Topic: [e621 Code of Conduct] Official changes, questions and answers

Posted under General

This topic has been locked.

123easy said:
"In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored."

So then if someone posts a picture, then goes, "oh crap, artist wants it taken down, submitting request because they talked to me and my bad!" it'll be treated as a normal takedown request from a copyright holder? If it's how I'm understanding it, that's a good change.

I like it very much, too. Well, especially since I need that inferior version of that other post deleted :|

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
"In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored."

So then if someone posts a picture, then goes, "oh crap, artist wants it taken down, submitting request because they talked to me and my bad!" it'll be treated as a normal takedown request from a copyright holder? If it's how I'm understanding it, that's a good change.

It doesn't even have to be a takedown, a FFD will be good too, or, in a pinch, a dmail/email sent to admins.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
It doesn't even have to be a takedown, a FFD will be good too, or, in a pinch, a dmail/email sent to admins.

Yeah, I understand that. It's that it gets treated like a proper takedown request submitted by the copyright holder, that's what I was getting at. :)

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
It doesn't even have to be a takedown, a FFD will be good too, or, in a pinch, a dmail/email sent to admins.

I also want to specify three points and maybe add to this

1) If they realize it is DNP, and flag it, I believe we should be more lenient on them if we do discipline them, regardless of how long it has been posted (it's going to be deleted no matter what anyway because it is DNP)

2) No punishment should be incurred for flagging something that is not relevant, poor quality, repost or DNP however"

3) If it is illegal content, extremely racist, or extremely profane (such as troll posts) then discipline should be brought down on them no matter what, Especially for posting something they knew was illegal

-edit: This is actually what I've been doing, I just never had it documented really

Updated by anonymous

Rainbow_Dash said:

3) If it is illegal content, extremely racist, or extremely profane (such as troll posts) then discipline should be brought down on them no matter what, Especially for posting something they knew was illegal

-edit: This is actually what I've been doing, I just never had it documented really

But racist is a tag and it shouldn't be censored as long as it qualifies as art :v

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
But racist is a tag and it shouldn't be censored as long as it qualifies as art :v

There's racism, and then there's like, nazi levels of racism, which is closer to what RD means by extremely racist, I think. Think hate speech rather than just minor things like Halite posted.

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
There's racism, and then there's like, nazi levels of racism, which is closer to what RD means by extremely racist

But this site allows nazi style racism...
post #98590

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
But this site allows nazi style racism...
post #98590

Incorrect. That's an artistic depiction of nazi style racism. It doesn't go too far into extremes (for example, it could have been Mickey revelling in the strewn guts of Donald, his carcass torn to shreds by a bloodied Pluto... ._.) or hate speech directed at someone or a group- If for example, Mickey were saying, "Kill that Jew!" I doubt that that image would be allowed.

@Peekaboo: I think it's more of a "is something not relevant to the site and you flagged it to bring it to our attention? Thanks, but we don't need your help on that. This said, we're not going to slam you with a punishment for trying to be helpful, either." sorta thing. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, RD.

Updated by anonymous

Rainbow_Dash said:
1) If they realize it is DNP, and flag it, I believe we should be more lenient on them if we do discipline them, regardless of how long it has been posted (it's going to be deleted no matter what anyway because it is DNP)

This is how we've always done things. If they flag it, then obviously they know they messed up, so punishing them is pointless.

Rainbow_Dash said:
2) No punishment should be incurred for flagging something that is not relevant, poor quality

Cannot disagree enough. I don't want people flagging things just because they personally don't think it belongs here. If they want to be a part of quality control, they can become mods.

Rainbow_Dash said:
3) If it is illegal content, extremely racist, or extremely profane (such as troll posts) then discipline should be brought down on them no matter what, Especially for posting something they knew was illegal

Also something we've always done (except for the profane part. Curse words shouldn't affect whether or not something is approved).

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
Mickey were saying, "Kill that Jew!" I doubt that that image would be allowed.

1. It was a joke
2. Even if Micky said "kill the jew" if its the same image, I doubt it would be deleted.

Updated by anonymous

Conker, surprisingly, is correct. Mickey saying "kill the jew", so long as the image is artistic and not just simply there to be a racist image, is okay. The admins reserve the right to judge those on a case-by-case basis and, as always, users can request a second opinion via the Contact Us page, or via the CoC.

Ippiki is also right all on all his points. I would consider illegal content to be something like drug use (as outline in the CoC), or posting child porn.

Peekaboo, you show me where the backseat moderators are doing some backseat moderating, and we'll take care of them :)

Updated by anonymous

Peekaboo said:
It's not that I'm worried about not reporting them, what I'm worried about is that such a rule change would make it alright for people to flag stuff for being "not relevant to the site", which a lot of people already are doing, wrongfully.

Agreed, which, as ippiki said, is why we're not doing it :P

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
It doesn't even have to be a takedown, a FFD will be good too, or, in a pinch, a dmail/email sent to admins.

What about when people abuse this? By say uploading low quality troll images to mess with users, then flags their own image afterwords to avoid being smacked. example: https://e621.net/post/show/415733

post #415733

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
What about when people abuse this? By say uploading low quality troll images to mess with users, then flags their own image afterwords to avoid being smacked. example: https://e621.net/post/show/415733

post #415733

Ippiki also answered that, if the image was clearly targeting someone out of malice, we will still take the image down, and hit the user for trolling. Nothing changed there.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
Ippiki also answered that, if the image was clearly targeting someone out of malice, we will still take the image down, and hit the user for trolling. Nothing changed there.

Did you even look at the image? Its NOT targeting anyone, they just uploaded a bad image to troll and than flagged it. So does nothing happen to them if they keep doing it....thats my question

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
Did you even look at the image? Its NOT targeting anyone, they just uploaded a bad image to troll and than flagged it. So does nothing happen to them if they keep doing it....thats my question

I think the admins are smart enough to see when someone does something like that and punish accordingly.

Updated by anonymous

Sollux said:
I think the admins are smart enough to see when someone does something like that and punish accordingly.

No one is perfect, people miss things.

Updated by anonymous

Sollux said:
I think the admins are smart enough to see when someone does something like that and punish accordingly.

It's a case-by-case basis. Even if someone uploads a troll photo, it should provide some lulz for the users for a while :) Nothing wrong with that.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
It's a case-by-case basis. Even if someone uploads a troll photo, it should provide some lulz for the users for a while :) Nothing wrong with that.

Shit posting....there is something wrong with that. However you didnt answer my question..so again, will users get off with no slap for uploading bad images for trolling for just flagging the image afterwords? yes or no?

Hey

ippiki_ookami

Can you answer my question purrhaps?

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
Shit posting....there is something wrong with that. However you didnt answer my question..so again, will users get off with no slap for uploading bad images for trolling for just flagging the image afterwords? yes or no?

Hey
Can you answer my question purrhaps?

Actually, I did, you just don't want to accept the answer.

Conker, in the future, please re-consider what you're typing. Based on your current trend, and your tone in this thread, you are very close to violating our Code of Conduct.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
Actually, I did, you just don't want to accept the answer.

Conker, in the future, please re-consider what you're typing. Based on your current trend, and your tone in this thread, you are very close to violating our Code of Conduct.

Oh snap. You best believe in listening to EDF or you don goofed yourself

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
What about when people abuse this? By say uploading low quality troll images to mess with users, then flags their own image afterwords to avoid being smacked. example: https://e621.net/post/show/415733

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
Ippiki also answered that, if the image was clearly targeting someone out of malice, we will still take the image down, and hit the user for trolling. Nothing changed there.

Conker said:
Did you even look at the image? Its NOT targeting anyone, they just uploaded a bad image to troll and than flagged it. So does nothing happen to them if they keep doing it....thats my question

Sometimes I worry about you.

You should be capable of knowing that EDF said "If we see him doing this on purpose and/or to piss us or others of we'll slap him into submission". Other than that every deletion eats away at his upload limit, somebody couldn't do this forever even if we never hit them, Mario583 could tell you all about this procedure but he was shown the way out already.

Updated by anonymous

NotMeNotYou said:
every deletion eats away at his upload limit, somebody couldn't do this forever even if we never hit them, Mario583 could tell you all about this procedure but he was shown the way out already.

Ture, but isnt the upload limit hard ot lose at first? Isnt it like for every 4 deleted posts you lose 1? I only asked as the small change in flagging ones own image could leave some loop holes. I was just trying to make sure :v

Updated by anonymous

Char

Former Staff

123easy said:
"In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored."

So then if someone posts a picture, then goes, "oh crap, artist wants it taken down, submitting request because they talked to me and my bad!" it'll be treated as a normal takedown request from a copyright holder? If it's how I'm understanding it, that's a good change.

Right, this is something I did every once in a while back when I was lead admin. Sometimes people make mistakes when they upload; they might upload the wrong version of a picture, or upload a larger size that wasn't intended to be public, or simply realize that they shouldn't have uploaded whatever they did in the first place. It's a big hassle for everyone if we force the user to contact the artist/character owner to submit a takedown request for something that the uploader is telling us they mistakenly uploaded to begin with, which I noticed typically happened within 48 hours of the content being posted.

This is simply the formalizing of a practice that we've been engaging in for quite a while now.

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
Ture, but isnt the upload limit hard ot lose at first? Isnt it like for every 4 deleted posts you lose 1? I only asked as the small change in flagging ones own image could leave some loop holes. I was just trying to make sure :v

You know that if there was -1 for each deleted upload then your upload limit would be negative, right?

Updated by anonymous

Gilda_The_Gryphon said:
You know that if there was -1 for each deleted upload then your upload limit would be negative, right?

I think a lot of users would be negative by now if it was for every 1 post. I know I have a few just from resized image mistakes ect :v

Updated by anonymous

Just a question/request on one of the newer bits.
The wording of this part:

Posting Abuse
Editing/creating post descriptions (if you are not the artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner) to create information

is a bit confusing, to me at least.

It seems like you're saying no one but artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner can create or edit descriptions.
Aside from maybe for spelling/grammar level of fixes.
If that's what you're aiming for, it's not bad, but could possibly be a bit cleared, because it also sounds like it possibly means that you aren't allowed to invent information about an image.
Like, you couldn't decide what breed of dog is depicted in an image, and stick that in the description just because you want to.

