Last updated: 14 October 2026
1. Purpose
Buzzy is designed for constructive discussion, democratic participation and collective decision-making. Disagreement is expected. Harassment, intimidation and manipulation are not.
This Code of Conduct sets the baseline behavioural rules for everyone participating in Buzzy.
Our aim is to create spaces where people can contribute honestly, challenge ideas, disagree strongly and participate without being personally attacked, exposed or intimidated.
Buzzy recognises Māori as tangata whenua and the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We expect users to engage respectfully across cultures and communities, including with te reo Māori, tikanga and Māori identities and perspectives.
2. Where this Code applies
This Code applies across Buzzy, including:
- public and private Hives;
- proposals, topics, statements and comments;
- replies, reactions and other participation;
- usernames and profile information;
- rreports and moderation interactions; and
- other use of Buzzy features.
Individual Hives may establish additional rules suited to their community or purpose. For example, a research Hive, university community or professional organisation may impose additional participation or discussion standards.
Hive-specific rules must not override Buzzy's baseline protections in this Code, the Terms of Use or applicable law.
Conduct outside Buzzy. Buzzy may act on conduct outside the platform where that conduct is directly connected to participation in Buzzy and creates a material safety, harassment, retaliation or platform-integrity risk within Buzzy.
For example, threatening or exposing a pseudonymous participant on another platform because of something they said or voted for on Buzzy may be treated as a breach of this Code.
Buzzy does not claim general authority over unrelated disputes or behaviour outside the platform.
3. Expected behaviour
We expect participants to:
- Treat people with respect. Challenge ideas rather than attacking the person expressing them.
- Engage constructively. Genuine disagreement, criticism and debate are welcome. Deliberate provocation, intimidation and disruption are not.
- Respect differences. Do not demean people because of their identity, background, beliefs or personal characteristics.
- Protect privacy. Respect other people's pseudonymity, personal information and private communications.
- Participate honestly. Do not impersonate others, manipulate participation or deliberately deceive the community.
- Respect the purpose of the Hive. Different Hives exist for different purposes. Participate in good faith and follow reasonable Hive-specific rules.
- Work with moderation processes. Use reporting and appeals processes rather than escalating disputes through harassment, retaliation or ban evasion.
You do not have to agree with other participants, moderators, Hive administrators or Buzzy. Respectful criticism of Buzzy, a Hive, its moderators or other users is allowed.
4. Unacceptable behaviour
The following behaviour is prohibited.
Harassment, bullying and intimidation. Do not harass, stalk, threaten, bully or repeatedly target another person.
This includes:
- repeated unwanted contact;
- sustained personal attacks;
- coordinated pile-ons;
- sexual harassment or unwanted sexual attention;
- attempts to intimidate someone out of participating; and
- retaliation against someone for reporting misconduct or participating in a moderation process.
- Strong disagreement or criticism is not harassment simply because it is uncomfortable or unwelcome. Moderators will consider context, persistence, targeting and likely harm.
- Hate speech and discrimination
- Do not attack, demean or dehumanise people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, nationality, whakapapa, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability or other protected or personal characteristics.
- This includes slurs, dehumanising stereotypes and targeted discriminatory abuse.
- Cultural disrespect may also breach this Code where it is used to demean, exclude or target people. Examples include persistently mocking te reo Māori, tikanga or cultural identity in a way intended or reasonably likely to humiliate or exclude others.
- Context and severity matter. A careless or poorly expressed comment will not necessarily be treated the same way as deliberate targeted abuse.
- Threats, violence and dangerous conduct
Do not:
- threaten violence or serious harm;
- encourage others to commit violence;
- glorify or encourage targeted harm against individuals or groups;
- encourage self-harm;
- use Buzzy to organise serious unlawful harm; or
- make threats disguised as jokes where a reasonable person could regard them as credible or intimidating.
Where there appears to be an immediate or serious safety risk, Buzzy may act without prior warning and may contact appropriate authorities where necessary.
Privacy violations and doxxing. Do not publish another person's private or identifying information without appropriate permission.
This includes information such as:
- real-world identity;
- home address;
- private contact information;
- workplace or educational information where not already appropriately public;
- photographs or identifying records;
- private correspondence; or
- information deliberately assembled to expose a pseudonymous participant's identity.
Buzzy is designed to support pseudonymous participation. Do not attempt to uncover, confirm or expose another participant's real-world identity simply because you can combine clues from Buzzy with information from elsewhere.
