gratipay · chadwhitacre · Feb 9, 2016 · Dec 10, 2015 · Dec 10, 2015 · Dec 10, 2015
diff --git a/www/big-picture/brand/index.spt b/www/big-picture/brand/index.spt
@@ -2,43 +2,38 @@ nav_title = 'Brand Guidelines'
 [---]
 [---] text/html via markdown
 
-Gratipay is an [open company](http://www.opencompany.org/) rooted in the 
+Gratipay is an [open company](http://www.opencompany.org/) rooted in the
 [open-source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source) cultural tradition.
-These brand guidelines are an articulation of our collective self-identity, 
-and act as a guide when we hash out identity-formative decisions. In managing 
-the Gratipay brand together, our goal is to care more about 
-[our mission](/big-picture/mission) than about numbers and growth, and to 
-care more about people than about our mission. See also: [Asimov's
+These brand guidelines articulate our collective self-identity, and act as a
+guide when we hash out identity-formative decisions. In managing the Gratipay
+brand together, our goal is to care more about [our
+mission](/big-picture/mission) than about numbers and growth, and to care more
+about people than about our mission. See also: [Asimov's
 Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics).
 
 
-## Brand Values
+## Brand Values: The Ladder of Love
 
-Per our [mission](/big-picture/mission), we value **gratitude, generosity, and
-love**.
+Our core brand values are safety, consent, transparency, openness, and love.
+We see each as dependent on the prior value to form a "ladder of love":
 
-We value **honesty**. We try to be honest with ourselves, and we welcome
-critique of Gratipay by others.
+ - **love**---freely serving one another
+ - **openness**---sharing control with one another
+ - **transparency**---sharing information with one another
+ - **consent**---not acting on another without their permission
+ - **safety**---physical and emotional security
 
-We value **kindness**.
+![ladder-of-love](./ladder-of-love.png)
 
-We value **collaboration** and **openness** to one another.
-
-We value **direct, interpersonal communication**.
-
-We value thoughtful and thorough **discussion and deliberation** as means of
-reconciling wills and making decisions. We like "[dialoguing with interested 
-people about a significant but not urgent 
-risk](http://www.psandman.com/index-intro.htm)."
-
-We value **safety** and **consent** as necessary preconditions for communication, 
-discussion, and deliberation.
+We see **gratitude** and **generosity**, referenced in our
+[mission](/big-picture/mission), as characteristics of an economy in which we
+are freely serving one another.
 
 Gratipay has been called "**sweetly idealistic**" (Elizabeth Weiss, [The New
-    Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/02/can-we-crowdfund-a-creative-middle-class.html))
+Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/02/can-we-crowdfund-a-creative-middle-class.html))
 and it's been accused of "**unabashed optimism**" (@traverseda, [on
 GitHub](https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/1659#issuecomment-28245596)).
-        Yes.
+Yes.
 
 
 ## Anti-Values
@@ -83,11 +78,11 @@ on our current color palette.
 
 ## Heart Coins
 
-The Gratipay logo is called the "heart coin," and I have a [penny
+The Gratipay logo is called the "heart coin," and we have a [penny
         puncher](http://dribbble.com/shots/1388610-Gratipay-Logo/attachments/200640)
-that makes real-life heart coins out of pennies. I had it [made
+that makes real-life heart coins out of pennies. We had it [made
         originally](https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/436) for
-PyCon 2013. It was a hit! Then my nephews ruined the tooling but I had it
+PyCon 2013. It was a hit! Then it got ruined but we had it
 [resharpened](https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/821).
 
 <a href="http://dribbble.com/shots/1388610-Gratipay-Logo/attachments/200637)">
@@ -105,11 +100,7 @@ Gratipay is pronounced like gratitude. Gratitude. Gratipay.
 Here are the main channels (besides our main site) that we use to communicate
 as a brand, as Gratipay:
 
-  - [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Gratipay)
-  - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/Gratipay)
-  - [Google+](https://plus.google.com/+Gratipay)
   - [Medium](http://medium.com/gratipay-blog)
-
-We generally don't speak as Gratipay very often. Instead, I prefer to listen to
-conversations on each platform, and weigh in as an individual, using my
-personal accounts. You can, too! :-)
+  - [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Gratipay)
+  - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/Gratipay) (rarely)
+  - [Google+](https://plus.google.com/+Gratipay) (rarely)
diff --git a/www/big-picture/brand/ladder-of-love.png b/www/big-picture/brand/ladder-of-love.png
diff --git a/www/big-picture/customers/index.spt b/www/big-picture/customers/index.spt
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@ nav_title = 'Customers'
 [---] text/html via markdown
 
 Our [mission](../mission) is to cultivate an economy of gratitude, generosity,
-and love. Our [values](../brand/) additionally include honesty, kindness,
-directness, safety, and optimism. Who are our customers?
+and love, and our core [values](../brand/) are safety, consent, transparency,
+openness, and love. We define love as "freely serving one another." Whom do we
+see ourselves as freely serving? Who are our customers?
 
 <a href="http://interactive.blockdiag.com/?compression=deflate&src=eJxLyslPzk7JTExXqOZSUEjMyUxOVYjOSUxKzbFVqgNzlWKBEq5wwZCMVAXXvJLUooKizGKIZHJRaXFGahFCH1QALAkxUtcOaASQgMpYcwFl0ovySwsUSlITc8F2A83Jz8kvslVSNja2tDQzU7IGC7qCyYLM5MSiFIQNED7YglquWgAxeDvp"><img src="customers.png"></a>
 

diff --git a/www/big-picture/product.spt b/www/big-picture/product.spt
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ nav_title = "Product"
 [---] text/html
 
 What product are we building to further our [mission](./mission) according to
-our [values](./brand/) for our [audience](./audience/)? Our product offers
+our [values](./brand/) for our [customers](./customers/)? Our product offers
 payments and payroll for open work. Companies and organizations apply to join
 Gratipay as a "team," and then they can use Gratipay to collect voluntary
 payments from their customers, and distribute payments to their team members.

diff --git a/www/howto/manage-risk.spt b/www/howto/manage-risk.spt
@@ -64,15 +64,14 @@ that receives payments on Gratipay to go through an underwriting process, which
 includes an assessment not only of their legitimacy as a business or
 organization offering open work, but also of their alignment with our
 [mission](http://inside.gratipay.com/big-picture/mission) and [brand
-    values](http://inside.gratipay.com/big-picture/brand/), which include
-"honesty," "kindness," and "collaboration." The underwriting process includes
-[a public review
-    period](https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/labels/Review), and
-we provide a public listing of [our current, prospective, and rejected
-    customers](https://gratipay.com/explore/teams/). Approximately half of
-Gratipay's customers are outside of the United States, which, all things
-being equal, does heighten our AML risk. However, our target clientele and
-our underwriting process put us at low risk of money laundering.
+values](http://inside.gratipay.com/big-picture/brand/). The underwriting
+process includes [a public review
+period](https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/labels/Review), and we
+provide a public listing of [our current, prospective, and rejected
+customers](https://gratipay.com/explore/teams/). Approximately half of
+Gratipay's customers are outside of the United States, which, all things being
+equal, does heighten our AML risk. However, our target clientele and our
+underwriting process put us at low risk of money laundering.
 
 We identify customers in the United States by collecting their name, address,
 and date of birth, which we programmatically verify. For customers outside of