I may just be getting confused over myself, or over-analyzing it, but I wasn't quite sure what it meant.

Updated by anonymous

Halite said:
Just a question/request on one of the newer bits.
The wording of this part:
is a bit confusing, to me at least.

It seems like you're saying no one but artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner can create or edit descriptions.
Aside from maybe for spelling/grammar level of fixes.
If that's what you're aiming for, it's not bad, but could possibly be a bit cleared, because it also sounds like it possibly means that you aren't allowed to invent information about an image.
Like, you couldn't decide what breed of dog is depicted in an image, and stick that in the description just because you want to.

I may just be getting confused over myself, or over-analyzing it, but I wasn't quite sure what it meant.

You are correct, but if you think it can be cleaned up, how would you write it? I'm all for making it more clear.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
You are correct, but if you think it can be cleaned up, how would you write it? I'm all for making it more clear.

Why? because this seems bad....what if the user made an abusive desc? or is advertising? or using the desc to tell others to "fuck off with bad tags" ect? Could we not edit that out or not?

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
You are correct, but if you think it can be cleaned up, how would you write it? I'm all for making it more clear.

I'll be honest, I didn't have any sort of confusion when reading it... "inventing" information like that is just plain wrong as it stands. We don't tag something because of outside information, and anything put into the description box that isn't verbatim on the source image defies TWYS and shouldn't ever be used as a source. I honestly don't understand Halite's confusion on this.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
You are correct, but if you think it can be cleaned up, how would you write it? I'm all for making it more clear.

I would change that line to:
- No one but artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner can create descriptions or make significant changes to the description of an image.

Maybe toss a (spelling and grammar changes are acceptable) in before the period if "significant changes" needs further definition.

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
We don't tag something because of outside information, and anything put into the description box that isn't verbatim on the source image defies TWYS and shouldn't ever be used as a source.

Actually, a very large part of the description is that you can use it to convey information about the image that CAN'T be tagged due to TWYS, such as the "true" gender of a character or that they're really royalty even though in the image they're in rags.

Updated by anonymous

tony311 said:
Actually, a very large part of the description is that you can use it to convey information about the image that CAN'T be tagged due to TWYS, such as the "true" gender of a character or that they're really royalty even though in the image they're in rags.

Didn't say that it can't be; what I said is that we can't use that information for tags, and we can't just make up information about the image and dump it in there. If it's an image of Furball's characer we can't just invent information about it being someone else's character or species, for example. A better example would be if we had an image of a dickgirl and the desccription had her listed as transgender; We wouldn't then tag the image transgender just because the description says she is. That's part of why the transgender tag got aliased away, because that's using information not available in the image.

Updated by anonymous

I was looking at user records and I noticed that Gilda had gotten griped at for "Targeting users and downvoting their posts is considered harassment and is against the rules." However, this is not listed anywhere in the rules as being 'harassing' and honestly I think it's a bit of a stretch to consider it harassment. Isn't the voting system explicitly designed to solicit the opinion of the public? Shouldn't one person's votes in theory be drowned out by positive (or negative) votes from others? If downvoting something is harassment why is downvoting allowed at all? Will I get banned or scolded if I upvote everything from a certain artist or user?

Gilda's record: https://e621.net/user_record?user_id=16311

Updated by anonymous

Here's my interpretation: The assumption is that if you're systematically mass downvoting a single user's uploads, you're not being fair, and you're not truly voting based on the quality of the posts.

The voting system is designed to solicit the honest opinion of the public on the quality of the post, not on the poster, or on anything else.

Mass upvoting is not going to be harassment, but it could also be dishonest use of the voting system if you're not really voting based on what you think of the posts. Maybe you're part of a user ring that agrees to always upvote each other's posts, or maybe you've upvoted every post by a certain artist and nothing else. Those would be leaning toward abuse of the vote system.

Updated by anonymous

Azazial said:
I was looking at user records and I noticed that Gilda had gotten griped at for "Targeting users and downvoting their posts is considered harassment and is against the rules." However, this is not listed anywhere in the rules as being 'harassing' and honestly I think it's a bit of a stretch to consider it harassment. Isn't the voting system explicitly designed to solicit the opinion of the public? Shouldn't one person's votes in theory be drowned out by positive (or negative) votes from others? If downvoting something is harassment why is downvoting allowed at all? Will I get banned or scolded if I upvote everything from a certain artist or user?

Gilda's record: https://e621.net/user_record?user_id=16311

Simply downvoting someone isn't harassment. Searching out all of their comments through the search function and downvoting them is. It's the "targetting users" aspect of it that made it harassment. Of course, this reply hinges on me remembering that occurance correctly, because I do remember there being a minor kerfuffle about it and that was how it was explained, but I could have misremembered or misinterpreted. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this count.

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
Simply downvoting someone isn't harassment. Searching out all of their comments through the search function and downvoting them is. It's the "targetting users" aspect of it that made it harassment. Of course, this reply hinges on me remembering that occurance correctly, because I do remember there being a minor kerfuffle about it and that was how it was explained, but I could have misremembered or misinterpreted. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this count.

Eh, from what I hear voting down images that you dont like uploaded by the same user is what they are calling harassment, when really its just disliking the shitty posts someone keeps uploading even if the posts are not good in quality.

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
Eh, from what I hear voting down images that you dont like uploaded by the same user is what they are calling harassment, when really its just disliking the shitty posts someone keeps uploading even if the posts are not good in quality.

But that is wrong.
Not that I'm surprised.

123easy said:
Simply downvoting someone isn't harassment. Searching out all of their comments through the search function and downvoting them is. It's the "targetting users" aspect of it that made it harassment. Of course, this reply hinges on me remembering that occurance correctly, because I do remember there being a minor kerfuffle about it and that was how it was explained, but I could have misremembered or misinterpreted. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this count.

That is correct, something like this is harassment, plain and simple.
If you downvote somebody's posts because he simply only uploads things you dislike than that just happens, if you downvote somebody's posts because you either want to make them feel bad or annoy them we'll hit you.

Updated by anonymous

Okay, so from what I'm reading that record was really actually given because of the thread and not because of the actual act of voting negatively on images. If I systematically downvote all posts with the "scat" tag because I genuinely dislike them then that is okay. I had to ask because nothing in the Rules/CoC mentions voting at all.

edit:
Oh, new question. The rules state repeatedly to not use "Unicode". Now the intention of this is clearly to get people not to use unicode symbols or other things that people might not know how to type. Wouldn't it be better to just, you know, say that? As it stands right now the entire site is actually transmitted in UTF-8 which is a dialect of Unicode...

Updated by anonymous

Azazial said:
Okay, so from what I'm reading that record was really actually given because of the thread and not because of the actual act of voting negatively on images. If I systematically downvote all posts with the "scat" tag because I genuinely dislike them then that is okay. I had to ask because nothing in the Rules/CoC mentions voting at all.

edit:
Oh, new question. The rules state repeatedly to not use "Unicode". Now the intention of this is clearly to get people not to use unicode symbols or other things that people might not know how to type. Wouldn't it be better to just, you know, say that? As it stands right now the entire site is actually transmitted in UTF-8 which is a dialect of Unicode...

Huh?

Unicode is mentioned twice in the Rules, once in "Abuse of Site Tools" ( Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools ) and once in " Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism" (Using Unicode in tags). People are not supposed to use them there to make searching for users and tags easier as well as that we had a problem with Unicode characters a while ago that broke a part of the site. But that has been fixed in the meantime and now it is only there to make things a bit easier to type.
Besides that, use Unicode in the comments or forumposts all you want, just make sure it isn't disruptive (like walls of Zalgo text and the likes).

Updated by anonymous

NotMeNotYou said:
Huh?

Unicode is mentioned twice in the Rules, once in "Abuse of Site Tools" ( Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools ) and once in " Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism" (Using Unicode in tags). People are not supposed to use them there to make searching for users and tags easier as well as that we had a problem with Unicode characters a while ago that broke a part of the site. But that has been fixed in the meantime and now it is only there to make things a bit easier to type.
Besides that, use Unicode in the comments or forumposts all you want, just make sure it isn't disruptive (like walls of Zalgo text and the likes).

I think that you might be misunderstanding what exactly Unicode is. This the exact point I was trying to make. Unicode is (basically) a standard for encoding characters/glyphs and not a font its self. It includes not only the normal Latin letters that we use in English but all of the other alphabets of the world as well as a variety of wacky symbols and such.

The rules ban "Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools" and "Using Unicode in tags" but that would actually include English as well. You are reading Unicode right now (assuming that your browser follows the suggestion from the site: <meta charset='utf-8'>)

The intent of the rules is clearly to prevent people from putting symbols like hearts, stars, or other languages like Japanese which use their own character set. The rule should be reworded to read something more like "Tags must be in English letters. Other alphabets and symbols are prohibited." or something to that effect. It's clearer about what is expected, what is prohibited, and prevents confusion in people who don't know what Unicode is or misunderstand what Unicode is.

Updated by anonymous

Azazial said:
I think that you might be misunderstanding what exactly Unicode is. This the exact point I was trying to make. Unicode is (basically) a standard for encoding characters/glyphs and not a font its self. It includes not only the normal Latin letters that we use in English but all of the other alphabets of the world as well as a variety of wacky symbols and such.

The rules ban "Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools" and "Using Unicode in tags" but that would actually include English as well. You are reading Unicode right now (assuming that your browser follows the suggestion from the site: <meta charset='utf-8'>)

The intent of the rules is clearly to prevent people from putting symbols like hearts, stars, or other languages like Japanese which use their own character set. The rule should be reworded to read something more like "Tags must be in English letters. Other alphabets and symbols are prohibited." or something to that effect. It's clearer about what is expected, what is prohibited, and prevents confusion in people who don't know what Unicode is or misunderstand what Unicode is.

Hrm, I do understand the differences between ASCII, ANSII, Unicode and however the japanese equivalent to ASCII is named are, it is just that most people tend to see the term Unicode not as the name for the all encompassing symbol collection it is but as one to describe "special characters".
So, I may be biased on this but I personally do not think the difference between "Don't use Unicode" and "Don't use symbols outside of the latin alphabet and arab numerals" will be a big one.
But I'll throw this to dave, he has much more experience with the wording of rules than I do.

Oh, but we do allow artist tags in other languages, as long as we don't have the english translation.