We also strongly discourage users from posting their own sensitive identifying information. Moderators may remove or redact personal information—including information posted by the person themselves—where reasonably necessary to protect privacy or safety.
Private-Hive confidentiality. Do not publish, screenshot, quote or distribute another person's private-Hive contribution outside that Hive without appropriate permission.
This does not prevent reasonable disclosure where necessary to:
- report misconduct;
- protect someone's safety;
- obtain legal or professional advice;
- comply with research or institutional obligations;
- exercise a legal right; or
- comply with the law.
A private Hive limits access within Buzzy but cannot guarantee that another participant will keep information confidential. Participants should consider this before sharing highly sensitive information.
Private communications. Do not publish private messages, emails or other private communications without appropriate permission.
Where a private communication contains evidence of misconduct, it may be provided privately to moderators, Hive administrators, Buzzy or another appropriate authority.
Deliberate deception and harmful manipulation. Buzzy is a platform for disagreement and debate. Being mistaken, expressing a controversial opinion or relying on a disputed source is not automatically misconduct. However, you must not deliberately manipulate others through materially deceptive conduct.
This includes:
- knowingly fabricating evidence;
- deliberately presenting manipulated media as authentic;
- impersonating a source or person;
- falsely claiming credentials, authority or affiliation;
- coordinating deceptive participation;
- deliberately misrepresenting voting or participation results; or
- repeatedly presenting information you know to be materially false as established fact where doing so creates a significant risk of harm or manipulation.
Moderators should not remove content merely because they disagree with its political position or believe another interpretation is more persuasive.
Impersonation. Do not impersonate another person, Buzzy staff member, moderator, public official or organisation.
Pseudonymous participation is allowed. Using a pseudonym is not impersonation unless it is used to mislead others about who you are or what authority or affiliation you hold.
Manipulating participation
Do not attempt to distort Buzzy's democratic or analytical processes.
This includes:
- creating or using multiple accounts to influence results;
- coordinating artificial participation through fake accounts;
- automated voting or interaction without permission;
- manipulating Buzzy’s voting, deliberation, recommendation, aggregation or analysis systems through deceptive activity;
- ban evasion; or
- deliberately exploiting technical vulnerabilities to alter participation or results.
Do not create or use multiple accounts to manipulate participation, evade restrictions, misrepresent the number of participants or otherwise game Buzzy’s systems. Buzzy may restrict or remove accounts used for these purposes.
Spam and disruptive behaviour. Do not:
- repeatedly post irrelevant or duplicate content;
- flood discussions to prevent others from participating;
- post unsolicited advertisements or promotions;
- deliberately derail conversations;
- repeatedly provoke users solely to create conflict; or
- otherwise interfere with the ability of others to participate normally.
Reasonable self-promotion or links may be acceptable where genuinely relevant to the discussion and permitted by the relevant Hive.
Illegal activity. Do not use Buzzy to carry out, facilitate or promote unlawful activity.
This includes fraud, serious threats, unlawful distribution of private information, malicious computer activity and other conduct prohibited by applicable law.
Discussion about controversial or illegal behaviour is not automatically prohibited merely because the subject matter concerns illegality. Context and purpose matter.
Sexually explicit or extremely graphic content. Do not post pornographic, sexually explicit, extremely violent or graphic content unless Buzzy has expressly provided an appropriate space or feature for it.
Buzzy is a 16+ platform and ordinary discussion spaces should remain suitable for that audience.
Encouraging misconduct. Knowingly encouraging, coordinating or materially assisting another person to breach this Code may itself be treated as a breach.
5. Hive-specific rules
Hive owners may establish additional rules appropriate to their community or purpose.
For example, a Hive may require:
- particular standards of evidence;
- confidentiality;
- professional conduct;
- discussion limited to a particular subject;
- research-participation requirements; or
- additional restrictions on content.
Those rules should be made reasonably clear to participants.
Hive-specific rules cannot authorise behaviour prohibited by Buzzy's Terms of Use or this Code.
A breach of a Hive-specific rule may result in action within that Hive even where the behaviour would not justify suspension from Buzzy as a whole.
6. Moderation and enforcement
Moderation should be proportionate, contextual and carried out in good faith.
