About
SOGATHER COMMUNITY GUIDELINES
Fostering Positive Tribe Behavior and Attitude
Last Updated: 5 June 2023
Section 1: Introduction
We created SoGather to be a welcoming, respectful and safe community for all members. We want every member to be able to express themselves and belong to the community, but not at the expense of anyone else.
These guidelines explain what is expected and isn’t allowed on SoGather. It also outlines the types of relevant community offenses and how SoGather will deal with offenders.
Our Trust & Safety team reviews reports by users, moderators, or trusted reporters. When someone violates these guidelines, we may take a number of enforcement steps against them, including issuing warnings, removing content, suspending or removing the accounts and/or servers responsible, and potentially reporting them to law enforcement. We may consider relevant off-platform behavior when assessing for violations of specific Community Guidelines.
If you come across a user, message, or server that appears to break these guidelines, please report it to us.
Section 2: General Behavior
a. Be Respectful and Courteous: SoGather is a platform where everyone can find a place to belong, and harassment prevents users from building healthy communities.
Treat fellow community members with respect and courtesy.
Do not promote, coordinate or engage in personal attacks, direct, indirect and suggestive threats, derogatory language, hate speech or any form of harassment. We consider the following to be protected characteristics: age; caste; color; disability; ethnicity; family responsibilities; gender; gender identity; housing status; national origin; race; refugee or immigration status; religious affiliation; serious illness; sex; sexual orientation; socioeconomic class and status; source of income; status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking; and weight and size.
Do not use profanity. Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenity, expletives, vulgarism, or vulgarity, is a socially offensive use of language. SoGather recognises that there are different levels of acceptances of profanity as a personal expression, but this may be perceived as rude, obscene, or culturally offensive. to maintain positive and constructive conversation.
Do not send unsolicited bulk messages (or spam) to others.
Do not organize, promote, or engage in any illegal behavior, such as the buying, selling, or trading of dangerous and regulated goods or services. Dangerous goods have reasonable potential to cause real-world, physical harm to individuals. Regulated goods have laws in place that restrict the purchase, sale, trade, or ownership of the goods.
Do not abuse SoGather services or products in any way, such as using monetisation features to commit fraud.
Do not evade permanent SoGather enforcement actions. This includes creating new or using existing accounts or communities after being removed for violating our platform rules.
Do not use self-bots or user-bots. Each account must be associated with a human, not a bot.
Do not mislead SoGather’s support teams. Do not make false or malicious reports to our Trust & Safety or other customer support teams, send multiple reports about the same issue, or ask a group of users to report the same content or issue. Repeated violations of this guideline may result in loss of access to our reporting functions.
b. Be Constructive: Engage in meaningful and constructive discussions. Be open-minded and considerate when expressing opinions or providing feedback.
c. Focus on Collaboration and Support: Foster a spirit of collaboration and support within the community. Help others, share knowledge, and contribute positively to discussions and initiatives.
d. Be Honest: Trustworthiness is one of the foundation values of SoGather. No one likes the feeling of being duped. If you get an emotional high, or monetary benefits, from being untrustworthy, there are other communities you belong to. Like a rehabilitation support community.
Therefore:
Do not share false or misleading information (otherwise known as misinformation). Content that is false, misleading, and can lead to significant risk of physical or societal harm may not be shared on SoGather. We may remove content if we reasonably believe its spread could result in damage to physical infrastructure, injury of others, obstruction of participation in civic processes, or the endangerment of public health.
Do not misrepresent your identity on SoGather in a deceptive or harmful way. This includes creating fake profiles and attempts to impersonate an individual, group, or organization.
Do not engage in activities that could damage or compromise the security of an account, network, or system. This includes using deceptive techniques to trick others into revealing sensitive information (phishing), using malicious software (malware), and flooding a target with traffic in order to make a resource unavailable (denial-of-service attacks).
Do not use or attempt to use SoGather to promote, coordinate, or execute financial scams. A financial scam is any intentionally deceptive act taken with the intent to receive an illegal, unethical, or otherwise dishonest gain.
Do not engage in activities that fraudulently generate a profit at the expense of others. This includes facilitating, providing instructions for, and participating in fraud. We do not allow coordinated efforts to defraud businesses, price gouging, forgery, money laundering, or tools that facilitate illegal behavior.
Section 3: Types of Relevant Community Offenses
a. Direct Selling: Our community is focused on empowering Solos to build sustainable businesses through communal connections, opportunity and resources. We strictly prohibit any form or attempt to promote commission-based sales or direct marketing on our platform. Posting comments solely for the purpose of selling commission-based products or services is not allowed and will be considered an offense.
b. Harassment and Hate Speech: Any form of harassment, hate speech, sexual slurs, violent and sexually charged content, emotional coercion, discrimination, or offensive language directed towards individuals or groups based on their race, gender, religion, or other protected characteristics is strictly prohibited.
We consider the following to be protected characteristics: age; caste; color; disability; ethnicity; family responsibilities; gender; gender identity; housing status; national origin; race; refugee or immigration status; religious affiliation; serious illness; sex; sexual orientation; socioeconomic class and status; source of income; status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking; and weight and size.
c. Spamming and Trolling: Engaging in spamming activities or intentionally disrupting conversations through trolling, excessive self-promotion, or unrelated content is not acceptable.
d. Violating anyone’s intellectual property or other rights. Offenses include the unauthorised use of others' content without proper attribution or permission.
Section 4: Dealing with Offenders
a. Warning System: Our site follows a progressive warning system for dealing with offenders. Upon the first offense, a warning will be issued, explaining the violation and reminding the member of the expected behavior. Meanwhile, offensive content and posts may be removed.
b. Temporary Suspension: If the offense persists, a temporary suspension may be imposed, during which the member's account will be deactivated for a specified period. This allows time for reflection and reassessment.
c. Permanent Ban: In cases of severe or repeated offenses, a permanent ban may be implemented, leading to the removal of the member's account from the community.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Community Guidlines, please contact us.