---
title: "Staff Code - Discord Server | DonQuaan"
description: "Standing, standards of conduct, discipline and duties of the entire operating team."
image: "https://donquaan.com/og-hero.png"
url: "https://donquaan.com/en/discord/rules/staff"
lang: "en"
---

[DonQuaan Community Legal Framework](https://donquaan.com/en/discord)

STF Staff Code

# Staff Code

Version 4.0 · Issued 11/08/2026 · Effective 18/08/2026 · Legacy ref: VK-05 · Q.I

This English text is a courtesy translation. The Vietnamese version is the sole authoritative text (Article on Language).

The Staff Code (cite code STF) is an instrument forming part of the [Community Legal Framework](https://donquaan.com/discord) of the Server, governing the legal status, obligations, limits of authority and sanctions applicable to all persons operating the Server at every level. This instrument shall be binding upon every individual granted operational authority, as from the moment such authority is conferred and for the period specified in Article 3. Acceptance of this instrument is a condition of validity of the assumption of any role.

## Scope and order of precedence

This instrument applies to all persons operating the Server (at every level). The obligations of the Owner are governed by the [Owner Code](https://donquaan.com/discord/rules/owner) (cite code OWN).

No provision of this instrument shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the [Discord Terms of Service](https://discord.com/terms), the [Discord Community Guidelines](https://discord.com/guidelines), or the law of Vietnam (including but not limited to: Bộ luật Hình sự (the Penal Code), Bộ luật Dân sự (the Civil Code), Luật 91/2025/QH15 and NĐ 356/2025/NĐ-CP (the Law on Personal Data Protection and its implementing Decree), NĐ 147/2024/NĐ-CP (Decree on the management of the Internet), NĐ 93/2021/NĐ-CP (Decree on the mobilisation of donations)).

Order of precedence in the event of conflict: the law of Vietnam and the Discord Terms of Service shall prevail over this instrument; this instrument shall prevail over any practice, custom or oral precedent. Any citation of a legal provision in this instrument may be used in public communications only after confirmation by a lawyer (OWN §54.1.f).

---

## PRELIMINARY PART

### Article 1. Purpose and foundational principles

1.1. This instrument governs: (a) the scope of the obligations binding upon persons granted operational authority; (b) the competence and procedure applicable where a person granted such authority commits a violation; (c) the mechanism applicable where the Owner commits a violation.

1.2. Four foundational principles:

- (a) The higher the authority, the higher the standard. Staff are held to a higher standard than Members; the Owner is held to the highest standard. No person shall be exempt from this instrument; the Owner is bound by the undertakings set out in OWN §55.
- (b) No record, no existence. Every exercise of authority (imposition of a sanction, disbursement of funds, grant of permissions, withdrawal of permissions) must be recorded before or at the moment it is carried out.
- (c) Write as though it will be made public. All content in every channel, including internal channels, must be written on the assumption that it may be disclosed out of context.
- (d) No person shall adjudicate their own case. A conflict of interest gives rise to a duty of recusal; the level at which a person is accused is the level that loses the right to preside.

1.3. Emergency handling situations are summarised in Annex E (the 2 a.m. Card). Annex E does not replace this instrument; in the event of any discrepancy, the source provision cross-referenced in Annex E shall govern.

### Article 2. Definitions

2.1. "Server" means the Discord server "DonQuaan" (ID 1342729473245577267) together with all associated identity assets (name, icon, official channels, self-operated bots, operational data).

2.2. "Owner" means the individual holding technical ownership of the Server on Discord who is at the same time the person bearing ultimate legal and reputational responsibility. Naming rule, applicable across the entire Community Legal Framework: in every instrument, notice, record, template and official communication, that person shall be referred to solely as "Owner" or "Server Owner"; no real name, alias, nickname or any other personal appellation may be used, anywhere, in any circumstances.

2.3. "Staff" means every individual granted any operational authority above that of an ordinary Member, comprising the grades of Trial-Mod (probationary), Moderator, Head Moderator, Admin, Head Admin, and every specialist role vested with operational authority (Event Manager, Community Manager, Security/Bot Manager and equivalents). Specialist roles are assigned an equivalent grade in the roles table and are subject to this instrument in full. The organisational structure comprises the Owner, one Head Admin, two to three Moderators and Trial-Mods appointed by recruitment intake; specialist roles (Event, Security) are held concurrently and shall be recorded in the roles table. Staff positions are appointed by the Owner; an appointment takes effect upon its announcement in the [official announcement channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1529782982016110642). Where a position is vacant, the competence of that position vests in the Owner. During the period in which no Staff have been appointed, the Owner shall discharge the operational roles; mechanisms requiring more than one person (two-person approval, panels) shall be activated in accordance with the recruitment roadmap, and such activation shall be publicly announced. "Senior Staff" means Staff of the grade of Admin or above.

2.4. "Operations Board" means the body composed of the Head Admin and the Admins in office.

2.5. "Integrity Panel" means the mechanism for handling reports directed against Staff or the Owner, governed by Article 29 of this instrument and by OWN §36 and §37.

2.6. "Record channel" means a text channel within the Server whose logs are procedurally non-erasable (any edit or deletion is traceable through the audit log or the bot log). If the bot log ceases to function, every operation subject to the recording requirement shall be suspended until the log is restored, save in an emergency (subject to post hoc review under OWN §39.4).

2.7. "Red Zone case" means a case falling within the safety and serious-legal category (CSAM, grooming of minors, content falling within the scope of Articles 117 and 331 of the Penal Code, threats to life accompanied by location data, NCII or sexual deepfakes, self-harm), handled under the dedicated SOP of ENF and not under the ordinary procedure of this instrument.

2.8. "Day" means a calendar day, unless expressly stated as a "working day".

2.9. "Continuing violation" means conduct whose unlawful state persists (unlawful retention of data, maintenance of a backdoor, ongoing dissemination) and is deemed to be ongoing for so long as that state subsists, for the purposes of Article 3.1.

