# Community Response Playbook

Prepare helpful response patterns, factual sources, boundaries, ownership, service levels, and escalation routes for recurring community situations.

## Usage note

Use this playbook to help trained people make consistent decisions, not to automate empathy or force every conversation into a canned reply. Connect each factual pattern to a maintained source and allow responders to adapt language to the person and context. Never request account, identity, health, payment, or security details in public. Immediate safety threats, abuse, unlawful content, and active incidents require the appropriate specialist path.

## How to use this template

1. Analyze representative, lawfully handled community interactions and define recurring situations by user need and potential consequence.
2. Assign a factual source, owner, safe public information, privacy boundary, and desired outcome to each response pattern.
3. Draft adaptable response components, prohibited promises, channel handoffs, timing language, and accessible alternatives.
4. Map routine ownership and specialist escalation for safety, security, legal, privacy, accessibility, abuse, and live incidents.
5. Train responders with scenarios, monitor outcomes and unresolved themes, and review each pattern on a named trigger and date.

## Blank template

### Playbook foundation

- **Community and channels:** [Accounts, forums, or groups]
- **Audience context:** [Who participates and why]
- **Coverage owner:** [Accountable team]
- **Hours and time zones:** [Published availability]
- **Moderation policy:** [Stable route]
- **Privacy rule:** [What must leave the public channel]
- **Accessibility and language support:** [Available routes]
- **Version and review date:** [Control record]

### Response pattern

- **Situation name:** [User-centered label]
- **Signals:** [How a responder recognizes it]
- **User need:** [Answer, acknowledgment, action, or another]
- **Risk level:** [Routine, elevated, urgent]
- **Approved source:** [Owner, version, and date]
- **Safe public facts:** [What can be stated]
- **Unknowns or prohibited claims:** [Boundary]
- **Response shape:** [Acknowledge, answer, qualify, action, timing]
- **Adaptation notes:** [Tone and useful personalization]
- **Private handoff:** [When, where, and minimum information]
- **Closure condition:** [What completes the response]

### Escalation matrix

- **Trigger:** [Safety, threat, personal data, security, legal, abuse, incident, or another]
- **Immediate action:** [Hide data, preserve evidence, acknowledge, or pause]
- **Escalation owner:** [Role and route]
- **Required context:** [Minimum necessary record]
- **Response authority:** [Who may publish]
- **Target triage time:** [Expectation, not unsupported promise]
- **Follow-up owner:** [Who returns to the user]
- [ ] Emergency services or qualified help are never impersonated.
- [ ] Sensitive details are not repeated in a public reply.
- [ ] Criticism is not treated as a policy violation by default.

### Quality and maintenance

- **Test scenarios:** [Routine and edge cases]
- **Coaching owner:** [Role]
- **Quality signals:** [Accuracy, resolution, repeat contact, or harm]
- **Failure signals:** [Unkept promise, delay, escalation miss, or privacy issue]
- **Pattern review trigger:** [Product, policy, incident, or recurring confusion]
- **Retired wording:** [What must no longer be used]
- **Decision log location:** [Controlled record]