MultiHub Forum

I'm a moderator for a relatively new but fast-growing online forum focused on sustainable gardening, and as our community has expanded, we're starting to see more heated debates, off-topic spam, and borderline personal attacks that our initial, informal rules aren't equipped to handle. We need to draft a clear and comprehensive set of community guidelines to ensure constructive discussions, but I want to avoid creating a dense legal document that no one reads. For moderators or admins of established communities, what key sections and specific phrasing have you found most effective in your guidelines? I'm particularly interested in how you define and enforce rules around civility, handle misinformation on technical topics, and structure a transparent escalation process from warnings to bans that feels fair to the membership.