2.10. The Community Legal Framework and the governing-instrument rule: the Community Legal Framework comprises the [Terms of Service](https://donquaan.com/discord/tos) (TOS), the [Community Rules](https://donquaan.com/discord/rules) (CoC), the [Enforcement Policy](https://donquaan.com/discord/rules/enforcement) (ENF), the [Appeals Policy](https://donquaan.com/discord/rules/appeals) (APL), the [Disclaimer](https://donquaan.com/discord/disclaimer) (DIS), the [Privacy Policy](https://donquaan.com/discord/privacy) (PRV, containing the Data Map), the Staff Code (STF, being this instrument) and the [Owner Code](https://donquaan.com/discord/rules/owner) (OWN). In areas of overlap, the governing-instrument rule applies: ENF governs discipline, the sanction scale and the evidentiary standard; APL governs appeal procedure; PRV governs data, logs and retention periods; TOS governs official contact channels. This instrument merely cross-references those areas; where details diverge, the governing instrument shall prevail.

2.11. "Single-Window Channel" means the Server's support ticket channel, see the [Single-Window Channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1343099398720065559), which is the official intake point for support and complaints; the fallback channel outside Discord is [support@donquaan.com](mailto:support@donquaan.com). Discord DMs are not an official support channel (Article 7.4).

### Article 3. Entry into force, amendment, prohibition of retroactivity

3.1. This instrument was issued on 11 August 2026 and takes effect on 18 August 2026 (ensuring a minimum of 7 days' prior notice), is published on the [Legal Framework publication page](https://donquaan.com/discord) and in the [official announcement channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1529782982016110642), and applies to conduct occurring on or after the effective date, without retroactive effect. The prohibition of retroactivity applies to the new internal standards established by this instrument; it does not exempt: (a) conduct that already violated the Discord Terms of Service, the law, or the rules in force at the time it was carried out, which shall be dealt with under the standards then applicable; (b) continuing violations (Article 2.9), the continuing portion of which occurring after the effective date shall be dealt with under this instrument.

3.2. Amendment procedure: a written proposal, review by the Operations Board, approval by the Owner, and public announcement together with the effective date and a comparison of the changes. Mandatory notice periods: minor amendments, a minimum of 7 days; major amendments (affecting Members' rights), a minimum of 30 days. All prior versions shall be archived indefinitely.

3.3. Amendments concerning the rights or obligations of the Owner (OWN) may only be made stricter or clearer as against the Owner. Any amendment relaxing a constraint upon the Owner must: (a) be supported by an objective reason (legal, technical, or demonstrated impossibility) recorded in writing; (b) be publicly announced at least 30 days before it takes effect, applying the "major amendment" standard of Article 3.2, given that constraints upon the Owner form part of the guarantee of Members' rights; (c) not apply to any case open at the time of announcement.

---

## CHAPTER I - STATUS OF STAFF

### Article 4. Nature of the role

4.1. Staff are volunteers entrusted with authority; they are not employees (during the period in which no legal entity exists, see OWN §45), are not co-owners, and shall enjoy no exemption on the basis of any personal relationship.

4.2. The authority of Staff is purposive authority, granted to serve the operation and safety of the community. Use of authority for purposes outside that scope, even where the operation is technically valid, constitutes a violation (Article 12).

4.3. The contributions of Staff shall be publicly acknowledged and retained indefinitely in a separate recognition system (Article 30), but such acknowledgement shall not constitute ownership, equity, indebtedness, a right of veto, or any privilege of exemption from discipline. No appellation of "co-founder" carrying any implication of ownership shall exist, unless established by the Owner in a separate written instrument.

4.4. All operational assets created by Staff in the course of performing their role (procedural documents, event plans, bot configurations, lists, templates) belong to the common repository of the Server and must be stored in the common repository as soon as they are created; such assets must not exist solely in a personal account or on a personal device. Breach of the common-repository principle is a disciplinary violation, irrespective of whether the person subsequently leaves.

### Article 5. Declarations upon assuming a role

5.1. No person shall be granted Staff authority before completing the Triple Undertaking (template at Annex A), confirmed in a record channel:

- (a) an undertaking of confidentiality, covering internal information and Member data;
- (b) an acknowledgement of ownership, recognising that the Server and its identity assets belong to the Owner and that contributions give rise to no proprietary right;
- (c) an undertaking to comply with the Staff Code, including the "write as though it will be made public" rule and acceptance of a disciplinary standard higher than that applicable to Members.

5.2. The undertakings shall be reconfirmed every 12 months and upon each major amendment to this instrument.

5.3. Effect of the undertakings: (a) they constitute a basis for internal discipline; (b) they constitute evidence that the signatory knew of and accepted the obligations - the probative value of an online confirmation in civil proceedings shall be assessed by a lawyer on a case-by-case basis (OWN §54.1.g); (c) they provide the basis on which the Server may state that "this person gave undertaking X on date Y and breached that undertaking" where a former Staff member disseminates internal content; (d) they constitute a basis for supporting a victim in making a report to the authorities (NĐ13; Article 288 of the Penal Code on the unlawful provision or use of information on computer networks, where the constituent elements are made out). This instrument does not assert that the foregoing undertakings are equivalent to an employment contract or a notarised NDA.

---

## CHAPTER II - STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

### Article 6. Principle of the deliberate double standard

6.1. Staff are subject to all rules applicable to Members, together with the standards set out in this Chapter. The additional standards are accepted in advance by Staff through the undertakings given under Article 5.

6.2. Sentencing principle: for the same offence, Staff shall be dealt with under a bracket at least one grade more severe than that applicable to Members (Article 28).

### Article 7. Standards of Staff speech

7.1. In public channels: Staff shall not use profanity, provoke Members, take part in collective disputes, or make a display of their authority. This prohibition applies irrespective of context, including banter with acquaintances and statements made in low-activity channels.

7.2. In internal channels (the "write as though it will be made public" rule): all discussion of a specific Member shall use professional language only, comprising conduct, provisions, evidence and level of sanction. The following are prohibited: comments on appearance or private life, mocking nicknames, jokes at the expense of Members, and remarks on gender, region of origin or religion. A violation is constituted at the moment of typing, irrespective of whether the content is subsequently made public.