Updated by anonymous

NotMeNotYou said:
But that is wrong.
Not that I'm surprised.

Ive seen a user booped for down-voting certain images because the user didnt like the type of art, there was no comment that said this about targeting anyone. Thats what I was referring to.

Updated by anonymous

NotMeNotYou said:
Hrm, I do understand the differences between ASCII, ANSII, Unicode and however the japanese equivalent to ASCII is named are, it is just that most people tend to see the term Unicode not as the name for the all encompassing symbol collection it is but as one to describe "special characters".
So, I may be biased on this but I personally do not think the difference between "Don't use Unicode" and "Don't use symbols outside of the latin alphabet and arab numerals" will be a big one.
But I'll throw this to dave, he has much more experience with the wording of rules than I do.

Oh, but we do allow artist tags in other languages, as long as we don't have the english translation.

The Japanese set is called Shift JIS, which stands for Shift Japanese Industrial Standards. Learnt that when I was having to fiddle with settings to get my native region set to Japan so windows would play some games written with SJIS correctly.

Aside from that knowledge tidbit, I feel that only pedantic (Note, just in case: Calling someone pedantic is not automatically an insult! I consider myself pedantic about language, for example, because I do have a scholarly bent when it comes to grammar, spelling, definitions and etymology) code monkeys would question it, and that more feels like an, "I know what you mean but I'll question it anyways" sort of thing.

Updated by anonymous

Conker said:
Ive seen a user booped for down-voting certain images because the user didnt like the type of art, there was no comment that said this about targeting anyone. Thats what I was referring to.

Could you dig that record/user up? It shouldn't have happened during char's reign but I could be wrong.

Updated by anonymous

New Version of the CoC is up, the change is a minor addition to "Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files"

Suggested Suspension Length: e621 or Bad Dragon related, Permanent. All others, 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Showing unreleased content from anyone that has been discovered through unauthorized means
  • Showing the results of successful or attempted hacks of the Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621 servers, websites, or affiliates
  • Showing paid content, or creating posts or comments that link to content only available through paid subscription services
  • Discuss, or display any data not available via public websites
  • Quoting, or otherwise referencing, another user who posts illegal/paid content or data

Please note that paid content over 2 years old is acceptable to post

Since e621 is an extension of Bad Dragon, with it comes the expectation that if someone comes into access with unreleased content, whether it be an unreleased toy, new concept or design, or paysite material, that they do not post it in e621. We take our security very seriously, and any breaches are investigated fully. Example: a post containing a Bad Dragon toy that isn’t released yet.

Addendum: If someone asks about unreleased content, and the answer is that it hasn’t been released or is otherwise unavailable, than that is okay. Discussion regarding its contents, location, opinions of such, or anything pertaining to unreleased content is not acceptable.

Old CoC (Active from Dec 21st 2013 to March 10th 2014)

e621 Community Code of Conduct and Site Rules

.

Last Updated: 12/19/13

Code of Conduct Introduction

The forums and website are here to provide you with a friendly environment where you can discuss ideas, give advice, and converse about other aspects of e621 with fellow members. The community forums and primary website are at their best when participants treat their fellow posters with respect and courtesy. Therefore, we ask that you conduct yourself in a civilized manner while participating in these forums.

The guidelines and rules listed below explain what behavior is expected of you and what behavior you can expect from other community members. Note that the following guidelines are not exhaustive, and may not address all manner of offensive behavior. As such, the forum moderators shall have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Also, suspension or banishment from the posting section of the website will always result in the same regard to forum access. Your access to the forums and website is a ‘privilege’, and not a ‘right’. We reserve the right to suspend your access to the forums and website at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by these guidelines. In addition, these guidelines are not enforced on the e621 IRC channel, or similar off-site social channels. Likewise, any guidelines in use for the e621 IRC channels, or similar off-site social channels will not affect your access on the forums or website. Please note that the application of these rules varies based on the section of the website it is posted. Some things are OK to be as part of a 'Post' submission to the website, whereas it would not be OK as part of a 'Forum Thread'.

We reserve the right to evaluate each incident on a case by case basis. The action we take may be more lenient or more severe than those listed under each category:

Abuse of Site Tools
Advertising
Age Restrictions
Backseat Moderating
Bestiality
Blacklist
Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
Creating Duplicate Threads
Creepy Comments
Cross Linking Threads
Discussing Disciplinary Actions
Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information
Extreme Sexuality / Violence
Harassing or Defamatory
Major Religions, Religious Figures, Political Parties, or Political Figures
National Hatred
Illegal Drugs or Activities
Impersonating an Employee
Posting Abuse
Posting Cheats, Hacks, Trojan Horses or Malicious Programs
Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files
Racial / Ethnic Hatred
Real-Life Threats
Role-Play
Sexual Orientation
Spamming or Trolling
Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism

Glossary
Post: An image or other content uploaded to e621, on the posts section of the website. (https://e621.net/posts/). Not to be confused with a 'forum post'.
Comment: A textual comment made on a Post, on the posts section of the website
Forum Post: A comment made on a Forum Thread.
Forum Thread: A 'thread' of comments on a single subject, on the forums section of the website (https://e621.net/forum/)[/section]

Code of Conduct Policy Categories

Abuse of Site Tools
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Using any of the site tools, such as Flag for Deletion, ticket reporting system, takedowns, tags, notes, or any other site tool in a fashion that can be construed as disruptive, spamming, or defamatory
  • Putting gibberish in any of the description fields
  • Repeatedly submitting invalid, incorrect, or unnecessary requests
  • Repeatedly submitting username change requests
  • Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools
  • Using any of the site tools to “backseat moderate”
  • Reporting posts, threads, comments, or any other site media that is older than 6 months

It should be noted that if a user reports a post, thread, comment, or any other site media that is older than 6 months, but contains a publicly visible malicious link, that will be exempt from this rule

In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored.

This is aimed at making sure trolls and other disrespectful people do not detract or harm the look of the website by putting it requests for admin action with no clear, real, or valid basis. An example is someone who issues multiple username change requests in a short period of time. Another is someone repeatedly reporting another user’s comments when they didn’t break any rules.

Advertising
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Any non-beneficial, non-approved related businesses, organizations, or websites
  • Can be linked with Spamming or Trolling if it is used multiple times in a short period of time

If you are the content creator of a given post, it is acceptable and encouraged for you to advertise products or services you may offer, in the 'description' field of your post. In the future, we hope to offer a more streamlined and useful system for the promotion of your own work.
If you wish to promote your product or service, please contact [email protected] with any questions/approvals
Visit https://e621.net/forum/show/10410 for more information

This is intended to prevent people from using e621’s forums and posts from being a source of income/traffic for their unrelated business. If someone would like to advertise on the website, we encourage them to contact us so we can try and get them better exposure. This also allows them a place to go if they want to pay for a banner on the website. Not all ads have to be paid for either, and in some cases, we allow businesses or projects to receive free promotions in order to do good for the community.

Age Restrictions
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Any persons under the age of 18, or as determined by local laws
  • Any comment or evidence of being under the age of 18

Your account is your responsibility. If your account was breached/hacked, then you can dispute the problem and we will look into it on a case-by-case basis
If found to violate this rule, the account may be banned until the user’s 18th birthday.

Even though different states/provinces/territories have different rules, e621.net’s management and service office is located in Arizona, USA and it is by those laws that we are responsible for. We cannot knowingly allow any minors to view pornographic content, so we must be proactive in preventing this underage access. This includes accounts that are either legally or illegally accessed by minors. Furthermore, we require photo identification and proof of someone turning 18 in order to release access to their account. Such proof can be sent to the senior management group to determine authenticity, and must include the user’s face as well as the government or state issued identification, or other applicable document.

Backseat Moderating
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Implying moderator/administrator privileges where none exist
  • Non-administrator/moderator/staff threatening to use disciplinary actions against another user
  • Demanding, ordering, or otherwise stating to an administrator/moderator/staff certain administrative actions to be taken against another user

This is aimed at preventing non-administrators from attempting to enforce the rules of the website. It does not matter if the user was correct, or incorrect, in their actions. Most, if not all, users are largely unaware of the daily dealings with the admin staff and would not be aware of any pending changes or discussions. In addition, users cannot demand an admin ban someone, report a comment, take down art, or any of the moderator/administrator actions. However, they can request that we look into something, so that we may perform our own research and resolve it without bias. Example: Sending a PM to an admin telling them to ban a user, with or without a reason. Example: Sending in a ticket citing a rule violation, then stating that if it wasn’t done to their satisfaction, they want all of their art removed from the site.

Bestiality
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating a post, forum post, or thread that is an inappropriate reference to real-life bestiality, sexual relations, or bodily functions
  • Linking or commenting on a website that promotes material that contains inappropriate references to real-life bestiality, sexual relations, or bodily functions

The two keywords here are “real-life” and “inappropriate”. Obviously, there are going to be bestiality references, and the nature of our site has to be more lenient about it than most. However, the moment someone mentions or posts about a real-life animal and makes sexual comment about it, then they fall under this. No personal discussion. If someone makes a sexual reference to a drawn or imaginary animal, that is fine. Example: I tried to get the horse penis to be realistic in size (okay) Man, I fucked my neighbor’s horse so hard last night (not okay).

Refusal to Use Blacklist
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that complain about artwork that can be blacklisted
  • Wrongfully claiming lack of knowledge about the blacklist system to avoid punishment from the previous rule

This is intended to reduce or eliminate the complaints that users make about seeing a certain type of content on the site. If a user chooses, or refuses, to utilize the blacklist, but continues to complain about content they find offensive or unsatisfactory, then this rule may be enforced. Additionally, if a user finds a post that is incorrectly tagged and willingly chooses to complain about seeing it instead of placing the correct tag, this rule may also be enforced then.

Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Posting anything on another account
  • Having someone post on your behalf

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternate accounts are generally okay, so long as they are not used to evade the suspension/ban

Fairly self-explanatory. If someone gets Suspended or Banned, and they try to go on a friend’s account, or alt account, and post anyway, that account gets banned as well. The other side to this is if they were under a short-term suspension and they go around to circumvent it, that short-term suspension becomes a permanent ban. If a user does this, but acts in such a way as to not continue the actions that got them banned, then an admin may choose not to enforce this rule, under the guise of helping the greater good.

