Values as defined by the Oxford dictionary:

a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life

The following are some of FetLife's values:

Communities over Community

FetLife is a community of communities. It’s our responsibility to create an environment where a diverse group of people can coexist in harmony.

Permissive over Restrictive

We default to permissive, and only when there are recurring issues do we consider introducing new, or iterating over, our current guidelines.

Diversity over Uniformity

Diversity is not just about diversity of gender and race but of orientation, roles, life experiences, religious beliefs, political leanings, principles, personality types, the list goes on.

We value diversity not just for the sake of diversity but so that as a community we can grow by learning from each other's unique life story.

Equal Treatment over Special Privileges

It's important to us that we treat everyone equally on FetLife. To help us do that when we review our guidelines and cases, we ask ourselves if we would feel the same way if the person's gender, race, orientation, etc. changed.

Solutions over Regulations

In general, we don’t believe our community needs tighter restrictions. We believe we need to continue to develop better solutions that promote certain behaviours over others, and empower the community and its members so that they have control over their FetLife experience.

Atomic over Sweeping

When making any changes to FetLife, we see if we can break the changes into individual atomic units. We launch one change, evaluate the impact, and then move on to the next. Rinse and repeat. #PeelingTheOnion

Additional notes:

• Depending on the situation, each value maybe be given a different weight
• Sometimes, values can be in conflict with one another
• Values evolve and change as we grow and learn