7.3. Internal disagreements shall be resolved solely within the Staff channel, within 48 hours, by the immediate common superior of the two parties as adjudicator; where the disagreement involves the Head Admin, the Owner shall adjudicate on operational matters. A public dispute between Staff in the presence of Members constitutes a disciplinary violation on the part of both parties, irrespective of which party is substantively correct.

7.4. Responses concerning sanctions and limits on DMs: Staff are prohibited from discussing the substance of a sanction by DM or outside the official appeals channel, without exception. The only permitted response where a Staff member is asked about a sanction by DM is: "I do not discuss sanctions by DM. Please submit an appeal through the Single-Window Channel; every appeal is reviewed under the procedure." Any response going beyond that sentence, irrespective of good faith, is a disciplinary violation. General rule on DMs (under TOS, the governing instrument for official channels): Discord DMs are not an official support channel; a DM between a Staff member and a Member is legitimate only where the Staff member has arranged it in advance within a ticket in the [Single-Window Channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1343099398720065559); a Staff member who initiates a DM to a Member outside the procedure commits a disciplinary violation.

7.5. External communications (press, pages, KOLs, other servers, parents): only the designated Spokesperson (OWN §49) may speak on behalf of the Server. Every other Staff member shall use precisely one sentence: "I am not the spokesperson for the server. All official communications go through the support ticket or email [contact@donquaan.com](mailto:contact@donquaan.com)." There is no such thing as an "off the record" exchange with an external party. Official contact address: [contact@donquaan.com](mailto:contact@donquaan.com).

7.6. Sessions concerning sanctions or discipline shall by default be conducted in writing in a record channel. Handling by voice is prohibited.

### Article 8. Standards of conduct towards Members

8.1. Staff shall not use their position to solicit personal transactions, to make romantic advances towards a Member over whom they hold adjudicative authority, to make veiled threats, or to require a Member to perform personal work for them.

8.2. Staff shall interact with minor Members according to the strictest standard: no private DM other than for an operational purpose supported by a recordable reason; and no creation of, or participation in, any private one-to-one setting with a minor Member.

8.3. Where a Member provokes a Staff member, the Staff member shall respond through operational tools (logs, reports, procedure) and not by trading words.

8.4. Where a Member under 13 years of age is identified (by self-declaration or on clear grounds), Staff shall act uniformly under the SOP of ENF: report to Discord through the official mechanism, without devising any bespoke "child mode", without retaining the person as an exception, and without public exposure. This is an obligation, not an option.

8.5. Activities designed by the Server that create a private setting between Members (anonymous pairing, confessions, automated one-to-one channels) must be approved in advance in writing by the Operations Board, and are prohibited where the mechanism cannot exclude minors from a private setting with strangers.

---

## CHAPTER III - CONFIDENTIALITY OF INTERNAL INFORMATION AND DATA

### Article 9. Scope of confidential information

9.1. Confidential information comprises: the contents of all Staff channels; sanction files not yet published or not to be published; personal data of Members accessed by Staff through their role (including the content of deleted messages appearing in logs, information from support tickets, and prize-award information); security configurations (bots, webhooks, automod thresholds); internal personnel information; and the contents of closed events.

9.2. Compartmentalisation principle: confidential information is compartmentalised by Staff grade; Trial-Mods shall have no access to sensitive channels (Red Zone files, security configurations, prize-award data). The compartmentalisation schedule shall be issued together with the first recruitment intake and takes effect upon its announcement in the [official announcement channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1529782982016110642). Hard criteria: Trial-Mods may not access sensitive log channels, Red Zone files or prize-award data; permissions shall follow precisely the three-tier scheme set out in PRV §13.2. During the period in which no Staff have been appointed, all sensitive areas shall be accessible to the Owner alone.

9.3. The bot log channels, which retain deleted messages, are the channels within the "Staff Log" category in the Server (the category being the identifier; individual channels are not enumerated) and constitute a sensitive data area: access rights shall be granted strictly in accordance with the agreed permission scheme and shall be reviewed at each audit cycle (Article 26.2). Erroneously granting log-channel access to a role outside the team is a data incident, to be handled under the data-incident SOP. The roles permitted to view logs are determined by the three-tier permission scheme in PRV §13.2: ordinary logs (mod log, bot log, Member sanction files) - all Staff in office; special logs (personnel logs, permission grant and withdrawal logs, internal investigation files) - Head Admin and above and the Owner only; safety and child-protection files - a narrow group of two to three persons identified in advance on a case-by-case basis.

### Article 10. Confidentiality obligations

10.1. Disclosure of confidential information beyond the scope of one's permissions is prohibited in any form (screenshots, recounting, forwarding), both during and after the period in which the role is held. The confidentiality obligation does not terminate when the role-holder departs.

10.2. The sole exceptions, which are protected and shall not be treated as violations, are the provision of information to: (a) a competent state authority pursuant to a lawful written request; (b) Discord Trust and Safety through the reporting procedure; (c) the internal escalated reporting channel (Article 29), where a good-faith report is made concerning a violation within the team. A good-faith report made through the correct channel is protected in all circumstances; dissemination to the public does not constitute a report and is a breach of confidentiality. The escalation ladder for a reporter comprises the internal channel, the anonymous escalated channel, and (where the Integrity Panel is itself the subject of the report or fails to act) Discord Trust and Safety or a state authority; a reporter who exhausts this ladder remains protected.

10.3. A Staff member who discovers a leak of confidential information is under a duty to report it immediately to the Head Admin, and shall not investigate or deal with the matter independently.

### Article 11. Personal data of Members (framework of Luật 91/2025 and NĐ 356/2025)

11.1. The Server publishes a Data Map (forming part of PRV, the governing instrument for data): what data is collected, for what purpose, for how long it is retained, and who may view it. Staff may process only data appearing in the Data Map and strictly for the purposes recorded in the Data Map.