Creating Duplicate Forum Threads
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum threads about existing topics less than six months old
  • Creating a separate forum thread about an existing topic for further discussion in another forum category
  • Creating a separate forum thread about an existing locked topic for further discussion in any forum or site

This is intended to reduce clutter on the website, discouraging users from posting similar or same content in multiple, potentially unrelated, forums or topics. If someone would like to increase visibility of a post for any reason, they can request it from an admin.

Creepy Comments
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum posts, threads, or comments that cause an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease, or are sexually inappropriate

This is intended to ensure that users do not express their personal fetishes/desires publicly. Users have the right, within realistic expectations, to browse comfortably without unneeded or unnecessary commentary of those who wish to express their desires.

Discussing Disciplinary Actions
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum posts, threads or comments to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a member, including chat logs and email correspondence between a member and an administrator/moderator
  • Creating forum threads or posting comments to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a content post, or other submission to the site

Link to public records is located at https://e621.net/user_record
If you have a question about a disciplinary action, please contact the admin or site owner via dmail or email.

This is intended to prevent drama and concerns over how someone was disciplined. While records are publicly available information, any disputes/communication over said records or any other disciplinary action is confidential between the user and the admin team. Discussing it publicly would only serve to cause disruption and is generally ill-advised. It is encouraged that any and all discussion about disciplinary actions occur via email or dmail and directly to the admin in question or senior management group.

Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Releasing or assisting in releasing any real-life information about other members or employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or anyone else

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action

Self-explanatory for the most part, but any attempt to reveal personal information, whether true or not, about someone will qualify. Example: I heard EDFDarkAngel1 lives in Phoenix (okay) I heard that EDFDarkAngel1 drives a red 1961 Ferrari GT California (not okay).

Extreme Sexuality / Violence
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme real-life violent sexual activity
  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme real-life violence
  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme kinks and/or fetishes

The intent is to prevent real-life violent content from websites we do not control from being exposed to users of e621. The rule specifically mentions links to other websites since we control the content here. As to what defines as “extreme kink” is going to be judged on a case-by-case basis. However, if it is ruled that one thing is extreme kink, it must be consistent in that ruling. For example, if you consider scat as an extreme kink (not saying that we should), all posts and comments that contain scat should be removed as well, so judge wisely. Example: a post of a drawn character getting graphically and brutally slaughtered (okay). A forum thread linking to 4chan’s /c/ thread (not okay)

Harassing or Defamatory
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Insultingly refer to other people, employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or any groups of people
  • Performing actions which result in ongoing harassment to other people, employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or any groups of people

This will be rendered against intent as well as action. The idea is to prevent a member from being uncomfortable in the forums or on the site.

This is intended to stop the insults and offensive comments that some people use. If someone makes a public comment, and someone finds it offensive, it will most likely fall under this. Example: I don’t agree with the admins (okay) The admins here are fucking stupid (not okay)

Major Religions, Religious Figures, Political Parties, or Political Figures
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Any discussion in forum posts, threads, or comments regarding major religions or religious figures
  • Any discussion in forum posts, threads, or comments regarding major political parties or political figures

The main point behind this is, while we do encourage free speech and we have no problem with someone saying “thank God” or “Jesus blesses you”, we have to draw the line at an actual discussion, as it often leads to passionate and heated debate and a general distraction from what is ultimately a porn website. The same goes for politics, we know that people want to talk about it, and often do, but there are places for that and they are not here.

National Hatred
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Promoting national hatred
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with recognized national slurs
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with hateful content
  • Alluding to symbols of national hatred

This is intended to make sure people aren’t outwardly offending people’s national pride or members of a government. This is something that we need to gauge by intent, not just presentation. There are acceptable forms of art that present shock value, or an unpopular point of view, but where we need to step in is if someone is deliberately being malicious.

Illegal Drugs or Activities
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Forum threads or comments that references to abusing illegal drugs
  • Forum threads or comments that references to performing illegal activities

This is intended to make sure we are not promoting drug use in commentary form. It is okay if someone posts a picture of someone shooting up, but it is not okay if someone comments that they like to shoot up. We do not want anyone looking at the comments and thinking drug abuse is acceptable (because someone else is doing it). Example: a post where a strung-out character has a needle in their arm (okay) Comment in the post’s thread: Oh wow, that reminds me of me an hour ago! (not okay)

Impersonating an Employee or Moderator
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Passing yourself off as a current or past employee of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, especially to post false information
  • Passing yourself off as a current or past moderator of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, especially to post false information

Passing yourself off as anyone else is not generally acceptable, and if it is someone who has been suspended or banned, it may lead to your account being banned

This is intended to make sure that all official information comes from admin accounts, and not someone else. This includes posting official information on a friend’s account, or even an alternate one. Make sure that if you are posting information, you do it from your administrator or moderator account. This also goes for ban-evaders, if someone tries to impersonate them, we will assume it is them trying to evade the ban. Example: Hey everyone, it’s EDFDarkAngel1 on a friend’s account. I wanted to tell you about some of the upcoming site changes…

Posting Abuse
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Knowingly uploading previously deleted content
  • Posting content listed in the Avoid Posting List (https://e621.net/wiki/show?title=avoid_posting)
  • Failure to cite a minimum of 4 tags to an uploaded post
  • Knowingly adding or editing a post source to an incorrect link
  • Knowingly or repeatedly uploading a lower-resolution image, if there is a higher-resolution of that image available
  • Uploading screenshots, images under 200x200 pixels, images with artifacts or large watermarks, and/or non-artistic images (motivational posters, Second Life, memes, image macros, etc.)
  • Editing/creating post descriptions (if you are not the artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner) to create information
  • Using post descriptions to express personal feelings, create drama, or otherwise take away from describing the attached post
  • Please try to use proper spelling and grammar in post descriptions

This is intended to ensure there is a minimum level of quality on the website, by ensuring people who have specifically requested that their art not be on the site, removing art that is sufficiently poor quality, or encouraging tag usage. It also is expanded to include post descriptions and ensure that no one uses it to vandalize someone’s post.

Posting Hacks, Trojan Horses, or Malicious Programs
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that link to hacks or malicious programs/viruses

If you want to report a hack or other malicious program, please contact the site administrator via the Contact Us page with screenshots and/or other evidence sufficient to reproduce the problem
If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternatively, you may contact any admin via dmail, email, or IRC chat to report this issue

This is intended to keep the website free of unwanted software/malware. Understand that the user may not be outwardly aware that their link is harmful, but most are pretty obvious that they intend to infect others. Senior management approval is not needed to ban someone for this. Example: a post containing a hyperlink to a website with generic/unrelated content and a large number of attention-grabbing ads

Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files
Suggested Suspension Length: e621 or Bad Dragon related, Permanent. All others, 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Showing unreleased content from anyone that has been discovered through unauthorized means
  • Showing the results of successful or attempted hacks of the Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621 servers, websites, or affiliates
  • Showing paid content, or creating posts or comments that link to content only available through paid subscription services
  • Discuss, or display any data not available via public websites

Please note that paid content over 2 years old is acceptable to post

Since e621 is an extension of Bad Dragon, with it comes the expectation that if someone comes into access with unreleased content, whether it be an unreleased toy, new concept or design, or paysite material, that they do not post it in e621. We take our security very seriously, and any breaches are investigated fully. Example: a post containing a Bad Dragon toy that isn’t released yet.

Addendum: If someone asks about unreleased content, and the answer is that it hasn’t been released or is otherwise unavailable, than that is okay. Discussion regarding its contents, location, opinions of such, or anything pertaining to unreleased content is not acceptable.

Racial / Ethnic Hatred
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Promoting racial/ethnic hatred
  • Language that is recognized as a racial/ethnic slur
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with hateful content
  • Alluding to a symbol of racial/ethnic hatred

The same as National Hatred, we just have to be careful how we judge this. This is something we need to gauge by intent, not just presentation. Example: a post of a black character in a cotton field with a plantation behind them (okay). A post of a black character in a cotton field being whipped by white characters (not okay)

Real-Life Threats
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Language that refers to violence in any capacity against a person or persons

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action

Offensive language and behavior may be tolerated if everyone is okay with things, but the moment it turns into anything else, we need to step in. Administrators and moderators are expressly forbidden to use offensive behavior or language in any communication while assuming official responsibilities. Example: I will kick your ass if you flag one of my posts again (not okay)

Role-Play
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Initiating or partaking in explicit role-play of any type
  • Impersonating fictional/nonfictional characters or people
  • Initiating or partaking in role-play with characters in the related thread/post

This is intended to prevent a culture that is inherently self-destructive and takes away from the website. There are acceptable forms of role-play, typically that which reinforces a point, creates humor, or otherwise does not cause a disruption. Even in this setting, however, role-play must be just a single comment, and cannot be made in response to another role-player.

Sexual Orientation
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Insultingly refer to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other members

The intent is to prevent anyone’s sexual orientation from being the target of malice, harassment, etc. Example: I picked up a fag from the ground (okay). Then I dropped him back down again (not okay).

Spamming or Trolling
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days, or Permanent
This category includes:

  • Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish
  • Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest
  • Causing disturbances in forum threads or comments, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, and/or insult other members
  • Making non-constructive or derailing posts or comments.
  • Abusing the Flagging for Deletion option, Report system, or other website tools by sending false information or nonsensical messages
  • Numbering a thread, IBTL, TL;DR, or any other fad statements

Spamming is self-explanatory, but unless the entire thread is joining in and enjoying an offensive or harassing comment, someone who posts insulting comments should get flagged. We will have to use common sense when enforcing this; people can have opinions and state them, but that does not allow them to make someone else feel bad or unwanted. If no one complains or gets offended, AND it’s not an outwardly offensive remark, then it will be okay. However, if someone complains, gets offended, OR it’s an outwardly offensive remark (I think EDFDarkAngel1 is an asshole and should be shot), then they need to be flagged.

Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Adding a tag to a post that is not either clearly visible, or reasonably assumed
  • Removing a valid tag, either as part of a dispute/argument, or to place one that is not correct
  • Using Unicode in tags

The purpose for this is to prevent users from abusing the system that for easy searching/indexing of the posts. This enforces the site’s “Tag What You See” rule, in that you cannot tag an image as “male” or “female” unless there is visible evidence of that. Even if another site has the same character with better visibility of its gender, that post uniquely must contain those elements. Mistagging, adding invalid tags, or removing valid tags are not punishable for a one-time offense, but they will be disciplined if they produce a pattern of tagging abuse.

