Community guidelines

A notebook is a calm place. These guidelines keep it that way, for writers and for readers. They apply to notes, profiles and comments alike.

The short version

• Write your own work, and credit other people’s.
• Be honest about who you are and where your links go.
• Disagree with ideas, not with people.
• Keep other people’s private details out of it.

Never allowed

Anything on this list is removed when we find it, without warning:

• Content that is illegal, or that helps someone do something illegal.
• Malware, phishing pages, or links that try to trick readers into handing over details.
• Deceptive or harmful links: a link should lead where its text says it does.
• Harassment, hate and threats, aimed at anyone.
• Sharing someone else’s private information, such as addresses, phone numbers or private messages.
• Impersonating another person or organisation.
• Any sexual content involving minors.

Your own words

Publish work you wrote or have the right to publish. Quoting is fine when it is short, clearly marked and credited. Copying someone else’s article, in whole or in large part, is not. If you translate or adapt a piece, say so and link to the original.

Links

Links are welcome. Point readers to your sources, your own website and anything that helps them understand the note. Keep links honest and relevant to what you wrote. A note that exists only to carry links is not a note.

A good test: if a reader clicks the link, do they land where they expected, on something that adds to what they just read? If yes, it belongs.

Comments

Comments should be on-topic and civil. Add something: a question, a correction, an example from your own experience. We do not publish spam, advertising, personal attacks or comments that have nothing to do with the note. Every guest comment is reviewed before it appears, so a missing comment is usually still in the queue, or was not approved.

Profiles and names

Use your own name or a pen name you use consistently. Your portrait, bio and website link should describe you, not someone else. Commenters can use any name, as long as it does not pretend to be another person.

What moderators do

Moderators may remove notes or comments that break these guidelines. When a notebook breaks them repeatedly, or seriously, we may close it. We try to act in proportion: a single off-topic comment is simply not published; a phishing link is removed straight away.

Reporting a problem

Seen something that breaks these rules? Use the contact page and choose Report a post or comment, or Copyright if your own work was copied. Include the link. We read every report.