11.2. Hard rules:

- (a) Prize-award information and identifying information (bank account number, address, telephone number) may be collected only through the [Single-Window Channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1343099398720065559) (Article 2.11); only 02 persons, being the Owner and the Head Admin, may view it (to be stated expressly in the rules of each event; where the Head Admin position is vacant, the Owner alone); it shall be deleted 30 days after completion. Receipt of such information through the personal DMs of Staff is prohibited.
- (b) Case data serving an appeal or a legal obligation shall be retained on the lawful basis provided by NĐ13 (performance of a legal obligation, protection of legitimate rights and interests), with access frozen on a per-case basis; written responses to data erasure requests shall use the template approved by a lawyer under OWN §54.1.a.
- (c) Staff are prohibited from storing copies of Member data on personal devices or in personal accounts beyond the scope of the matter currently being handled.

11.3. Defensive retention schedule (details governed by PRV): sanction files (mod log), audit minutes, the fund ledger, event rules and offboarding minutes shall be retained for 24 months in the common repository and shall be recorded in the Data Map; bot logs shall be retained for 90 days. Disclosure regarding logging: every channel in the Server, including confidential-sharing channels, is logged, without exception; logs of confidential-sharing channels are classified at Tier 2 for viewing purposes (Head Admin and above and the Owner); the description of any confidential-sharing channel must carry, within the channel itself, a warning that Members should not share sensitive identifying information. The exception is the special log group, retained indefinitely, under a closed and narrow schedule: personnel logs, permission grant and withdrawal logs, files on particularly serious violations, and the specific context attached to those files; this group is held internally and disclosed only in anonymised or summary form, save where there is a legal obligation to provide it to the authorities. Where an authority or the platform requires proof of the handling of a matter, the Server shall provide timestamped records. Such retention is a lawful basis under NĐ13 (legal obligation, protection of legitimate rights and interests), and is at the same time a limit: outside the special log schedule, data whose retention period has expired must be deleted in accordance with the Data Map. Viewing rights follow the three-tier scheme in PRV §13.2; special logs are restricted to Head Admin and above and the Owner. The focal point responsible for data protection (DPO) is the Owner, with the Head Admin as alternate (during the period in which no legal entity exists; this transfers to the legal entity upon its establishment; where the Head Admin position is vacant, the Owner shall hold the alternate position concurrently).

### Article 12. Violations by misuse of authority

12.1. The following constitute violations, irrespective of whether the operation is technically valid:

- (a) using log or history access rights to monitor a Member's private life for personal reasons;
- (b) recounting information learned through the role to outside parties (private group chats, persons outside the Server);
- (c) aggregating or exporting Member data beyond the needs of a specific case;
- (d) using information or data to exert pressure upon, threaten, or bargain with a Member.

12.2. Sanctions: for points (a), (b) and (c) - immediate removal from the role, and a ban from the Server where dissemination has occurred. Point (d) attracts the most severe sanction within the Community Legal Framework: removal from the role, a permanent ban, and the Server shall on its own initiative hand the case file to the victim and support the victim in reporting the matter to the authorities (conduct bearing the indicia of extortion of property - Article 170 of the Penal Code, or infringement of personal data under NĐ13). A violation of point (d) may not be substituted by internal handling; the obligation to hand over the file and to support the victim in reporting is mandatory.

12.3. This Article applies equally to former Staff in respect of data accessed during the period in which the role was held.

---

## CHAPTER IV - PROHIBITION OF ABUSE OF AUTHORITY, FAVOURITISM AND RECEIPT OF BENEFITS; CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

### Article 13. Prohibition of favouritism and enforcement mechanisms

13.1. The identity, relationships, past contributions, level of financial support, follower count and seniority of a party shall not be variables in any adjudicative decision. This provision applies in both directions: no leniency towards a person with whom one has a close relationship, and no severity towards a person with whom one has a personal conflict.

13.2. Enforcement mechanisms:

- (a) every sanction must have a logged file before it is executed, in accordance with ENF; a sanction without a file is automatically void upon appeal;
- (b) quarterly cross-audits: auditors shall be selected by lot from among Staff who are not on the same shift and who have no declared relationship with the person audited (no person may select, or be selected as, their own auditor); a random review of at least 10 per cent of sanctions plus all sanctions imposed by Staff who have been the subject of 02 or more complaints, benchmarked against the standard sanction bracket;
- (c) selective enforcement (a series of individually lawful sanctions that is systematically skewed by reference to a particular adjudicator or a particular subject) is designated a disciplinary violation on the part of the Staff member concerned, to be detected through audit;
- (d) each audit cycle shall include an item on "cultural standard drift": a review of under-supervised channels (night channels, confidential-sharing channels, niche channels) to detect accumulated deviations without a specific date of violation (an 18-plus culture in a space where minors are present, content romanticising self-harm), to be reported and addressed by structural measures (amending the channel's rules) rather than by retroactive sanctioning of individuals.

13.3. A Member has the right to request a change of adjudicator where they can state grounds of conflict of interest; the request shall be recorded and shall be decided by the superior of the adjudicator concerned.

### Article 14. Prohibition of receiving benefits in exchange for leniency

14.1. Staff are prohibited from receiving, demanding, soliciting, or allowing another person to receive on their behalf, money, gifts, services, romantic favours or promised benefits from a party or a person connected to a party, before, during or after the handling of a case, irrespective of whether there is any actual effect on the outcome.

14.2. A Staff member to whom a party offers a benefit on that party's own initiative is under a duty to refuse in writing in the channel of communication concerned and to report the matter to the Staff channel within 24 hours together with evidence. A Staff member who reports within the time limit shall not be sanctioned for having been offered the benefit; failure to report within the time limit constitutes an independent violation.

14.3. Sanction for receiving a benefit in exchange for leniency: removal from the role and a ban; every sanction that person has imposed involving the party concerned shall be automatically re-examined.