IMPORTANT
Repeatedly violating any area of the e621 Community and Forums Code of Conduct, including the areas detailed above, will often result in banishment from the forums and site.
This policy is not language-restrictive. Language that falls under this policy will always be subject to the repercussions listed, whether it is inappropriate in English or any other language.
The bottom line is that we want e621.net to be a fun and safe environment for all members. While posting on its forums and on the site, you will encounter thousands of other people who share different experiences and come from vastly different backgrounds. While certain language and images may or may not be offensive to you, consider the fact that the same language and images may have a completely different effect on someone else.

User Ranks

When first creating an account, you will automatically be set as Member. Through tagging/posting contributions to the site, as well as constructive behavior, you may get promoted by an administrator. If you feel that you should get promoted based on your efforts, you can contact the website administration via the Contact Us page and request it.

Member: Can search up to six tags simultaneously. Must wait three days to edit tags, and a week to upload, vote, and comment

Privileged: Unlimited tag edits and comments, can search up to eight tags simultaneously, can apply tag scripts, use Dtext color tags and tag subscriptions

Contributor: No upload limit, submitted posts are auto-approved

Janitor: Can delete forum posts

Moderator: Unlimited access, with the exception of editing forum categories, job tasks, news, takedowns, editing post votes, create/delete aliases and implications, ticket system, change usernames, and modify upload limits

Administrator: Unlimited access to all site tools and reports

If you have been given a position above Member, then it is expected that you will respect others and behave according to the e621 Community and Forums Code of Conduct. If at any time you fail to adhere to these rules, you may lose your elevated position.

Administrators/Moderators must act professionally and kindly when dealing with the userbase, insults and harassment will not be tolerated and will likely lead to that administrator or moderator’s dismissal.

Disciplinary Actions

When a member is found to have violated the Code of Conduct in one or more ways, disciplinary actions will be given from a site administrator in the form of a neutral or negative record. It will contain the specific rule that was broken, and the offending post (or hyperlink to offending post). This is a breakdown of how the disciplinary actions will work:

  • Notification (neutral record): This will serve as an advisement that you have violated the Code of Conduct.
    • If you broke the Code of Conduct in multiple ways that warrant a Notification, everything will be summarized in a single record
  • Warning (negative record): This will serve an official warning that you violated the Code of Conduct.
    • If you broke the Code of Conduct in multiple ways that warrant a Warning, everything will be summarized in a single record
  • Suspension (negative record): This is a temporary ban from the site and forums.
    • If you committed an offense that warranted Suspension, and another one that warranted a Warning, you will only receive one negative record summarizing all offenses. Treat the Warnings as if they were part of the Suspension instead of as Warnings.
  • Ban (negative record): This is a permanent ban from e621.net and all other affiliates. This is reserved for repeated offenses and serious violations of the Code of Conduct
    • If you wish to appeal your ban, you may contact the Community Manager
Contact Information

Senior Management
Dave Reynolds / EDFDarkAngel1 (Community Manager/Lead Admin) – [email protected]
Aaron Urbina / DasaDevil (Admin) – [email protected]
Robert Nobis / NotMeNotYou (Admin) – [email protected]
Varka (Owner) – [email protected]

Questions about the rules?

Questions about the ruling of one of the admins?

Questions about the ruling of EDF?

Please note that we will not discuss actions against a specific user except with the user themselves

These guys can help you with questions in a language besides English.

German: NotMeNotYou
Spanish/Mexican: DasaDevil

Updated by anonymous

NotMeNotYou said:
New Version of the CoC is up, the change is a minor addition to "Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files"

Old CoC (Active from Dec 21st 2013 to March 10th 2014)

e621 Community Code of Conduct and Site Rules

.

Last Updated: 12/19/13

Code of Conduct Introduction

The forums and website are here to provide you with a friendly environment where you can discuss ideas, give advice, and converse about other aspects of e621 with fellow members. The community forums and primary website are at their best when participants treat their fellow posters with respect and courtesy. Therefore, we ask that you conduct yourself in a civilized manner while participating in these forums.

The guidelines and rules listed below explain what behavior is expected of you and what behavior you can expect from other community members. Note that the following guidelines are not exhaustive, and may not address all manner of offensive behavior. As such, the forum moderators shall have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Also, suspension or banishment from the posting section of the website will always result in the same regard to forum access. Your access to the forums and website is a ‘privilege’, and not a ‘right’. We reserve the right to suspend your access to the forums and website at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by these guidelines. In addition, these guidelines are not enforced on the e621 IRC channel, or similar off-site social channels. Likewise, any guidelines in use for the e621 IRC channels, or similar off-site social channels will not affect your access on the forums or website. Please note that the application of these rules varies based on the section of the website it is posted. Some things are OK to be as part of a 'Post' submission to the website, whereas it would not be OK as part of a 'Forum Thread'.

We reserve the right to evaluate each incident on a case by case basis. The action we take may be more lenient or more severe than those listed under each category:

Abuse of Site Tools
Advertising
Age Restrictions
Backseat Moderating
Bestiality
Blacklist
Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
Creating Duplicate Threads
Creepy Comments
Cross Linking Threads
Discussing Disciplinary Actions
Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information
Extreme Sexuality / Violence
Harassing or Defamatory
Major Religions, Religious Figures, Political Parties, or Political Figures
National Hatred
Illegal Drugs or Activities
Impersonating an Employee
Posting Abuse
Posting Cheats, Hacks, Trojan Horses or Malicious Programs
Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files
Racial / Ethnic Hatred
Real-Life Threats
Role-Play
Sexual Orientation
Spamming or Trolling
Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism

Glossary
Post: An image or other content uploaded to e621, on the posts section of the website. (https://e621.net/posts/). Not to be confused with a 'forum post'.
Comment: A textual comment made on a Post, on the posts section of the website
Forum Post: A comment made on a Forum Thread.
Forum Thread: A 'thread' of comments on a single subject, on the forums section of the website (https://e621.net/forum/)[/section]

Code of Conduct Policy Categories

Abuse of Site Tools
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Using any of the site tools, such as Flag for Deletion, ticket reporting system, takedowns, tags, notes, or any other site tool in a fashion that can be construed as disruptive, spamming, or defamatory
  • Putting gibberish in any of the description fields
  • Repeatedly submitting invalid, incorrect, or unnecessary requests
  • Repeatedly submitting username change requests
  • Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools
  • Using any of the site tools to “backseat moderate”
  • Reporting posts, threads, comments, or any other site media that is older than 6 months

It should be noted that if a user reports a post, thread, comment, or any other site media that is older than 6 months, but contains a publicly visible malicious link, that will be exempt from this rule

In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored.

This is aimed at making sure trolls and other disrespectful people do not detract or harm the look of the website by putting it requests for admin action with no clear, real, or valid basis. An example is someone who issues multiple username change requests in a short period of time. Another is someone repeatedly reporting another user’s comments when they didn’t break any rules.

Advertising
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Any non-beneficial, non-approved related businesses, organizations, or websites
  • Can be linked with Spamming or Trolling if it is used multiple times in a short period of time

If you are the content creator of a given post, it is acceptable and encouraged for you to advertise products or services you may offer, in the 'description' field of your post. In the future, we hope to offer a more streamlined and useful system for the promotion of your own work.
If you wish to promote your product or service, please contact [email protected] with any questions/approvals
Visit https://e621.net/forum/show/10410 for more information

This is intended to prevent people from using e621’s forums and posts from being a source of income/traffic for their unrelated business. If someone would like to advertise on the website, we encourage them to contact us so we can try and get them better exposure. This also allows them a place to go if they want to pay for a banner on the website. Not all ads have to be paid for either, and in some cases, we allow businesses or projects to receive free promotions in order to do good for the community.

Age Restrictions
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Any persons under the age of 18, or as determined by local laws
  • Any comment or evidence of being under the age of 18

Your account is your responsibility. If your account was breached/hacked, then you can dispute the problem and we will look into it on a case-by-case basis
If found to violate this rule, the account may be banned until the user’s 18th birthday.

Even though different states/provinces/territories have different rules, e621.net’s management and service office is located in Arizona, USA and it is by those laws that we are responsible for. We cannot knowingly allow any minors to view pornographic content, so we must be proactive in preventing this underage access. This includes accounts that are either legally or illegally accessed by minors. Furthermore, we require photo identification and proof of someone turning 18 in order to release access to their account. Such proof can be sent to the senior management group to determine authenticity, and must include the user’s face as well as the government or state issued identification, or other applicable document.

Backseat Moderating
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Implying moderator/administrator privileges where none exist
  • Non-administrator/moderator/staff threatening to use disciplinary actions against another user
  • Demanding, ordering, or otherwise stating to an administrator/moderator/staff certain administrative actions to be taken against another user

This is aimed at preventing non-administrators from attempting to enforce the rules of the website. It does not matter if the user was correct, or incorrect, in their actions. Most, if not all, users are largely unaware of the daily dealings with the admin staff and would not be aware of any pending changes or discussions. In addition, users cannot demand an admin ban someone, report a comment, take down art, or any of the moderator/administrator actions. However, they can request that we look into something, so that we may perform our own research and resolve it without bias. Example: Sending a PM to an admin telling them to ban a user, with or without a reason. Example: Sending in a ticket citing a rule violation, then stating that if it wasn’t done to their satisfaction, they want all of their art removed from the site.

Bestiality
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating a post, forum post, or thread that is an inappropriate reference to real-life bestiality, sexual relations, or bodily functions
  • Linking or commenting on a website that promotes material that contains inappropriate references to real-life bestiality, sexual relations, or bodily functions

The two keywords here are “real-life” and “inappropriate”. Obviously, there are going to be bestiality references, and the nature of our site has to be more lenient about it than most. However, the moment someone mentions or posts about a real-life animal and makes sexual comment about it, then they fall under this. No personal discussion. If someone makes a sexual reference to a drawn or imaginary animal, that is fine. Example: I tried to get the horse penis to be realistic in size (okay) Man, I fucked my neighbor’s horse so hard last night (not okay).

