Given the nature of the fediverse, bringing this community more in line with the Solarpunk instance:

A place for hopeful vegans and curious folk, focused on the climate crisis.

Solarpunk is an anti-capitalist movement against the status quo. Apolitical means status quo. Capitalism will not bring about liberation for any earthling, nor will the NGOs who do the bidding for the state. We can't rely on our institutions. We need a grassroots movement from below.

More discussions about activism and community organizing. Posts about art, music, and creative works. Optimistic or thought-provoking essays aligned with Solarpunk values. Zero waste recipes or DIY dupes. Projects we can support or take to our own communities. News about everyday people working towards a better world.

Less about corporate offerings, consumption, and processed foods wrapped in plastic. Less inflammatory missionary work, less debate bros, and less worrying about scaring off conservatives.

There are numerous vegan communities across the fediverse on generalist instances more in line with the mainstream movement, let it be those who get that type of activity. Or in the discussion community which could use some love: [email protected]

my only issue would be if we struggled with bots/users posting unrelated political/whatever drivel. i have not seen that. i personally wouldnt mind the comments being open to debate with nonvegans as long as it remains cordial, i know some vegan forums have a zero tolerance for a carnist pov and while i wouldnt enjoy anything violent, disrespectful, or even very annoying, i think space genuine debates from someone curious can help bring people in

Honestly I feel many groups could use two communities. An internal group and an outreach group. If the name and sidebar rules make it plain then I think that should be all that is needed. Like if there was a vegans-only or vegans-talking vegans and the bar said hey this is for folks who are vegan to discuss the lifestyle. If your not vegan you are free to hang if your respectful to the lifestyle. Then like another community like vegan-curious or path2vegan or something and that can say hey this is to spread the word on veganism. If you want to debate cool but if you are 100% closed to becoming vegan then please find somewhere else to hand. If I saw that I would block the internal one as im not part of the crowd and don't want to intrude (people get wierd about blocking because of the negative terminology but its just a thing. Since I don't think groups can be locked it makes totaly sense to block something your not apart of if its made clear its an internal group thing). Anyway just some musing on my part about group structures. I often think of them like in person things. The vegan group that meets at the library also participating in outreach programs or such.

Would you like to see more regulation on this community?

Unless there are people downvoting every post or similar, no. "A community to discuss anything related to veganism" has room for all sorts of posts and discussions. Carnist trolls currently seem to be few and far between, so current moderation practices are working.

What rules should be applied?

That depends on the direction that everyone wants the community to take. @HubertManne makes a compelling point about splitting a community like this into a vegans-only community and an outreach community, in which case each would have different rules. For now, this seems like a community open to everyone engaging in a respectful way, so the instance-wide rules should suffice. The site's wiki even states:

A solarpunk culture would strive to dissolve every form of social hierarchy and domination – whether based on class, race, gender, sexuality, ability, or species – dispersing the power some individuals or groups wield over others and thus increasing the aggregate freedom of all; empowering the disempowered and including the excluded. It is rooted in the legacy of such liberatory movements as anti-authoritarian socialism, feminism, racial justice, queer and trans liberation, disability struggles, animal liberation, and digital freedom projects.

What would you specifically not like to see?

I would not like to see posts removed or users banned for

• disagreeing with or questioning a popular narrative;
• linking to external sites/articles that relate to vegan living, animal liberation, or the struggles of particular non-human beings;
• expressing Yourofsky-esque misanthropy;
• criticising people (including other vegans) who engage in oppressive practices;
• exercising free speech in general, so long as it does not consist of personal attacks, harmful misinformation, or calls to violence against peaceful beings;
• anything that does not violate the instance rules or the spirit of Solarpunk;
• posting in a language other than english.

That said, if someone makes a post saying that it's okay to eat oysters, I would prefer that the mod(s) err on the side of caution regarding bivalve sentience and ban that user for inciting violence. "Better that ten inanimates go free than that one sentient be eaten" or something like that.

This may not be 100% relevant to this thread, but I don't know where else it would belong.

I went on Hexbear recently in order to see what all of the fuss was about. (slrpnk.net defederates only a few instances, but hexbear.net is one of them.) I cursorily perused the Local feed and some of the more popular communities and was mildly surprised by the proportion of comments expressing solidarity, caring, encouragement, and so on. After that, I checked out the Code of Conduct to see whether such behaviour was exceptional or part of the Hexbear culture. Of course I didn't agree with everything that I read, but multiple times, I found myself saying "this is pretty reasonable" or "we should do that here." In particular:

We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other similar characteristic.

Direct calls to violence that target specific identifiable living individuals are not permitted on Hexbear.net. You can express your anger over landlords, slaveowners, etc, but try to phrase it in a way that focuses on the institution they represent. This policy also applies to any specific organizational bodies and groups (eg the DNC).

Animal Liberation is essential to any leftist movement, including platforms like Hexbear. Volunteers, comments, and posts, should not be anti-vegan, although users and volunteers are not required to be vegan.

This last could be easily adapted to this instance: "Animal Liberation is essential to any anti-capitalist movement, including platforms like SLRPNK. Volunteers, comments, and posts, should not be anti-vegan, although users and volunteers are not required to be vegan."

Of course I was most interested in the vegan community, and it seemed pretty cool. The vegan community's rules are the following:

• No plant-based diet bullshit or promotion of plant-based capitalism. Veganism isn't about you, it's about historical materialist anti-speciesism, anti-racist animalization, and animal liberation. Ethical vegans only.
• No omni apologists or carnists. Babystepping is for libs, and we're not here to pat you on the back. Good faith questions and debate about how to fight for animal liberation are allowed.
• No advocating violence to any species for any reason. If you think this is negotiable GTFO. This includes but is not limited to animal testing, slaughter, and mass euthanasia. Anything that promotes speciesism or the commodification of animals will be removed.
• Use Content Warnings and NSFW tags for triggering content. Especially if a comrade requests it.
• Questions about diet belong in c/food. It's also a great place to share recipes.

If we wanted this to be a vegans-only community, then adapting these rules (basically by adjusting the wording rather than the meaning) would be a fairly solid starting point. Even if we wanted this place to be more open to the pre-vegans of the Fediverse, these rules would probably still be appropriate in some form.

Just sharing this in the hope that it will be useful but without any warranty (not even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose).

I think one of the rules should be that this is not a place to debate veganism but to exchange information about veganism.