Moderators should consider factors including:
- the actual or likely harm caused;
- whether an individual or group was targeted;
- threats to safety;
- privacy implications;
- severity of the conduct;
- whether the conduct was deliberate;
- whether it was isolated or repeated;
- previous warnings or moderation history;
- the context in which the conduct occurred; and
- whether the person took reasonable steps to correct their behaviour.
Intent may be relevant, but it does not automatically excuse serious harm.
Possible actions. Depending on the circumstances, moderation may include:
- a reminder or informal warning;
- a formal warning;
- asking a user to edit or clarify content;
- redacting limited personal or sensitive information;
- removing content;
- restricting particular features;
- temporarily suspending participation;
- removing a user from a Hive;
- restricting or removing Hive-administrator privileges;
- temporarily suspending a Buzzy account; or
- permanently terminating a Buzzy account.
Moderators should not rewrite the substance of a user’s contribution. Where content cannot appropriately remain in its existing form, moderators should generally ask the author to edit it, make a limited redaction where necessary for privacy, safety or similar reasons, or remove the content.
Hive moderation and Buzzy-wide enforcement. Authorised Hive administrators and moderators may enforce rules within their Hive.
They may warn participants, moderate content or remove a participant from that Hive in accordance with their permissions and the applicable rules.
Hive administrators cannot terminate a person's overall Buzzy account or remove them from unrelated Hives.
Buzzy retains responsibility for platform-wide enforcement and may restrict, suspend or terminate a Buzzy account for serious or repeated violations, security threats, platform manipulation, ban evasion or other conduct warranting Buzzy-wide action.
A person may therefore be removed from one Hive while remaining able to use Buzzy elsewhere.
Immediate action. Not every violation requires a warning first.
Buzzy or an authorised moderator may take immediate action where reasonably necessary because of serious harassment, threats, doxxing, security abuse, manipulation, illegal activity or other significant risk to users or the platform.
7. Reporting concerns
If you see content or behaviour that may breach this Code, please use Buzzy's reporting tools where available.
Reports should be made in good faith and include enough information to allow the issue to be assessed.
Knowingly false, malicious or retaliatory reporting may itself breach this Code.
Confidentiality of reports. Reports often contain sensitive information about the reporter, the reported person and other participants. Buzzy will restrict access to reports and reporter information to people who reasonably need it to assess or resolve the issue.
Depending on the circumstances, this may include authorised Buzzy personnel and relevant Hive administrators or moderators.
We will not unnecessarily reveal the identity of a reporter to the person being reported or to other participants. However, we cannot promise absolute anonymity or confidentiality. Information may need to be disclosed where reasonably necessary to investigate an issue, protect safety, provide procedural fairness, exercise legal rights or comply with law.
Retaliation against someone because they made a good-faith report or participated in an investigation is prohibited.
Where a report concerns a Hive administrator or moderator, Buzzy may handle or escalate the report separately rather than referring it solely to the person complained about.
8. Appeals
If you receive a formal moderation action and believe it was incorrect, disproportionate or based on incomplete information, you may request review.
For Hive-specific moderation, the first review may be handled by the relevant Hive administration where appropriate.
For Buzzy-wide suspensions or terminations, or where a Hive-level issue cannot reasonably be resolved within the Hive, you may contact: support@buzzyapp.co.nz
When reviewing an appeal, the reviewer may consider:
- the original conduct;
- the applicable rules;
- relevant context or evidence;
- whether the action was proportionate;
- previous moderation history; and
- information supplied by the person appealing.
An appeal may confirm, reduce, reverse or otherwise modify the original action.
Do not create additional accounts or otherwise evade restrictions while an appeal is being considered.
9. Changes to this Code
Buzzy will update this Code as the platform, its communities and the issues they encounter develop.
We will make the current version available through Buzzy. Where reasonably practicable, we will provide notice of significant changes that materially affect users’ behavioural obligations or moderation rights.
Individual Hives may separately update their own additional rules.
10. Our moderation principles
No Code of Conduct can anticipate every situation.
When this Code does not directly address a particular case, Buzzy and Hive moderators should apply its underlying principles:
- protect people's ability to participate safely;
- respect privacy and pseudonymity;
- allow genuine disagreement;
- prevent harassment and manipulation; and
- use moderation powers proportionately rather than arbitrarily.
Moderation will not always produce an outcome that every participant agrees with. Our aim is to make reasonable, consistent decisions in good faith while protecting open and constructive participation.
Questions about this Code can be sent to: support@buzzyapp.co.nz
.png){kind=logo}