Refusal to Use Blacklist
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that complain about artwork that can be blacklisted
  • Wrongfully claiming lack of knowledge about the blacklist system to avoid punishment from the previous rule

This is intended to reduce or eliminate the complaints that users make about seeing a certain type of content on the site. If a user chooses, or refuses, to utilize the blacklist, but continues to complain about content they find offensive or unsatisfactory, then this rule may be enforced. Additionally, if a user finds a post that is incorrectly tagged and willingly chooses to complain about seeing it instead of placing the correct tag, this rule may also be enforced then.

Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Posting anything on another account
  • Having someone post on your behalf

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternate accounts are generally okay, so long as they are not used to evade the suspension/ban

Fairly self-explanatory. If someone gets Suspended or Banned, and they try to go on a friend’s account, or alt account, and post anyway, that account gets banned as well. The other side to this is if they were under a short-term suspension and they go around to circumvent it, that short-term suspension becomes a permanent ban. If a user does this, but acts in such a way as to not continue the actions that got them banned, then an admin may choose not to enforce this rule, under the guise of helping the greater good.

Creating Duplicate Forum Threads
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum threads about existing topics less than six months old
  • Creating a separate forum thread about an existing topic for further discussion in another forum category
  • Creating a separate forum thread about an existing locked topic for further discussion in any forum or site

This is intended to reduce clutter on the website, discouraging users from posting similar or same content in multiple, potentially unrelated, forums or topics. If someone would like to increase visibility of a post for any reason, they can request it from an admin.

Creepy Comments
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum posts, threads, or comments that cause an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease, or are sexually inappropriate

This is intended to ensure that users do not express their personal fetishes/desires publicly. Users have the right, within realistic expectations, to browse comfortably without unneeded or unnecessary commentary of those who wish to express their desires.

Discussing Disciplinary Actions
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum posts, threads or comments to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a member, including chat logs and email correspondence between a member and an administrator/moderator
  • Creating forum threads or posting comments to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a content post, or other submission to the site

Link to public records is located at https://e621.net/user_record
If you have a question about a disciplinary action, please contact the admin or site owner via dmail or email.

This is intended to prevent drama and concerns over how someone was disciplined. While records are publicly available information, any disputes/communication over said records or any other disciplinary action is confidential between the user and the admin team. Discussing it publicly would only serve to cause disruption and is generally ill-advised. It is encouraged that any and all discussion about disciplinary actions occur via email or dmail and directly to the admin in question or senior management group.

Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Releasing or assisting in releasing any real-life information about other members or employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or anyone else

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action

Self-explanatory for the most part, but any attempt to reveal personal information, whether true or not, about someone will qualify. Example: I heard EDFDarkAngel1 lives in Phoenix (okay) I heard that EDFDarkAngel1 drives a red 1961 Ferrari GT California (not okay).

Extreme Sexuality / Violence
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme real-life violent sexual activity
  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme real-life violence
  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme kinks and/or fetishes

The intent is to prevent real-life violent content from websites we do not control from being exposed to users of e621. The rule specifically mentions links to other websites since we control the content here. As to what defines as “extreme kink” is going to be judged on a case-by-case basis. However, if it is ruled that one thing is extreme kink, it must be consistent in that ruling. For example, if you consider scat as an extreme kink (not saying that we should), all posts and comments that contain scat should be removed as well, so judge wisely. Example: a post of a drawn character getting graphically and brutally slaughtered (okay). A forum thread linking to 4chan’s /c/ thread (not okay)

Harassing or Defamatory
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Insultingly refer to other people, employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or any groups of people
  • Performing actions which result in ongoing harassment to other people, employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or any groups of people

This will be rendered against intent as well as action. The idea is to prevent a member from being uncomfortable in the forums or on the site.

This is intended to stop the insults and offensive comments that some people use. If someone makes a public comment, and someone finds it offensive, it will most likely fall under this. Example: I don’t agree with the admins (okay) The admins here are fucking stupid (not okay)

Major Religions, Religious Figures, Political Parties, or Political Figures
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Any discussion in forum posts, threads, or comments regarding major religions or religious figures
  • Any discussion in forum posts, threads, or comments regarding major political parties or political figures

The main point behind this is, while we do encourage free speech and we have no problem with someone saying “thank God” or “Jesus blesses you”, we have to draw the line at an actual discussion, as it often leads to passionate and heated debate and a general distraction from what is ultimately a porn website. The same goes for politics, we know that people want to talk about it, and often do, but there are places for that and they are not here.

National Hatred
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Promoting national hatred
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with recognized national slurs
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with hateful content
  • Alluding to symbols of national hatred

This is intended to make sure people aren’t outwardly offending people’s national pride or members of a government. This is something that we need to gauge by intent, not just presentation. There are acceptable forms of art that present shock value, or an unpopular point of view, but where we need to step in is if someone is deliberately being malicious.

Illegal Drugs or Activities
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Forum threads or comments that references to abusing illegal drugs
  • Forum threads or comments that references to performing illegal activities

This is intended to make sure we are not promoting drug use in commentary form. It is okay if someone posts a picture of someone shooting up, but it is not okay if someone comments that they like to shoot up. We do not want anyone looking at the comments and thinking drug abuse is acceptable (because someone else is doing it). Example: a post where a strung-out character has a needle in their arm (okay) Comment in the post’s thread: Oh wow, that reminds me of me an hour ago! (not okay)

Impersonating an Employee or Moderator
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Passing yourself off as a current or past employee of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, especially to post false information
  • Passing yourself off as a current or past moderator of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, especially to post false information

Passing yourself off as anyone else is not generally acceptable, and if it is someone who has been suspended or banned, it may lead to your account being banned

This is intended to make sure that all official information comes from admin accounts, and not someone else. This includes posting official information on a friend’s account, or even an alternate one. Make sure that if you are posting information, you do it from your administrator or moderator account. This also goes for ban-evaders, if someone tries to impersonate them, we will assume it is them trying to evade the ban. Example: Hey everyone, it’s EDFDarkAngel1 on a friend’s account. I wanted to tell you about some of the upcoming site changes…

Posting Abuse
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Knowingly uploading previously deleted content
  • Posting content listed in the Avoid Posting List (https://e621.net/wiki/show?title=avoid_posting)
  • Failure to cite a minimum of 4 tags to an uploaded post
  • Knowingly adding or editing a post source to an incorrect link
  • Knowingly or repeatedly uploading a lower-resolution image, if there is a higher-resolution of that image available
  • Uploading screenshots, images under 200x200 pixels, images with artifacts or large watermarks, and/or non-artistic images (motivational posters, Second Life, memes, image macros, etc.)
  • Editing/creating post descriptions (if you are not the artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner) to create information
  • Using post descriptions to express personal feelings, create drama, or otherwise take away from describing the attached post
  • Please try to use proper spelling and grammar in post descriptions

This is intended to ensure there is a minimum level of quality on the website, by ensuring people who have specifically requested that their art not be on the site, removing art that is sufficiently poor quality, or encouraging tag usage. It also is expanded to include post descriptions and ensure that no one uses it to vandalize someone’s post.

Posting Hacks, Trojan Horses, or Malicious Programs
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that link to hacks or malicious programs/viruses

If you want to report a hack or other malicious program, please contact the site administrator via the Contact Us page with screenshots and/or other evidence sufficient to reproduce the problem
If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternatively, you may contact any admin via dmail, email, or IRC chat to report this issue

This is intended to keep the website free of unwanted software/malware. Understand that the user may not be outwardly aware that their link is harmful, but most are pretty obvious that they intend to infect others. Senior management approval is not needed to ban someone for this. Example: a post containing a hyperlink to a website with generic/unrelated content and a large number of attention-grabbing ads

Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files
Suggested Suspension Length: e621 or Bad Dragon related, Permanent. All others, 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Showing unreleased content from anyone that has been discovered through unauthorized means
  • Showing the results of successful or attempted hacks of the Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621 servers, websites, or affiliates
  • Showing paid content, or creating posts or comments that link to content only available through paid subscription services
  • Discuss, or display any data not available via public websites

Please note that paid content over 2 years old is acceptable to post

Since e621 is an extension of Bad Dragon, with it comes the expectation that if someone comes into access with unreleased content, whether it be an unreleased toy, new concept or design, or paysite material, that they do not post it in e621. We take our security very seriously, and any breaches are investigated fully. Example: a post containing a Bad Dragon toy that isn’t released yet.

Addendum: If someone asks about unreleased content, and the answer is that it hasn’t been released or is otherwise unavailable, than that is okay. Discussion regarding its contents, location, opinions of such, or anything pertaining to unreleased content is not acceptable.

Racial / Ethnic Hatred
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Promoting racial/ethnic hatred
  • Language that is recognized as a racial/ethnic slur
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with hateful content
  • Alluding to a symbol of racial/ethnic hatred

The same as National Hatred, we just have to be careful how we judge this. This is something we need to gauge by intent, not just presentation. Example: a post of a black character in a cotton field with a plantation behind them (okay). A post of a black character in a cotton field being whipped by white characters (not okay)

Real-Life Threats
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Language that refers to violence in any capacity against a person or persons

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action

Offensive language and behavior may be tolerated if everyone is okay with things, but the moment it turns into anything else, we need to step in. Administrators and moderators are expressly forbidden to use offensive behavior or language in any communication while assuming official responsibilities. Example: I will kick your ass if you flag one of my posts again (not okay)

Role-Play
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Initiating or partaking in explicit role-play of any type
  • Impersonating fictional/nonfictional characters or people
  • Initiating or partaking in role-play with characters in the related thread/post

This is intended to prevent a culture that is inherently self-destructive and takes away from the website. There are acceptable forms of role-play, typically that which reinforces a point, creates humor, or otherwise does not cause a disruption. Even in this setting, however, role-play must be just a single comment, and cannot be made in response to another role-player.

Sexual Orientation
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Insultingly refer to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other members

The intent is to prevent anyone’s sexual orientation from being the target of malice, harassment, etc. Example: I picked up a fag from the ground (okay). Then I dropped him back down again (not okay).

Spamming or Trolling
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days, or Permanent
This category includes:

  • Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish
  • Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest
  • Causing disturbances in forum threads or comments, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, and/or insult other members
  • Making non-constructive or derailing posts or comments.
  • Abusing the Flagging for Deletion option, Report system, or other website tools by sending false information or nonsensical messages
  • Numbering a thread, IBTL, TL;DR, or any other fad statements

Spamming is self-explanatory, but unless the entire thread is joining in and enjoying an offensive or harassing comment, someone who posts insulting comments should get flagged. We will have to use common sense when enforcing this; people can have opinions and state them, but that does not allow them to make someone else feel bad or unwanted. If no one complains or gets offended, AND it’s not an outwardly offensive remark, then it will be okay. However, if someone complains, gets offended, OR it’s an outwardly offensive remark (I think EDFDarkAngel1 is an asshole and should be shot), then they need to be flagged.

Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Adding a tag to a post that is not either clearly visible, or reasonably assumed
  • Removing a valid tag, either as part of a dispute/argument, or to place one that is not correct
  • Using Unicode in tags

The purpose for this is to prevent users from abusing the system that for easy searching/indexing of the posts. This enforces the site’s “Tag What You See” rule, in that you cannot tag an image as “male” or “female” unless there is visible evidence of that. Even if another site has the same character with better visibility of its gender, that post uniquely must contain those elements. Mistagging, adding invalid tags, or removing valid tags are not punishable for a one-time offense, but they will be disciplined if they produce a pattern of tagging abuse.

IMPORTANT
Repeatedly violating any area of the e621 Community and Forums Code of Conduct, including the areas detailed above, will often result in banishment from the forums and site.
This policy is not language-restrictive. Language that falls under this policy will always be subject to the repercussions listed, whether it is inappropriate in English or any other language.
The bottom line is that we want e621.net to be a fun and safe environment for all members. While posting on its forums and on the site, you will encounter thousands of other people who share different experiences and come from vastly different backgrounds. While certain language and images may or may not be offensive to you, consider the fact that the same language and images may have a completely different effect on someone else.

User Ranks

When first creating an account, you will automatically be set as Member. Through tagging/posting contributions to the site, as well as constructive behavior, you may get promoted by an administrator. If you feel that you should get promoted based on your efforts, you can contact the website administration via the Contact Us page and request it.

Member: Can search up to six tags simultaneously. Must wait three days to edit tags, and a week to upload, vote, and comment

Privileged: Unlimited tag edits and comments, can search up to eight tags simultaneously, can apply tag scripts, use Dtext color tags and tag subscriptions

Contributor: No upload limit, submitted posts are auto-approved

Janitor: Can delete forum posts

Moderator: Unlimited access, with the exception of editing forum categories, job tasks, news, takedowns, editing post votes, create/delete aliases and implications, ticket system, change usernames, and modify upload limits

Administrator: Unlimited access to all site tools and reports

If you have been given a position above Member, then it is expected that you will respect others and behave according to the e621 Community and Forums Code of Conduct. If at any time you fail to adhere to these rules, you may lose your elevated position.

Administrators/Moderators must act professionally and kindly when dealing with the userbase, insults and harassment will not be tolerated and will likely lead to that administrator or moderator’s dismissal.

Disciplinary Actions

When a member is found to have violated the Code of Conduct in one or more ways, disciplinary actions will be given from a site administrator in the form of a neutral or negative record. It will contain the specific rule that was broken, and the offending post (or hyperlink to offending post). This is a breakdown of how the disciplinary actions will work:

  • Notification (neutral record): This will serve as an advisement that you have violated the Code of Conduct.
    • If you broke the Code of Conduct in multiple ways that warrant a Notification, everything will be summarized in a single record
  • Warning (negative record): This will serve an official warning that you violated the Code of Conduct.
    • If you broke the Code of Conduct in multiple ways that warrant a Warning, everything will be summarized in a single record
  • Suspension (negative record): This is a temporary ban from the site and forums.
    • If you committed an offense that warranted Suspension, and another one that warranted a Warning, you will only receive one negative record summarizing all offenses. Treat the Warnings as if they were part of the Suspension instead of as Warnings.
  • Ban (negative record): This is a permanent ban from e621.net and all other affiliates. This is reserved for repeated offenses and serious violations of the Code of Conduct
    • If you wish to appeal your ban, you may contact the Community Manager
Contact Information

Senior Management
Dave Reynolds / EDFDarkAngel1 (Community Manager/Lead Admin) – [email protected]
Aaron Urbina / DasaDevil (Admin) – [email protected]
Robert Nobis / NotMeNotYou (Admin) – [email protected]
Varka (Owner) – [email protected]

Questions about the rules?

Questions about the ruling of one of the admins?

Questions about the ruling of EDF?

Please note that we will not discuss actions against a specific user except with the user themselves

These guys can help you with questions in a language besides English.

German: NotMeNotYou
Spanish/Mexican: DasaDevil

Wait... so just mentioning another user who has done that is grounds for banning? What?!

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
Wait... so just mentioning another user who has done that is grounds for banning? What?!

That might be because the first offender probably posted a link to a malicious site, and by quoting you're spreading that "link". I'm not sure about mentioning, though...

Updated by anonymous

Xch3l said:
That might be because the first offender probably posted a link to a malicious site, and by quoting you're spreading that "link". I'm not sure about mentioning, though...

This is correct. It's basically making sure users who post "check out the illegal content here!" don't get quoted by other users by having them spread that exact same link. Redact the link, or anything that doesn't spread the illegal information is fine, we are going to be smart about it.

Just something that we wanted to make sure was clear, doesn't really change anything.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
This is correct. It's basically making sure users who post "check out the illegal content here!" don't get quoted by other users by having them spread that exact same link. Redact the link, or anything that doesn't spread the illegal information is fine, we are going to be smart about it.

Just something that we wanted to make sure was clear, doesn't really change anything.

oh ok I was actually wondering that but did not want to say anything so thanks for the clarification EDF! :)

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
Wait... so just mentioning another user who has done that is grounds for banning? What?!

If you do it four times in a row, after being warned to stop it multiple times.

Updated by anonymous

EDFDarkAngel1 said:
This is correct. It's basically making sure users who post "check out the illegal content here!" don't get quoted by other users by having them spread that exact same link. Redact the link, or anything that doesn't spread the illegal information is fine, we are going to be smart about it.

Just something that we wanted to make sure was clear, doesn't really change anything.

Okay, that makes a hell of a lot more sense. Quoting wasn't what I was touching on because it made sense to begin with (Don't share around the bannable information); It was the way it was worded makes it seem like even just mentioning that someone had bannable content in a post is bannable itself.

Updated by anonymous

New rules are live, changelog below.

---

CoC Changelog April the 11th 2014

New Sections:

Rule against Art theft and tracing and making unauthorized edits (but only if the artist had to say it more than once to stop with the edits).

Plagiarism

Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Wrongfully claiming ownership of artwork
  • Tracing artwork without the consent of the original owner or artist
  • Repeatedly creating unauthorized edits after the original artist asked to stop

Commonly known as art theft, this is something we take very serious as the work of artists are the life blood of our website. Any found traced pictures will be deleted and any wrong claims will be hidden or corrected.
Important to note, we still allow “fan edits” but we will remove them if the artist wishes so and we may take action against the editor if the edits continue to be uploaded after the artist has asked to stop them.

Self explanatory, we tell someone to stop something, he better stop doing that.

Disregard of the Site Administration

Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Failure to abide by direct instructions by an administrator, moderator, and/or employee of Bad Dragon or Dragonfruit

This is intended to make sure that any instructions given by the staff of e621 are followed, but is mainly for minor things that are annoying or disrupting.

Changed Sections:

Consolidated some rules that were strewn accross multiple Sections (Namely Posting Abuse) and expanded it a bit.

Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism

Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Failure to cite a minimum of 4 tags to an uploaded post
  • Adding a tag to a post that is not either clearly visible, or reasonably assumed
  • Removing a valid tag, either as part of a dispute/argument, or to place one that is not correct
  • Failure to properly set the rating of your upload (https://e621.net/help/ratings)
  • Adding invalid/disruptive tags, or any tags that could be considered as defamatory or spam
  • Using Unicode in tags, with the exception of foreign artist/character names

The purpose for this is to prevent users from abusing the system that for easy searching/indexing of the posts. This enforces the site’s “Tag What You See” rule, in that you cannot tag an image as “male” or “female” unless there is visible evidence of that. Even if another site has the same character with better visibility of its gender, that post uniquely must contain those elements. Mistagging, adding invalid tags, or removing valid tags are not punishable for a one-time offense, but they will be disciplined if they produce a pattern of tagging abuse.

Removed a bit that never made it into a live version of the CoC.

Posting Hacks, Trojan Horses, or Malicious Programs

Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that link to hacks or malicious programs/viruses

If you want to report a hack or other malicious program, please contact the site administrator via the Contact Us page with screenshots and/or other evidence sufficient to reproduce the problem
If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternatively, you may contact any admin via dmail, email, or IRC chat to report this issue

This is intended to keep the website free of unwanted software/malware. Understand that the user may not be outwardly aware that their link is harmful, but most are pretty obvious that they intend to infect others. Senior management approval is not needed to ban someone for this. Example: a post containing a hyperlink to a website with generic/unrelated content and a large number of attention-grabbing ads

Moved a bit to tagging abuse.

Posting Abuse

Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Knowingly uploading previously deleted content
  • Posting content listed in the Avoid Posting List (https://e621.net/wiki/show?title=avoid_posting)
  • Failure to cite a minimum of 4 tags to an uploaded post
  • Knowingly adding or editing a post source to an incorrect link
  • Knowingly or repeatedly uploading a lower-resolution image, if there is a higher-resolution of that image available
  • Uploading screenshots, images under 200x200 pixels, images with artifacts or large watermarks, and/or non-artistic images (motivational posters, Second Life, memes, image macros, etc.)
  • Editing/creating post descriptions (if you are not the artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner) to create information
  • Using post descriptions to express personal feelings, create drama, or otherwise take away from describing the attached post
  • Please try to use proper spelling and grammar in post descriptions

This is intended to ensure there is a minimum level of quality on the website, by ensuring people who have specifically requested that their art not be on the site, removing art that is sufficiently poor quality, or encouraging tag usage. It also is expanded to include post descriptions and ensure that no one uses it to vandalize someone’s post.

Removed the mention of tags.

Abuse of Site Tools

Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Using any of the site tools, such as Flag for Deletion, ticket reporting system, takedowns, tags, notes, or any other site tool in a fashion that can be construed as disruptive, spamming, or defamatory
  • Putting gibberish in any of the description fields
  • Repeatedly submitting invalid, incorrect, or unnecessary requests
  • Repeatedly submitting username change requests
  • Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools
  • Using any of the site tools to “backseat moderate”
  • Reporting posts, threads, comments, or any other site media that is older than 6 months

It should be noted that if a user reports a post, thread, comment, or any other site media that is older than 6 months, but contains a publicly visible malicious link, that will be exempt from this rule

In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored.

