Respect before reach
Community Guidelines
Challenge ideas clearly and firmly. Treat people safely and fairly. These rules apply to profiles, topics, arguments, comments, replies, reactions, votes and reports.
1. Debate the idea, not the person
Disagreement is welcome. Harassment is not. Do not insult, humiliate, stalk, dogpile, sexually harass, intimidate or repeatedly target a person. Do not encourage others to do it.
2. No hate or dehumanisation
Do not attack, exclude or dehumanise people because of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or another protected characteristic. Discussing a policy or belief is allowed; treating people as less human is not.
3. Threats and violence
Do not make credible threats, celebrate real-world violence, solicit violence or publish instructions intended to cause harm. Emergency danger should be reported to local emergency services, not only to Bothlo.
4. Protect minors
Never sexualise a minor, solicit sexual material, groom a child, share child sexual abuse material or enable exploitation. Report suspected child-safety material immediately through the illegal-content channel and, where appropriate, to competent authorities.
5. Self-harm and vulnerable people
Do not encourage, coach, glorify or challenge someone to self-harm or suicide. Supportive discussion and recovery resources are welcome. If someone may be in immediate danger, contact local emergency or crisis services.
6. Privacy and intimate content
Do not reveal addresses, phone numbers, passwords, financial details, precise location, private messages or other identifying information without permission. Never share intimate images without consent or threaten to do so.
7. Spam, scams and impersonation
No repetitive promotion, irrelevant links, phishing, malware, fake giveaways, commercial spam or coordinated flooding. Do not impersonate a person, organisation, moderator or Bothlo. Parody must be obvious and must not deceive or harass.
8. Honest participation
Do not use multiple accounts, bots, bought engagement, vote rings or coordinated reports to manipulate matches, voting, Best Argument, reactions, rankings, streaks or visibility. Do not falsely present an official Bothlo starter as user content.
9. Illegal content and regulated goods
Do not use Bothlo to facilitate crime, fraud, exploitation, terrorism, trafficking, dangerous weapons transactions or other unlawful conduct. A lawful discussion about these subjects is different from instruction or facilitation.
10. Copyright and other rights
Post your own words and images or material you are entitled to use. Give appropriate attribution where needed. Do not copy substantial protected works, misuse trademarks to deceive, or ignore a valid rights complaint.
11. Constructive debate
- Stay relevant to the topic or comment you answer.
- Represent sources and the opposing view honestly.
- Use FOR, AGAINST and NEUTRAL labels as intended; colours never replace the label.
- Do not evade character limits or moderation with spacing, coded abuse or edited images.
- Criticise claims with reasons, not personal attacks.
12. Reports and enforcement
Report genuine violations, not ordinary disagreement. A report does not automatically remove content. Bothlo considers context, severity and history and may hide/remove content, lock a topic, restrict publishing, suspend or ban an account. Eligible decisions can be appealed. See Content Moderation and Appeals and Illegal Content Reporting.