14.4. Where a Staff member is accused of receiving money in exchange for leniency on the basis of unverified evidence (a transfer screenshot of unclear provenance): the investigation procedure under Article 29 shall apply - temporary suspension without any implication of guilt, investigation by a person not on the same shift, and hard time limits; the evidentiary standard shall follow the scale set out in ENF (a single unverifiable image is insufficient to found a conclusion, but is sufficient to open an investigation).

### Article 15. Gifts and social engineering

15.1. Staff must declare in the benefits declaration register (an internal record channel) every gift exceeding the token value of VND 200,000 or its equivalent (including Nitro, gift codes and convertible items in kind) received from a Member or from an external party connected with the Server.

15.2. Every request for a favour from a person who has previously given a gift must be reported to the Staff channel before it is acted upon; and every operation adding a bot, adding a webhook or granting permissions, irrespective of who makes the request, is subject to the two-person approval rule (Article 20).

### Article 16. Conflicts of interest and the duty of recusal

16.1. A Staff member having a significant personal relationship with a party - close friendship, family, romantic (current or former), enmity, or financial - must recuse themselves from adjudicating, reviewing appeals, investigating, and conducting prize draws relating to that person. Where uncertain as to the duty of recusal, a Staff member shall declare the matter and ask their superior; such declaration and enquiry shall not attract discipline. Failure to recuse, once discovered: the outcome is void and the Staff member is subject to discipline, even where the outcome was correct.

16.2. Relationship declaration register: Staff shall declare, and update as they arise, significant relationships with Members or other Staff in the Server: family members, romantic partners, business partners, and serious personal conflicts.

16.3. Two Staff members who are in a romantic relationship or in personal conflict with one another may not adjudicate cases involving one another and may not jointly hold the same area of authority (jointly managing the same group of channels, jointly holding the same key pair). Where such a relationship arises or ends, the Head Admin shall adjust assignments within 7 days; this is a neutral administrative measure and not a disciplinary sanction.

16.4. Staff providing paid services to Members: this is not prohibited, but it is mandatory that (a) it be declared in the register; (b) every offer be accompanied by an express statement that it is "a personal transaction, unconnected with and not endorsed by the server"; (c) the use of official channels or of the standing of the role to make offers is prohibited; (d) any Staff member endorsing anyone's transaction is prohibited; (e) a Staff member in a financial dispute with a Member shall be suspended from adjudicative authority until the dispute is concluded. A Staff member who enters into a transaction and then fails to perform the obligations undertaken shall be dealt with as a Member committing fraud, with the additional sanction of removal from the role.

### Article 17. Prohibition of covert power blocs and factions

17.1. An operational decision is valid only if issued in an official channel. Covert votes, private group agreements, and coalitions to block or advance a proposal outside official channels have no effect, and organising any such arrangement is a disciplinary violation.

17.2. Mechanisms against the concentration of personal power, applicable to all:

- (a) no Staff member shall hold exclusive charge of an area for more than 12 months; periodic rotation shall apply. For an area requiring rare skills (for example bot development) that cannot be rotated, point (b) shall be enforced at its strictest;
- (b) every area of authority shall be held by at least 02 persons; there shall be no single point of failure;
- (c) threats of collective resignation or of departing the Server as a group in order to force a decision shall be recorded as coercive conduct and shall have no negotiating value; the procedure shall not change by reason of a threat, just as it shall not change by reason of crowd pressure (OWN §41.4).

17.3. The fact that Members are fond of a particular Staff member does not constitute a violation by anyone. What is prohibited is organising that influence into an instrument against the procedure (mobilising a circle of loyalists to defend a person in a case, or using a group outside the Server in coordination to exert pressure within the Server).

---

## CHAPTER V - ENTRY INTO A ROLE: RECRUITMENT, PROBATION, TRAINING

### Article 18. Uniform recruitment procedure

18.1. One procedure applies to all candidates, including persons introduced by the Owner: (a) published criteria (a minimum of 03 months' participation, no history of severe sanctions, a situational assessment); (b) an application file; (c) a review panel of at least 02 persons; (d) mandatory probation.

18.2. A person who introduces a candidate shall have no vote on the panel reviewing that candidate; this provision applies to everyone, including where the introducer is the Owner. Introducing a candidate is an ordinary right of the Owner; the Owner retains the final decision on personnel (OWN §32), but such decision must be recorded together with its grounds and does not dispense with the panel procedure.

18.3. The rejection of a candidate need not be publicly explained, but the reason must be recorded in the internal file.

18.4. Age limits by area of authority: Staff accessing Red Zone files, prize-award data or identifying data, or serving on the Integrity Panel, must be at least 18 years of age. Minor Staff, if any, shall hold only roles that do not touch sensitive data and shall not be assigned to a solo shift during night hours.

### Article 19. Probation and staged grants of authority

19.1. Trial-Mods serve a probation of 02 months with restricted authority: no permanent bans, no channel management, no channel deletion, no access to sensitive channels, Red Zone files or prize-award data, no adding of bots or webhooks, and no mass actions.

19.2. The structural control measures - staged authority, information compartmentalisation, action logging, and the two-person approval rule - apply uniformly to all Staff, irrespective of any individual assessment of trustworthiness.

19.3. Promotion shall be based on a periodic assessment on file, approved by at least 02 superiors, taking into account the benefits declaration register and sanction statistics (audited under Article 13.2).

19.4. Rapid-growth mode: where the Server grows by more than 50 per cent in Members within 30 days, expedited recruitment is permitted but the vetting standard may not be lowered; acceleration may be achieved only by increasing the number of review panels running in parallel. Every moderator recruited in this mode shall by default be a Trial-Mod with the restricted authority set out in Article 19.1, irrespective of declared experience. Reaching this growth threshold also triggers a review of procedural obligations under NĐ 147/2024/NĐ-CP as provided in OWN §54.1.e.

### Article 20. Account security and hazardous operations

20.1. Two-factor authentication is mandatory for every account holding any Staff authority. Without 2FA enabled, a role may not be assumed; if 2FA is found to have been disabled while a role is held, the authority shall be suspended immediately until it is re-enabled, and discipline shall follow upon repetition. Strongly recommended, but not mandatory: the use of a hardware security key or an authenticator application in place of SMS.

