Zany Community Guidelines: Rules to keep us all happy and safe

Don’t encourage violence or hatred. Don’t post content for the purpose of promoting or inciting the hatred of, or dehumanizing, individuals or groups based on race, ethnic or national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, disability or disease. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you have to shout it from the rooftops. If you encounter content that violates our hate speech policies, please report it. 

Report Hate Speech

Don’t post or solicit content that features the abuse of a minor, that includes suggestive or sexual content involving a minor or anyone that appears to be a minor, or that facilitates or promotes child sexual abuse. “Content” may include photos of real individuals, illustrations, animation, or text. Posting or sharing child sexual abuse material is a serious crime for which we have no tolerance. We report all such instances to child protection organizations and law enforcement around the world, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Report Harm to Minors

Visual depictions of sexually explicit acts (or content with an overt focus on genitalia) are not allowed on our website. That includes pictures, videos, GIFs, drawings, CGI, or anything similar. Historically significant art that you may find in a mainstream museum and which depicts sex acts are allowed with proper labeling (NSFW category).

Nudity and other kinds of adult material are generally okay, We’re not here to judge your art, we just ask that you designate your mature content NSFW (Not Safe For Work) so that people can choose to filter it out of their NewsStream if they prefer (This is done by selecting the NSFW category).

You can avoid all NSFW content by using not clicking to view Any content with the warning. This is especially useful if you don’t want a “jump-scare” when a nude woman appears right after Mitch McConnel’s face as you scroll. 😉

Depending on your content, you can label it as NSFW using the NSFW category or tag when creating your post.

Report Sexually Explicit Content

Don’t post content which includes violent threats toward individuals or groups – this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don’t post violent content or gore just to be shocking. It doesn’t make you cool, btw. Don’t showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality did we really have to mention this?), or their remains. Don’t post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of violence or the perpetrators.

Report Violence or Gore

I know, you’re as sick of hearing that term just as much as I am. “Voter fraud” is even worse. 🤮

You may not use this website to defraud nor impede the integrity of the United States Census or local, regional, or national public office elections. This also includes The Big Lie (I’m looking at you, Fox News). Bottom line: do not create or promote content designed to suppress, intimidate, or confuse voters or U.S. census participants. This includes spreading false information about how to vote, when to vote, or where to vote.

Report Election Interference

Don’t participate in schemes to drive up non-genuine follows, votes, shares, etc. Don’t orchestrate or engage in “follow trains”, where users are encouraged to follow streams of other users to gain more followers for themselves. Don’t make bulk or indiscriminate use of messaging features to, for example, bait shares/follows or drive traffic to your personal blog or website. If you want people to like you, just play it cool and be yourself. Add the URL of your website to your profile where friends can find it.

Make sure you always give proper attribution and include full links back to original sources. Especially for members writing “news” content for the site. When you find something awesome that a member or author has posted, share it instead of reposting it. It’s less work and more fun, anyway. When sharing something, DO NOT inject a link back to your profile or personal website/blog just to steal attention from the original post. If you want to report the unauthorized posting of content you created or have a copyright for, please do so using this form.

Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. If you aren’t allowed to use someone else’s copyrighted or trademarked work (either by license or by legal exceptions and limitations such as fair use), don’t post it.

Intellectual property is a tricky issue, so now is as good a time as any to explain some aspects of the process we use for handling copyright and trademark complaints. We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement as per our Terms of Service and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; please see our DMCA notification form to file a copyright claim online. Please note that we require a valid DMCA notice before removing content. Parties asserting a trademark infringement claim should identify the allegedly infringing work and the legal basis for their claim, and include the registration and/or application number(s) pertaining to their trademark. Each claim is reviewed by a trained member of our Trust and Safety team. Our form has been taken from the official DMCA website so that you include everything legally required. You can also send all of the information via email to: [email protected]

If we remove material in response to a copyright or trademark claim, the member who posted the allegedly infringing material will be provided with information from the complainant’s notice (like identification of the rightsholder and the allegedly infringed work) so they can determine the basis of the claim.

