What This Forum Is For
The Aave Governance Forum is where the protocol gets shaped. Proposals are drafted, debated, and refined here before anything goes on-chain. The quality of that process depends entirely on the people who show up and engage with integrity.
These guidelines are a shared understanding of how we treat each other and this space - written to help everyone, from long-time delegates to first-time contributors.
Make Your Post Worth Reading
Aave governance moves fast and the forum can get noisy. Before you post, ask yourself whether you’re adding something of value: a new angle, a reasoned objection, data that changes the picture.
It’s also worth reading what’s already been said before you write. Good governance is built on understanding what others have argued, not talking past them.
Debate Ideas, Not People
Strong disagreement is part of good governance. What isn’t acceptable is making it personal. When you push back on something, focus on the argument - not the person making it. That means avoiding:
- Name-calling or dismissive labels
- Ad hominem attacks
- Responding to someone’s tone rather than what they actually said
- Reflexive contradiction that doesn’t engage with the substance
Say What You Mean
This forum only works if people are who they say they are. Please don’t:
- Impersonate individuals, teams, or protocols
- Run multiple accounts to make a position look more popular than it is
- Claim credentials or affiliations you don’t have
- Post fabricated data, doctored screenshots, or misleading on-chain evidence
Coordinated deception - especially around a live governance proposal - is strictly forbidden, and will be treated accordingly.
Don’t Manufacture Consensus
Governance depends on being able to tell what the community actually thinks. Anything designed to distort that signal is a problem, whether it originates on the forum or is coordinated elsewhere:
- Organising mass-flagging, vote-brigading, or thread-flooding through external channels (Discord, Telegram, X, etc.)
- Rallying people to target a moderator or community member with the intent to disrupt or discredit
- Using bots or automation to inflate engagement or bury contributions
- Presenting manufactured agreement as genuine community sentiment
If there’s evidence of coordinated disruption, all involved accounts may be actioned at the same time.
Support Effective Delivery
Service Providers are formally engaged to build and maintain the Aave protocol. They are selected for their specialised expertise, experience, and ability to execute on their respective scopes of work. That work requires focus, and the forum shouldn’t become a source of constant interruption mid-delivery.
During a Service Provider’s accepted tenure, please:
- Direct questions to the relevant proposal thread or their designated update posts
- Avoid threads whose primary purpose is to pressure or destabilise a Service Provider mid-engagement
- Recognise that not every question requires an immediate public response
Accountability matters, but so does giving contributors the space to do their best work. Aave benefits when governance remains rigorous, constructive, and focused on outcomes. The community should create an environment where leading teams and subject-matter experts are willing to engage with and contribute to the protocol.
Don’t Use This Forum to Cause Harm
Because this is a Web3 governance forum, a few things need to be said directly:
- Don’t ask anyone for their private keys, seed phrases, wallet signatures, or transaction approvals - for any reason
- Don’t share phishing links, malicious contracts, or anything designed to drain wallets, even if it’s dressed up as a yield opportunity
- Don’t post content intended to manipulate on-chain votes through misinformation or coercion
- Don’t use the forum primarily to promote unrelated tokens or protocols
- Don’t offer, solicit, or threaten governance votes - vote-buying is prohibited and may be escalated beyond this forum
Hard Lines
Some things will result in immediate action regardless of context or history:
- Hate speech or discrimination on any basis
- Threats of violence
- Sharing someone’s private personal information without their consent
- Links to malware, phishing sites, or exploitative contracts
- Sexual content
- Illegal content of any kind
Help Keep Things Organised
The forum is easier to use when posts end up in the right place. A few housekeeping asks:
- Post in the correct category
- Don’t copy the same post across multiple threads
- Don’t take a topic in an unrelated direction mid-thread
- Skip the “+1” replies - use the Like button instead
Use the Tools Available to You
You don’t need to respond to bad behaviour - doing so often makes things worse. If you see a post that breaks these guidelines, flag it. Moderators review flags and will act when needed. Your flag is more useful than a reply.
What Happens When the Rules Are Broken
The goal is a healthy forum, moderation is here to protect the quality of the space. Moderators consider intent, history, and the harm caused before acting. Responses are proportionate to the severity of the violation.
If something goes wrong, moderators may take any of the following actions:
- Warning: a private or public message explaining what happened and which guideline was breached
- Trust level adjustment: reducing a user’s forum privileges, which affects what they can post and how their contributions are treated by the platform
- Silence: temporarily restricting a user’s ability to post
- Suspension: a longer-term restriction on forum access
- Ban: permanent removal from the forum
These aren’t steps in a fixed sequence. A first offence could result in any of the above depending on what happened. Serious violations (such as doxxing, threats of violence, active phishing, impersonating official Aave entities or service providers, or orchestrating a brigading campaign) may result in an immediate ban with no prior warning.
Think a Decision Was Unfair?
Message the @moderators group on the forum within 30 days. Your appeal will be reviewed by moderators who had no involvement in the original decision.
For forum matters, please don’t contact Aave support - the moderators handle everything covered here.
The forum reflects the community that builds it. We’re glad you’re here.