

Group governance code of conduct

1. Non-pettiness
2. Integrity
3. Toleration for divergent opinions
4. Responsibility for individual welfare
5. Honor individual contributions
6. Toleration for criticism; acceptance of constructive criticism
7. Patience for individual weaknesses; compassion for individual failures
8. Spirit of the Law over Letter of the Law

These values are contrary to natural group behavior. The primary purpose of group governance is to cut toxic members from the group, and defend the group from outside attacks. Such functions must be vigilantly exercised for the group to survive. That is the entire point of making and enforcing laws.

However, those natural functions need to be leavened by constant good will toward every individual they police. The list mirrors the Individual Code of Conduct as the proper response to each behavior.

Background

The structure of these principles derives from the basic analysis of a DAO's values into primitive values. In any social collaboration there is a tension between the collective and the individual. Therefore these perspectives must be balanced for the group to remain healthy and effective.

See Also

• Ethical considerations
• Transcendent values
• Author style guide
• Dispute resolution guidelines