# Diversifying community governance with PolicyKit

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/diversifying-community-governance-with-policykit/232764
**Category:** Community Building
**Tags:** web3
**Created:** [July 13, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/diversifying-community-governance-with-policykit/232764 "2022-07-13T17:46:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![manuel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/manuel/32/468169_2.png) [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/diversifying-community-governance-with-policykit/232764/1 "2022-07-13T17:46:19Z")

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Came across this project through a related research paper on moderation: [https://policykit.org/](https://policykit.org/)

It’s a _governance driver_ for online communities. It replaces user permissions with policy procedures to authorize actions on a platform. Here’s a figure from their research paper how it integrates with Slack:

 ![Screenshot from 2022-07-13 18-34-06](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/d/4/f/d4fa777eeb694afcab737cc66e82ac1736ba1a5b.png)

In the example a user wants to rename a channel. Slack would typically enable that action based on user permission. In this case the action is forwarded to PolicyKit that checks it against an existing policy procedure. It then posts the procedure (majority vote about the renaming) on Slack and depending on outcome either authorizes or rejects the action.

It uses [Metagov](https://docs.metagov.org/en/latest/index.html) as gateway, which claims to already support Discourse, but apparently never has been mentioned here on the forum.

I’m not related or involved with either project. I just find it interesting and am curious to hear what others think about it, if anyone is involved in similar projects, how complex it would be to build an integration for Discourse, …

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### Author: ![osioke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/osioke/32/238946_2.png) [@osioke](https://meta.discourse.org/u/osioke)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 8:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/diversifying-community-governance-with-policykit/232764/2 "2022-07-19T08:36:19Z")

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Definitely brings up a good idea around shared governance and making decisions within such a community. I wonder how it would hold up within communities that have no filter for joining and voting. I feel like for this tool to succeed, the communities using it will need a membership that understands their shared responsibilities.