We always want to make sure there is room in any copyright or trademark complaint for both parties to make their case. With regard to copyright claims, the posting user can file a DMCA counter-notification with us, as described in our Terms of Service. Counter-notifications that we determine to be valid will result in restoration of the content at issue following the required waiting period prescribed by the DMCA. With regard to trademark claims, the posting user can send us an appeal explaining their side of the situation, along with any relevant materials we should look at. A successful trademark appeal will also result in restoration of the content at issue.

With regard to repeat copyright infringement, we use a three-strike system to evaluate the standing of a member’s account, where, generally, each valid copyright infringement notice constitutes a strike, and three strikes results in the termination of a member’s account. When a user submits a valid DMCA counter-notification, we remove the associated strike from their record.

Whew. It’s a complex process, but one we’re proud of, and that we think strikes all the appropriate balances.

Report Copyright Infringement

Don’t spam people. Don’t make spammy posts, don’t post spammy replies, don’t send people spammy messages. Be a regular human. Don’t put tags on your posts that will mislead or deceive searchers. For example, don’t tag a photo of your dog with “Donald Trump” unless the name of your dog is actually Donald Trump (why?!), and don’t overload your posts with #barely #relevant #tags. Of course, meaningful uses of tags are always fine (for example, ironic “punchline” tags that add meaning or context to a post). Don’t put code in your posts, like using JavaScript to cause redirects or inject unwanted ads in blogs. Don’t use deceptive means to generate revenue or traffic, or create profiles with the primary purpose of affiliate marketing. Spam doesn’t belong here. We don’t do it to you, so please don’t do it to us or our members.

Report Spam

Don’t use our community to deceptively obtain personal information. Don’t post content that violates anyone’s privacy, especially personally identifying or confidential information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or unlisted contact information. (Doxxing) Absolutely do not post unauthorized nude imagery—that is, private photos or videos taken or posted without the subject’s consent, otherwise known as revenge porn.

Report Privacy Violation

Don’t use our website to facilitate sex trafficking, other forms of human trafficking, or illegal prostitution. If you see this activity on our site, report it, and encourage victims to contact law enforcement or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

Report Human Trafficking

Don’t engage in targeted abuse, bullying, or harassment. Don’t engage in the unwanted sexualization or sexual harassment of others. If someone is sending you unwanted messages, or sharing your posts in an abusive way, we encourage you to be proactive. Report them, and block the hell out of them. And if someone blocks you, don’t attempt to circumvent the block feature or otherwise try to communicate with them. It’s just common courtesy. Why do you wanna talk to someone that blocked you, anyway?

Report Harassment or Abuse

Don’t include deceptive or fraudulent links in your posts. This includes giving links misleading descriptions, putting the wrong “source” field in a post, setting misleading click-through links on images, or embedding links to interstitial or pop-up ads. We hate those things!

We don’t tolerate content that promotes, encourages, or incites acts of terrorism. That includes content which supports or celebrates terrorist organizations or associated violent activities.

Report Terrorism

Don’t post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm. This includes content that urges or encourages others to: cut or injure themselves; embrace anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders; or commit suicide rather than, e.g., seeking counseling or treatment, or joining together in supportive conversation with those suffering or recovering from depression or other conditions. 

Dialogue about these behaviors is incredibly important and online communities can be extraordinarily helpful to people struggling with these difficult conditions. We aim for Progressive Newz to be a place that facilitates awareness, support, and recovery, and we will remove only those posts or blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm.

Report Self-Harm

Don’t use our website to conduct illegal behavior, like fraud or phishing. That should be pretty obvious to a Progressive, and any decent human being. Don’t use us for any kind of exchange of regulated drugs, substances, devices, goods, or weapons. Don’t use our community to buy them, sell them, trade them, or to share instructions for manufacturing them. This includes firearms, firearm parts, 3D-printed firearms or parts, explosives, ammunition, or anything else designed to hurt others. I know. That part seems out of place in a community full of #gun reform people, but gotta cover all of the bases.

Report sale of drugs or prohibited materials