20.2. Mandatory account hygiene: no password reuse; no logging into a Staff account on a public device; no installation of tools or beta games from unknown sources on a device logged into Discord; and scanning QR login codes is prohibited for any reason whatsoever.

20.3. The two-person approval rule applies to hazardous operations: deleting a channel, deleting a role, mass bans, adding or modifying a bot, creating or modifying a webhook, changing Server-level permissions, and changing the automod configuration. The person performing the operation may not at the same time be the approver; both shall create a record in a record channel before the operation, save in an emergency under Chapter XI of OWN, with post hoc review within 24 hours.

20.4. Security training is mandatory upon onboarding and shall be repeated every 06 months, covering at a minimum the following scenarios: impersonation of Discord Trust and Safety staff with a message stating "the server is about to be deleted, click the verification link"; Nitro gifts used for social engineering; QR login scams; and information-stealing malware disguised as a tool. Mandatory rule: every unusual contact purporting to come from Discord, from a partner or from an authority must be posted in the Staff channel before any action whatsoever is taken.

20.5. Circuit breaker: any Staff member who witnesses an account holding authority, including one senior to their own, engaging in destructive conduct (an abnormal mass ban, channel deletion, posting of obscene content) has the right and the duty to strip that account's authority or kick it immediately without awaiting instructions, and to report the matter within 1 hour thereafter. A good-faith circuit-breaker action shall not attract discipline, even where the outcome shows the initial assessment to have been mistaken. Anti-abuse limit: the exemption applies only to action based on grounds observable at the time, described in the 01-hour report (what was seen, in which channel, and when); a circuit-breaker action without observable grounds, or based on grounds fabricated in order to neutralise another person, shall be dealt with as a violation of evidence fabrication at the most severe level.

20.6. Following an incident in which a Staff account has been compromised, authority shall be restored only after (a) verification that the account holder has regained control and changed their authentication credentials; (b) a review of the audit log of activity during the period of compromise; (c) a determination as to victim or accomplice status under the evidentiary standard, with a default presumption of victim status in the absence of evidence to the contrary.

### Article 21. Mandatory SOP training

21.1. Before assuming authority, Staff must complete a situational assessment on the Red Zone SOPs (self-harm, grooming of minors, CSAM, criminally unlawful content) under ENF. Without mastery of the SOPs, authority may not be assumed, without exception.

21.2. SOP content relating to life, mental health or legal matters must be approved by a suitably qualified expert before issuance (OWN §54.1.b); Staff shall not draft psychological, medical or legal advice themselves.

---

## CHAPTER VI - PERSONNEL OPERATIONS: SHIFTS, WELLBEING, SUSTAINABILITY

### Article 22. Shifts and workload limits

22.1. The shift schedule shall be published internally and shall cover the maximum possible range of hours. Operational objective: every channel, including low-activity channels, shall be swept no less frequently than once every 02 hours per cycle; this is a best-efforts objective and not a service-level commitment. The remainder shall be covered by automation in accordance with the security rules.

22.2. Workload limit: no Staff member shall accept more than 15 hours per week of shift obligations. This figure is a ceiling, not a target.

### Article 23. Leave, burnout, and reserve staffing

23.1. Staff have the right to take leave without stating a reason, upon 72 hours' notice; in unforeseen circumstances, notice shall be given as early as possible. Temporary leave of up to 04 weeks shall not result in loss of the role or loss of seniority.

23.2. After each major crisis (a prolonged dispute, a raid, a communications crisis), the Head Admin shall on their own initiative review the workload and condition of the team, reducing shifts, rotating personnel and adding staff before mass resignations arise. Collective burnout is designated an operational incident and shall be handled under this clause.

23.3. Reserve staffing: the team shall maintain the capacity to withstand the simultaneous loss of 30 per cent of its personnel without paralysis (cross-training, documentation in the common repository, no single point of failure under Article 17.2.b).

23.4. Staff showing signs of psychological crisis or self-harm shall be dealt with under the ENF self-harm SOP as for any individual, together with the following: use of the emergency contact collected at onboarding (Article 23.5); no discipline and no discussion of the matter in any circumstances; and retention or temporary suspension of the role according to the wishes of the person concerned once they are stable. Emergency hotlines take precedence over all internal channels: 115 (emergency medical services) where there is danger to life; 111 (the National Child Protection Hotline) where children are involved. The Server's email and support tickets are not a substitute for emergency hotlines.

23.5. Upon onboarding, Staff shall provide one emergency contact method on a voluntary basis (a telephone number or a channel outside Discord); for minor Staff, it is strongly recommended that this contact be a guardian. This data has the sole purpose of emergency situations concerning human safety; only the Head Admin and the Owner may access it; it shall be stored outside common channels, in a location with restricted access; and it shall be deleted upon offboarding. Failure to provide it shall not affect the assumption of a role.

---

## CHAPTER VII - DEPARTURE FROM A ROLE: HANDOVER AND OFFBOARDING

### Article 24. Departure in accordance with procedure

24.1. A Staff member departing on their own initiative must give 14 days' notice (without any obligation to state a reason) and complete the handover under Article 25. Departure in accordance with procedure shall be recorded in the recognition system, all records of contribution shall be preserved, and the departing person may return through the ordinary recruitment procedure.

24.2. Abrupt departure (leaving the position without handover) shall not give rise to additional sanctions, but: (a) the revocation checklist under Article 26 shall run immediately, without requiring the cooperation of the departing person; (b) the confidentiality obligation under Article 10 and the obligation to return operational assets to the common repository under Article 4.4 shall remain in full force; (c) the file shall record "departure without handover", and that record shall affect any future re-assumption of a role.

### Article 25. Mandatory handover

25.1. Minimum handover content: (a) a list of matters in progress together with their status; (b) confirmation that all operational documentation is held in the common repository; (c) a list of technical assets held in that person's name (self-hosted bots, webhooks, permissions on external services such as Drive, hosting, service accounts); (d) shared passwords and secrets known to that person, so that they may be changed.

