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Community guidelines

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MossPaper works because readers can trust what they open and writers can trust the people replying. These guidelines apply to everything published here: publication pages, issues, pinned introductions and replies.

The short version

Write honestly, link honestly and treat other people the way you would want your own work to be treated. If you would not say it to someone sitting across the table from you, do not post it in their replies.

What cannot be published

  • Anything illegal, or anything that helps someone break the law.
  • Malware, phishing, or links that deceive readers about where they lead or what they will do.
  • Harassment, hate, threats, or encouragement to harm anyone.
  • Other people’s private information, such as home addresses, phone numbers or private messages, shared without their consent.
  • Impersonation of another person, publication or organisation.
  • Plagiarism and copyright infringement. Quote with credit; do not republish work that is not yours to share.
  • Any sexual content involving minors. We remove it and report it.

Replies

A reply should answer the issue it sits under. Disagree as strongly as you like, but argue with the ideas, not the person. Off-topic messages, advertising dropped into a thread and insults will not be approved. Because every reply is read before it appears, a reply that breaks these guidelines simply never shows up.

Writers may link to their own websites, their sources and anything that helps a reader understand the issue. Links must go where they say they go. Hidden redirects, disguised downloads and links that pretend to be something else are treated as deceptive.

How we enforce them

The MossPaper team reviews reports and moderates replies. When something breaks these guidelines we may remove it, ask the writer to change it, or close a publication that keeps breaking them. We try to explain our decision to the writer involved, and serious cases may be removed first and explained afterwards.

Reporting something

If you see an issue or a reply that breaks these guidelines, use the contact page and choose “Reporting an issue or a reply”. Copyright problems have their own topic, “A copyright concern”. Please include the page address and a sentence about what is wrong.