Inclusiveness vs. safety in online spaces

A combination of events at Reddit and LGBTQ in Tech Slack spurred me into a tweet storm about online spaces:

The tragedy of all online community spaces is that the goals of "inclusive" and "safe" are, at the extreme, mutually exclusive goals.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

If you keep including people you will eventually end up with people in the same space who cannot stand each other and will not get along.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

At some point you have to exclude someone. You get to pick if it's the people feeling unsafe, or the people making them feel unsafe.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

And *that's not always an obvious choice*. Somebody's "reasonable topic of discussion" is *always*, eventually, somebody's threat trigger.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

I've run online communities for 20 years and I have learned that there is not even an approximation of a consensus of "reasonable".

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

This is why online communities fragment. Let them do it. It's the only viable solution to the existence of mutually incompatible people.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

Define your space clearly. Let in anyone who shares your reality. Be honest that people who don't share it will be excluded. Say why.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015

Don't wring your hands about free speech. You are under no obligation to let people say things you hate. They can go elsewhere, and will.

— Laurie Voss (@seldo) July 13, 2015