Community Guidelines

1. Purpose

Story Circle is a writing community: dark, harsh or disturbing themes can have a place in fiction. These guidelines do not restrict the limits of fiction; they prohibit content and behaviour that harm real people and the community. The guidelines are part of the Terms of Use.

2. Content never allowed

Zero tolerance applies to the following; the content is removed immediately, the account is closed and, where necessary, the matter is reported to the competent authorities:

• Any content that sexualises people under 18 (including fiction, drawings or implication).
• Content that glorifies, encourages or supports terrorism, terrorist organisations or mass violence.
• Threats of violence against a real person or incitement to crime.
• Content that encourages suicide or self-harm or teaches methods.
• Selling or supplying drugs, weapons or other illegal goods and services.

3. Prohibited content and behaviour

• Harassment and bullying: insults, humiliation, persistent unwanted contact or threats targeting a person.
• Hate speech: content that demeans people because of race, ethnicity, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, disability or similar characteristics, or advocates violence against them.
• Real people: depicting a real person in sexual content without their consent, or spreading defamatory claims about them as if true.
• Personal data: sharing someone else's address, phone number, identity details, private correspondence or photos without permission.
• Copyright infringement: copying, translating or presenting someone else's work as your own without permission.
• Impersonation: pretending to be another person, an organisation or the Story Circle team.
• Spam and manipulation: advertising, link flooding, meaningless or repetitive content; inflating likes, reads, SC or rankings with bots or multiple accounts; holding writing slots to block others.
• Malware and fraud: phishing, malicious links and scam attempts.

4. Sensitive themes and age ratings

Violence, horror, sexuality and similar adult themes can appear in fiction, but the book must be correctly marked with its age rating and content warnings. Explicit sexual content may appear only in books open to adults and within the limits allowed by the Service. The rating of incorrectly marked content may be changed or the content removed.

5. Rules of shared writing

• Respect the writing rules set by the book owner and the book's story.
• Do not write chapters that are unrelated to the story or deliberately disruptive in order to sabotage another author's chapter.
• If you claimed a writing slot, write within the time or let it go; do not hold it so that others cannot write.

6. Reporting and blocking

You can send us a chapter, comment, message or person you think breaks the rules using the Report option in the Service. You can block a person who bothers you; a blocked person cannot interact with you. Reports are reviewed and the reporter's identity is not shared with the reported person.

7. Enforcement

Depending on the severity and repetition of the violation, the following may apply: removal of content or a change of its age rating, a warning, restriction of certain features, temporary or indefinite suspension of the account, closure of the account. You can appeal the decision within the Service (Terms of Use Sections 9 and 10).