25.2. The recipient of the handover shall be the immediate superior or a person designated by the Head Admin; the handover minutes shall be stored in a record channel.

### Article 26. Revocation of authority and technical assets

26.1. Within 24 hours of the termination of a role (in any form: resignation, removal, abrupt departure), the Head Admin or their delegate - or, where the person leaving the position is the Head Admin, the Owner or the Owner's delegate - shall complete and minute all of the following:

- (a) remove all roles and permissions within the Server;
- (b) remove or disable every bot hosted or administered by that person, including bots operating normally;
- (c) revoke or recreate every webhook that person created or whose URL that person knew;
- (d) revoke permissions on every external service (Drive, hosting, administration pages, the Server's social media accounts);
- (e) change every shared secret, token and password to which that person had access;
- (f) review that person's audit log for the final 30 days, in order to detect any data export or abnormal permission change;
- (g) delete the emergency contact data (Article 23.5).

26.2. A technical asset register (bots, webhooks, integrations: who created them, with what permissions, and the date of review) shall be maintained on a permanent basis and audited quarterly, combined with the cross-audit cycle under Article 13.2.b. That audit cycle shall mandatorily include: a re-assessment of every bot and integration in operation (change of owner, change of OAuth permission scope, new abnormal behaviour), with no exemption for bots that have exhibited no abnormal behaviour; a review of log-channel access rights (Article 9.3); and a comparison of actual permissions against the minimum permissions required.

26.3. A former Staff member who uses a residual access path to interfere with the Server shall be dealt with as an external attacker: ban, retention of the file, and a report to the authorities where the indicia are made out (Article 289 of the Penal Code on unlawful access, where the constituent elements are made out). Internal disciplinary responsibility shall at the same time attach to the person responsible for offboarding where the checklist omitted the relevant item (sanction bracket at Annex D).

### Article 27. Former Staff disseminating internal content

27.1. Preventive measures: Article 7.2 (standards of speech in internal channels), Article 5 (undertaking of confidentiality), Article 26 (revocation of authority).

27.2. Where such an event occurs: (a) no public altercation; response shall follow the crisis playbook (once, in writing, in an official channel); (b) the Server may disclose the existence of the confidentiality undertaking that person signed, but shall not republish the disseminated content; (c) if the disseminated content contains Members' personal data, the data-incident SOP shall be activated, the affected Members shall be notified, and they shall be supported in exercising their rights under NĐ13 against that former Staff member; (d) the legal aspects shall be assessed (NĐ13; Article 288 of the Penal Code); the decision whether to report to the authorities rests with the Owner after obtaining legal advice (OWN §54.1.c).

27.3. Reputational extortion by means of a store of screenshots shall be handled under the principle of no negotiation with extortion (OWN §50): no payment, no promise, and no deletion of any content on demand; all communications shall be preserved; and a report shall be made to the authorities where the indicia of Article 170 of the Penal Code are made out.

---

## CHAPTER VIII - DISCIPLINE OF STAFF

### Article 28. Disciplinary framework and the one-grade-up principle

28.1. The Staff disciplinary scale, from least to most severe: recorded caution; formal warning; suspension of authority for a fixed period; demotion; removal from the role; removal from the role plus the further sanction applicable to Members (mute, ban); removal from the role, ban and referral of the file to the authorities.

28.2. One-grade-up principle: where a Member would be sanctioned at level A for given conduct, a Staff member committing the same conduct shall be sanctioned at a minimum at level A plus a role-based sanction (a role warning or above). The detailed bracket table is set out in Annex D and is published publicly.

28.3. Violations specific to Staff have their own bracket in Annex D, comprising at a minimum: responding about a sanction by DM; public quarrelling; speech in internal channels below standard; failure to log a sanction; failure to recuse in the presence of a conflict of interest; endorsing a transaction; failure to report an offer of a bribe; misuse of authority; breach of confidentiality; abuse of the circuit breaker or of emergency procedures in bad faith; omission of an offboarding checklist item; unilaterally handling a special case alone (in breach of OWN §33.3); and fabrication of evidence (the most severe level within the Community Legal Framework, on a par with Article 12.2.d, applied more strictly to Staff than to Members because Staff understand the consequences, including the fabrication of the content of a report).

28.4. Separation of operational error from intentional conduct: a good-faith operational error (deleting the wrong channel during a clean-up) shall be dealt with at the level of a caution or a warning accompanied by a procedural review; concealment of an operational error, or repetition after a caution, shall be dealt with under a higher bracket.

### Article 29. Procedure for handling Staff violations

29.1. Intake shall be through (a) the ordinary internal channel; or (b) the anonymous escalated reporting channel, being [private@donquaan.com](mailto:private@donquaan.com) - an anonymous channel outside Discord, routed directly to the Integrity Panel without passing through any intermediate level; no third-party anonymous form shall be used, and if an anonymous form is added it must be self-hosted on [donquaan.com](https://donquaan.com/). This channel is used where the person accused is the superior of the reporter, or where the reporter fears retaliation.

29.2. The Integrity Panel shall by default comprise the Head Admin and 02 Staff drawn by lot from among those not on the same shift, having no declared relationship with the parties, and aged at least 18 (Article 18.4). Automatic substitution rules where the person accused holds a senior grade:

- Person accused is an Admin: the Head Admin and 02 Staff drawn by lot, excluding all persons with a relationship;
- Person accused is the Head Admin: the Owner and 02 moderators drawn by lot shall preside; the Head Admin loses all access to the file in that case;
- Person accused is the Owner: OWN §37 applies; the Owner stands entirely aside.

Where there are insufficient eligible persons (a small Server, or too many persons with a relevant relationship): the panel shall be reduced to 01 presiding person and 01 Staff member drawn by lot; if that is still insufficient, a neutral external person shall be invited under the mechanism in OWN §37.2.c. The use of a person having a declared relationship with a party is prohibited in all circumstances; where there are insufficient eligible persons, the invitation of a neutral external person is mandatory.

