Friendly and Pragmatic Vegans and Vegetarians
The 12 rules of the FPVV Facebook group
OUR 12 RULES — PLEASE READ
Welcome! Please Bookmark this group and make sure notifications are turned on — Feel welcome to contribute, post and share.
1a- Do not tell others who is more or less vegan. We do not welcome a vegan police attitude: https://www.vegan.com/vegan-police/
IMPORTANT: Questions should generally be phrased as “discuss the ethical and practical implications of doing X”. Debating the definition of veganism wastes everybody’s time; instead, we encourage members to discuss underlying issues and ethics.
Examples: • instead of asking “Can I call myself a vegan if I do x”, ask: “What are the ethical and practical implications of x”
• instead of asking “What do vegans think of x?”, ask: “What do you think of x”
• instead of asking “Is x considered vegan?”, ask “What are the ethical and practical implications of x”
1b- We do not accept horrible comparisons and nastiness such as for example comparing someone to some horrible criminal because they have a bite of a cake that’s got milk in it, etc. Vegetarians are welcome and as such vegetarian recipes are ok. Non-dogmatic Vegans are also welcome.
1c- Please NO GRAPHIC PICTURES or videos. Links to graphic pics or to pages with graphic pics are ok with a content warning (CW: graphic images). You can post the graphic picture in the comments along with the content warning.
1d- When someone posts pictures of their food or of their shopping, DO NOT POST NEGATIVE COMMENTS about Nestle, Palm Oil, fat or sugar, or about how something has a piece of plastic in it. You are welcome to start a topic thread about Nestle or Palm Oil (etc.) and explain your position, but we do not want every single food topic filled with negative comments. A member should be allowed and welcome to ask for veg recipes without being inundated by negative comments about a detail. This is what is different about Friendly and pragmatic vegans and vegetarians.
1e- If you disagree with something that is rather off-topic in a discussion, start a new discussion rather than disrupt the topic.
2- When you share an article, a video, a picture, etc., please introduce it. What is it about? Why do you want to share this article with FPVV? If you don’t, we won’t let your topic go through. Keep in mind that we are an INTERNATIONAL GROUP so if you are asking a question about a product or talking about a local place, do make sure you tell us where you are.
3- When you post screenshots from other private groups, please hide the names of the posters. Doxxing is not permitted.
4a- FPVV is pro-science and as such, pro-Evidence Based Medicine. Members are not permitted to promote or recommend non-evidence based “advice”(such as naturopathy, homeopathy, cleanse, etc.).
4b- We are not a medical centre. Posting to ask about a medical condition is not generally accepted: we don’t encourage our members to give unqualified medical diagnostics.
4c- Vaccines save lives. Anti-vaxxers will be banned automatically. No exceptions. Vaccination is not a mere personal choice, it is a matter of public health.
4d- We don’t accept topics about losing weight because they regularly reek of fatphobia and because weight management will be handled the same way this group handles other medical advice: defer to a professional. On the other hand, asking about or discussing healthy snacks and meals is totally welcome.
5a- We respect and welcome everyone’s religious or non-religious beliefs. However, we do not welcome members to preach or belittle others in the name of religion, or to start threads with religious propaganda.
5b- This said, we must be respectful towards and accept people of all religions. We do not tolerate disrespecting the religious beliefs of others. It is acceptable to be critical of the actions of religion that harm animals; religious intolerance is not acceptable.
6- We are a vegan and vegetarian group and we happily promote animal advocacy. Members may not promote or condone eating sentient animals.
7- Please avoid discrimination or racism/sexism/homophobia /transphobia/ageism /fatphobia/ableism/etc. In general, political discussions should be avoided unless the political discussion is in relation to animal welfare. Note that FPVV is open to people from various political, philosophical and religious backgrounds. Let’s patiently explain what we mean rather than pile on someone in an angry manner, and in some cases, let’s be ok with disagreement. Think about reaching the person you are disagreeing with respectfully OR simply explain your perspective and move on OR just scroll away. Avoid snarky one-liners, report offending comments. These are particularly touchy subjects and getting angry is easily understandable. Debating them in depth is not within the scope of this group.
8- If you see someone breaking a rule or upsetting you, don’t let it escalate. Report the offensive comment to an admin or moderator and please remain courteous. You can report the comment/post by hitting ‘report to admins’ or write ‘admin’.
9a- We are happy for people with vegan businesses to inform our members about what they do or offer (strictly NO MLM!), but we do not encourage frequent postings about your business / blog / channel. In general, please post once about the business and then use the same thread for updates so that the discussion thread can stay uncluttered and not look like a giant ad board. Continual/repeated sharing from your business/blog/etc. may result in a ban.
9b- We currently don’t allow discussions about what we feed companion animals but would encourage the most humane options.
10- Please do not post anything along the lines of “PM me for details”.
11- It is not permissible to block an admin/moderator of FPVV. We are dedicated volunteers. Helpful, friendly and constructive messages are welcome.
12- Take B12 seriously. A must read: https://www.theveganrd.com/vegan-nutrition-101/vegan-nutrition-primers/vitamin-b12-a-vegan-nutrition-primer/
Cheers.
POST SCRIPTUM: Pragmatic? Dogmatic? Friendly? Veg*n?
• Pragmatic: dealing with the problems that exist in a specific situation in a reasonable and logical way instead of depending on ideas and theories.
• Dogmatic: expressing personal opinions or beliefs as if they are certainly correct and cannot be doubted.
• Friendly: acting like a friend : kind and helpful / having or showing the feelings that friends have for each other / showing support or approval.
• Veg*n: contrary to popular belief, it is not censoring the word “vegan” as one would if they wish to censor a swear word; rather, veg*n is a truncation to say “vegan and/or vegetarian” without having to write “vegan and/or vegetarian” every time you want to say “vegan and/or vegetarian”.
Non-Human Animals: Crash Course Philosophy (great short video!): https://youtu.be/y3-BX-jN_Ac
