The Code of the Cafe
Six lines. They are short because a code nobody can recall is decoration.
Real names
You are who you say you are, and your story runs under your own name. Anonymity lowers the signal and invites the kind of trouble a small archive cannot survive.
What is said at the table stays at the table
Applies to the Back Room, the dinners and the tables. Chatham House by default: use what you heard, never say who said it.
No selling
Not in a story, not in an ask, not in a reply. Vendors are welcome to read and welcome to sponsor the digest. They are not regulars unless they also run the company.
No screenshots
Of the Back Room, ever. The published archive is public and endlessly shareable; the private parts are not. This is the rule that gets people removed.
Answer before you ask
The fastest way for this to die is for it to become a place people take from. Answer one thing before you ask for one.
Tell the true version
The rounded-up number, the decision reframed as strategy after the fact, the layoff described as a restructure: all of it is allowed everywhere else on the internet and none of it is useful here.
Anyone can leave. Anyone can be asked to leave, once. There is no appeal process and no committee, because at this size the honest thing is to say that a person decides and tells you why.