29.3. Temporary suspension: in the case of a serious allegation supported by a minimum basis, the authority of the person accused shall be temporarily suspended for the duration of the investigation. The internal announcement is prescribed verbatim: "Authority is temporarily suspended for the purposes of a standards review procedure - a neutral measure applied to every allegation of this category, carrying no implication of any conclusion." A temporary suspension shall not be publicly announced to Members together with its reason before a conclusion has been reached.

29.4. Hard time limits: the investigation shall be completed within 14 days, extendable once by a maximum of 14 days with the reason recorded. Time shall be suspended for any period during which a party refuses to cooperate, deliberately delays, or during which data is awaited from a third party (Discord, a bank), with the reason for suspension recorded. Where the time limit expires without a conclusion being reachable under the evidentiary standard, authority shall be restored, the file shall record "insufficient grounds", and neutral administrative measures (separation of shifts, contact restrictions) may be applied where necessary to protect the parties. Exception: a case with a Red Zone element (child safety, threat to life) shall not result in automatic restoration of authority upon expiry of the time limit; the case shall be escalated to the Owner together with legal advice, and neutral measures shall be maintained until a conclusion is reached.

29.5. The evidentiary standard shall follow the three-tier scale of ENF. Removal from a role or above requires evidence at the "clear and convincing" level; neutral administrative measures require only the "balance of probabilities" level. In a case of word against word (the evidence having been deleted), where no conclusion can be reached, neutral measures carrying no implication of guilt shall be applied - separation of shifts, preventing the two persons from sharing an area of authority - and no name shall be published before a conclusion is reached, in respect of either side.

29.6. Prohibition of retaliation against a reporter: any adverse action (a sanction, heightened scrutiny, an unfavourable change of assignment, isolation) directed at a reporter within 90 days of the report shall by default be examined as retaliation; the party taking the action must demonstrate independent grounds and must obtain prior approval from a person outside the case. Retaliation is an independent violation, with a more severe sanction bracket than the underlying violation reported. Limits of the reporter-protection mechanism: (a) a disciplinary procedure in which the file was opened before the time of the report shall continue normally and shall not be treated as retaliation; (b) a report using fabricated evidence shall be dealt with as a violation of evidence fabrication - the protection is for a good-faith reporter, even where the report proves incorrect, and not for a reporter who knows the content of the report to be false.

29.7. Publication of outcomes shall follow the principle of applying the same level of discretion to all: the framework shall be published (conduct, provision, level of sanction), without details of private life and without humiliation; the identity of the reporter shall be kept confidential absolutely and in perpetuity. In a case bearing criminal indicia: the victim shall be guided in making a report to the authorities, and the Server shall cooperate in providing the file pursuant to a lawful request; internal handling is not a substitute for the law.

29.8. Staff disciplinary decisions may be appealed through the same single-window appeals system as applies to Members (under APL), with a reviewer unconnected with the original case.

### Article 30. Recognition separated from discipline

30.1. The contribution recognition system (credit page, honorary roles, contribution history) operates separately from the disciplinary system and is maintained indefinitely. All information concerning roles, including contribution roles and honorary roles, is explained in the [official rules channel](https://discord.com/channels/1342729473245577267/1342766172000616490): contributions may not be exchanged for a reduction of sanction; a sanction does not erase contributions already recorded, save in the case of a violation of fabrication or of fraud in respect of the very achievement concerned.

```json
{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#person", "name": "Nguyen Vu Dong Quan", "alternateName": "DonQuaan", "url": "https://donquaan.com/", "image": "https://donquaan.com/og-hero.png", "jobTitle": "Gemini Certified Faculty · Google AI Specialist", "description": "I believe in people, not tools. Teaching and applying Google AI; running Discord communities and systems; design and development for Roblox, Minecraft and the web; systems testing.", "email": "mailto:contact@donquaan.com", "knowsAbout": [ "Google AI", "Gemini", "Community operations", "Discord", "Roblox", "Minecraft modpacks", "Web development", "Systems testing" ], "knowsLanguage": [ "Vietnamese", "English" ], "hasCredential": [ { "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory": "certification", "name": "Gemini Certified Faculty", "recognizedBy": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Google" }, "url": "https://edu.google.accredible.com/529911e4-a7fb-42b6-9c9f-50d29e633430" }, { "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory": "certification", "name": "Kaggle Learn certificates (17) and the Data Science graduate badge, 18 images", "recognizedBy": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Kaggle" }, "url": "https://www.kaggle.com/nguyenvudongquan" }, { "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory": "certification", "name": "HubSpot Academy certifications (15)", "recognizedBy": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "HubSpot Academy" }, "url": "https://app.hubspot.com/academy-profile/member/94801453" } ], "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Da Nang", "addressCountry": "VN" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/NguyenDonQuaan", "https://x.com/DonQuaanVN", "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvqlcKf1nm9i2LeH9hFQQYA", "https://github.com/DonQuaan", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/donquaan", "https://www.twitch.tv/donquaan_tkz", "https://open.spotify.com/user/31xr7kgwysteud3urdhzrv5ixc2q", "https://www.curseforge.com/members/yangdawn", "https://www.kaggle.com/nguyenvudongquan", "https://app.hubspot.com/academy-profile/member/94801453", "https://discord.com/invite/sangtraan" ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#website", "url": "https://donquaan.com/", "name": "DonQuaan", "alternateName": "Nguyen Vu Dong Quan", "description": "Nguyen Vu Dong Quan, Gemini Certified Faculty · Google AI Specialist, Da Nang. I believe in people, not tools. Shipped work, real certificates, the Sangtraan Discord community.", "inLanguage": [ "vi", "en" ], "publisher": { "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#person" } }, { "@type": "ProfilePage", "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#webpage", "url": "https://donquaan.com/", "name": "DonQuaan | Nguyen Vu Dong Quan", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#website" }, "about": { "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#person" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://donquaan.com/#person" }, "primaryImageOfPage": "https://donquaan.com/og-hero.png", "inLanguage": "en" } ] }
```