The Covenant Cannot Be Changed for One Person, But It Can Be Changed by Everyone: Opening Up the Panel’s Covenant-Amendment Process

Over the years, we have often met members who question whether the covenant is fair, or even call it an “unfair standard-form clause.”

We understand those doubts, but we also have our own difficulty: the covenant is drawn up in advance and applies to all members alike. Once a specific problem arises, we cannot temporarily change the rules out of sympathy for one individual. If we did, the rules would lose their meaning.

But that does not mean the covenant cannot be changed. The covenant may also contain provisions that were poorly thought through, or even unreasonable.

So we have opened up a member-initiated amendment function: any member who considers a clause unreasonable may propose an amendment, and through member co-signing and voting, push for the rule to actually change.

We hope to turn the arguments that used to run between members and the platform into open discussion of the rules among members themselves; and to turn what used to be accusations against the platform into real action to improve the covenant.

This also means that the Commune is no longer only the maker and enforcer of rules — members can become the builders of those rules as well.

What we truly want to build is not a covenant that is always right, but a mechanism that can keep correcting itself even when it is wrong.

We hope that in future disputes, we will not merely argue about whether “this rule is fair,” but that every member will have the chance to take part in improving it.

This is also an important step for KangAi Commune, from “the platform makes the rules” toward “members govern together.”