Rules

The golden rule is to always remain civilized. We won’t tolerate anyone who resorts to personal insults or inflammatory comments. Any type of discriminatory insult will be punished appropriately, as well as attacks on someone’s personality. The same goes for harmful vocabulary (e.g. “r*t*rd”, “tr*nn*e”, “f*gg*t”, “aut*st”, “nigg*r”…). For the exact shape of these consequences, see the “Enforcement Policy” section below.

Besides harmful vocabulary, members should always respect the way other members understand and describe themselves. This is not to shut debates about identity and related matters down, as they may be “ideological discussions”, the rules for which are detailed below; rather, what we ask of members is that they avoid being hurtful and belittling to others even in such debates.

In a more general way, do not ever let your discussions devolve into insult, for instance where you belittle the other for having arguments or taste you see as inferior.

This will not always keep problems from happening. Language is full of grey zones, and we will not legislate on it beyond the bare minimum; when an issue arises, we trust the parties involved to make an effort to understand their position and possible mistakes without a moderator’s intervention. and not the reverse. As an example, we trust that in the case of “unwitting use” detailed in the “Enforcement Policy” section below, a solution can be found naturally; we will only intervene if we judge one party to be clearly in the wrong, or if we see their behavior as deliberate (for instance, if it is done repeatedly).

Another area of difficulty is language which may not directly violate any rules, but still come off badly or be seen as charged. Such cases will be left to the staff’s appreciation, based on whether we see its use as a personal attack on a user or a group of users, as used with malicious intent or not…

Following from this, words which can be used based on context but are potentially offensive should be censored (for instance, please write tr*p, r*pe…)

It should go without saying that all the offenses listed above will be deleted wherever they appear.

We ask the utmost mutual respect of our users. As a website with a varied community, you must respect the privacy and dignity of all: as examples, do not disclose the sexuality or gender identity of someone who has not come out yet; do not speak a trans person’s deadname unless they explicitly allow it; chasing, doxxing, harassment, threatening and the like are obviously out of the question and any attempt to force oneself on another member will result in a swift ban.

In the same spirit, we encourage all members to preface sensitive topics by content warnings. They are not meant to be exhaustive and can never be; but if you know you are about to touch on topics that could hurt readers (e.g. transphobia, sexual assault), you are a kindly asked to warn readers in advance. Failure to do so will not have consequences, however, unless in repeated cases even after others have expressed hurt.

Members who are on the receiving end of uncomfortable behavior in private spaces (for instance, Discord messages) can always contact a moderator if they need it. We will do our best to keep this space comfortable to everyone.

And finally, a note on specifically ideological discussions: anyone who does not violate the rules, regardless of their exact ideology, is welcome to discuss. But please do not resort to insulting people for having beliefs you don’t share!

Please do not post aimlessly. Do not flood the comments with messages that simply read “yeah” and the like. Be careful that your comments are adding to the conversation.

In the same spirit, please be careful of the way you express yourself. We are understanding of people who struggle with orthography for genuine reasons, but do not write in shorthand language and the like if you can avoid it; do not abuse emoji, either.

You can link content, but there are some restrictions. NSFW is forbidden in the comments! The same goes from promotion of personal content. In the same vein, violent imagery is strictly forbidden as well as graphic text.

When you post fanart, always link to the original source, and mention the artist’s name: for instance: by [artist name] on [link to source]. Uncredited fanart posting will be deleted and a warning will ensue!

Spoilers won’t be tolerated. The only exception to this is links: as long as you warn people that what you’re linking contains spoilers, and what said spoilers concern, there’s no problem.

Memes are allowed as long as they’re in good fun; joking which involves harmful ideas (e.g. bigotry, making light of suicide or self-harm) may be restricted depending on circumstances (e.g. parodying reactionary parlance is perfectly fine, but regular appropriation of their vocabulary for ‘ironic’ use, being tactic of theirs, may put you under scrutiny).

It is strictly forbidden for one to have two or more accounts at the same time. If you wish to change accounts, please contact us.

Finally, any attempt to impersonate the site or speak in its name will result in a ban.

Expressing views, or behaving in ways fundamentally at odds with our project will result in a simple ban. This includes any reactionary ideology, conservatism which denies the right of queer people, as well as TERFism and other subgroups of conservatives hiding behind a thin revolutionary veil. This goes for direct insults to any of our members of course, but also general ideological statements. Note that these views do not have to be expressed “seriously” to be met with such punishment; trolls will also be banned.

Making the odd mistake will never lead to consequences, as we value mutual trust and comprehension over ideological purity. An unwitting use of hurtful vocabulary, if understood and fixed, will not result in any warning or suspension.

Unapologetic use of such vocabulary will result in a warning; a second use a strike; and past the third strike, suspension for a week, and any further bad behavior, a ban.