This is aimed at making sure trolls and other disrespectful people do not detract or harm the look of the website by putting it requests for admin action with no clear, real, or valid basis. An example is someone who issues multiple username change requests in a short period of time. Another is someone repeatedly reporting another user’s comments when they didn’t break any rules.

[Old CoC here]

---

Feel free to post any typos or questions regarding the changes here.

Edit: Apparently colors don't work in conjunction with bullet points, anything in bold has been added, anything struck/red has been removed.

Updated by anonymous

Simply put, if the mods ask you to do something, do the thing. Most of the time this will probably only include things not necessarily addressed in the coc.

Example, if we ask you to stop posting art owned by a specific person and you continue to do it. Not against the rules, but you ought to stop. Or like consistently failing to tag genders in your uploads.

Updated by anonymous

Peekaboo said:
Isn't that what the DNP list is for? Doesn't that just go under the rules we already have? Or did you mean that as in art commissioned by certain peeps?

Mostly commissioners or character owners, or when we tell someone to stop uploading something specific like Memes.
But also against people who feel the need to create way too many pointless threads.

Peekaboo said:
Doesn't that go under Tagging Abuse/Tagging Vandalism?

That is under tag vandalism if it is a clear cut case (imagine someone tagging female on a male solo picture) but may be necessary if it could go either way but we decide on one.

I don't see it getting too much use in tagging wars, though, more for community things.

Updated by anonymous

Being unallowed to report older posts seems odd, I don't get why that would be against the rules now.

Updated by anonymous

Peekaboo said:
Isn't that what the DNP list is for? Doesn't that just go under the rules we already have? Or did you mean that as in art commissioned by certain peeps?

Usually its art that the artist wishes to post themselves. Some people throw fits when someone uploads their art before they do.

Updated by anonymous

Troxxelcot said:
Being unallowed to report older posts seems odd, I don't get why that would be against the rules now.

Because according to them "oh, it's been too long, it doesn't matter anymore."

Updated by anonymous

Troxxelcot said:
Being unallowed to report older posts seems odd, I don't get why that would be against the rules now.

123easy said:
Because according to them "oh, it's been too long, it doesn't matter anymore."

Statute of limitations is a thing, how fair is it to punish someone for a comment they made 2 years ago, that they don't even recall making?
Not fair at all.

Updated by anonymous

Seem to be discussing:

Abuse of Site Tools (snipped)

Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Reporting posts, threads, comments, or any other site media that is older than 6 months

It should be noted that if a user reports a post, thread, comment, or any other site media that is older than 6 months, but contains a publicly visible malicious link, that will be exempt from this rule

In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored.

Discussion for above CoC amendment.

Halite said:
Statute of limitations is a thing, how fair is it to punish someone for a comment they made 2 years ago, that they don't even recall making?
Not fair at all.

More like retroactive punishment is unfair, but that only applies to content existing before the above CoC amendment was ratified. For content created after the amendment, the rule assumes a high level of awareness among e621's users and the furry community at large such that wronged individuals would be exposed to the offense and have ample opportunity to decide if the offense warranted reporting. If the content was not reported within 6 months of creation, the rule assumes that, by way of tolerance, the furry community as a whole, including artists, did not deem the content worthy of censure. Thus, the community tacitly accepts the content after 6 months, and its creator becomes beyond administrative reproach. From an even more general perspective, the rule implies that content integrates and solidifies itself in the community after 6 months without complaints, becoming an accepted part of the whole.

Simple version: After 6 months, e621 arbitrarily decides that the furry community accepts content despite any flaws.

However, as a compromise, I believe mods can fairly process reports against content older than 6 months without punishing the would-be offender if the report is otherwise valid.

Why did I type this? lol...

Further caveats omitted for "brevity." That was fun.

Updated by anonymous

Char

Former Staff

Troxxelcot said:
Being unallowed to report older posts seems odd, I don't get why that would be against the rules now.

This is actually talking about just forum posts, not all posts in general. Obviously we definitely still want users to report old image posts if they need to be reported. This will be corrected in the CoC.

Updated by anonymous

abadbird said:
...
Simple version: After 6 months, e621 arbitrarily decides that the furry community accepts content despite any flaws.

...

Lack of quality isn't a reportable offense at any time period.

Updated by anonymous

Peekaboo said:
Doesn't that go under Tagging Abuse/Tagging Vandalism?

No, but let me explain why. We want to punish people who intentionally make the site more difficult to use. To that, we punish people who use less than three tags on upload, and who change a post's tags to suit their own personal views (especially if it's against TWYS).

If someone is just not an avid tagger, or doesn't know a post's gender, then I wouldn't want to punish someone for that. Now, if they are uploading a significant amount of content, and this slip-up is causing problems, then a moderator/admin can ask them to start tagging genders.

Obviously, tagging gender is just an example. It could be applied to anything and, as such, leave it open for abuse. The spirit of the rule would fail and it would cease to be effective.

Updated by anonymous

Char said:
This is actually talking about just forum posts, not all posts in general. Obviously we definitely still want users to report old image posts if they need to be reported. This will be corrected in the CoC.

If material is condemnable regardless of timeframe, it should be condemned. I don't understand how you can consider this fair.

Updated by anonymous

And CoC changed again, clarified Abuse of Site Tools to specifically mention Forum posts instead of posts.

Abuse of Site Tools

Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Using any of the site tools, such as Flag for Deletion, ticket reporting system, takedowns, tags, notes, or any other site tool in a fashion that can be construed as disruptive, spamming, or defamatory
  • Putting gibberish in any of the description fields
  • Repeatedly submitting invalid, incorrect, or unnecessary requests
  • Repeatedly submitting username change requests
  • Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools
  • Using any of the site tools to “backseat moderate”
  • Reporting forum posts, threads, comments, or any other site media that is older than 6 months

It should be noted that if a user reports a forum post, thread, comment, or any other site media that is older than 6 months, but contains a publicly visible malicious link, that will be exempt from this rule

In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored.

This is aimed at making sure trolls and other disrespectful people do not detract or harm the look of the website by putting it requests for admin action with no clear, real, or valid basis. An example is someone who issues multiple username change requests in a short period of time. Another is someone repeatedly reporting another user’s comments when they didn’t break any rules.

[Previous changes here]

Current CoC here (Apr. 11. 14)(Above mentioned change already applied)

e621 Community Code of Conduct and Site Rules

Last Updated: April 11th 2014

Code of Conduct Introduction

The forums and website are here to provide you with a friendly environment where you can discuss ideas, give advice, and converse about other aspects of e621 with fellow members. The community forums and primary website are at their best when participants treat their fellow posters with respect and courtesy. Therefore, we ask that you conduct yourself in a civilized manner while participating in these forums.

The guidelines and rules listed below explain what behavior is expected of you and what behavior you can expect from other community members. Note that the following guidelines are not exhaustive, and may not address all manner of offensive behavior. As such, the forum moderators shall have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Also, suspension or banishment from the posting section of the website will always result in the same regard to forum access. Your access to the forums and website is a ‘privilege’, and not a ‘right’. We reserve the right to suspend your access to the forums and website at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by these guidelines. In addition, these guidelines are not enforced on the e621 IRC channel, or similar off-site social channels. Likewise, any guidelines in use for the e621 IRC channels, or similar off-site social channels will not affect your access on the forums or website. Please note that the application of these rules varies based on the section of the website it is posted. Some things are OK to be as part of a 'Post' submission to the website, whereas it would not be OK as part of a 'Forum Thread'.

We reserve the right to evaluate each incident on a case by case basis. The action we take may be more lenient or more severe than those listed under each category:

Abuse of Site Tools
Advertising
Age Restrictions
Backseat Moderating
Bestiality
Blacklist
Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
Creating Duplicate Threads
Creepy Comments
Cross Linking Threads
Discussing Disciplinary Actions
Disregard of the Site Administration
Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information
Extreme Sexuality / Violence
Harassing or Defamatory
Major Religions, Religious Figures, Political Parties, or Political Figures
National Hatred
Illegal Drugs or Activities
Impersonating an Employee
Plagiarism
Posting Abuse
Posting Cheats, Hacks, Trojan Horses or Malicious Programs
Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files
Racial / Ethnic Hatred
Real-Life Threats
Role-Play
Sexual Orientation
Spamming or Trolling
Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism

Glossary
Post: An image or other content uploaded to e621, on the posts section of the website. (https://e621.net/posts/). Not to be confused with a 'forum post'.
Comment: A textual comment made on a Post, on the posts section of the website
Forum Post: A comment made on a Forum Thread.
Forum Thread: A 'thread' of comments on a single subject, on the forums section of the website (https://e621.net/forum/)[/section]

Code of Conduct Policy Categories

Abuse of Site Tools
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Using any of the site tools, such as Flag for Deletion, ticket reporting system, takedowns, notes, or any other site tool in a fashion that can be construed as disruptive, spamming, or defamatory
  • Putting gibberish in any of the description fields
  • Repeatedly submitting invalid, incorrect, or unnecessary requests
  • Repeatedly submitting username change requests
  • Using Unicode in tickets, username changes, or any other use of site tools
  • Using any of the site tools to “backseat moderate”
  • Reporting forum posts, threads, comments, or any other site media that is older than 6 months

It should be noted that if a user reports a forum post, thread, comment, or any other site media that is older than 6 months, but contains a publicly visible malicious link, that will be exempt from this rule

In addition, if a person who is submitting content wishes it for it to be removed, for any reason, within 48 hours, that request will be honored.

This is aimed at making sure trolls and other disrespectful people do not detract or harm the look of the website by putting it requests for admin action with no clear, real, or valid basis. An example is someone who issues multiple username change requests in a short period of time. Another is someone repeatedly reporting another user’s comments when they didn’t break any rules.

Advertising
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Any non-beneficial, non-approved related businesses, organizations, or websites
  • Can be linked with Spamming or Trolling if it is used multiple times in a short period of time

If you are the content creator of a given post, it is acceptable and encouraged for you to advertise products or services you may offer, in the 'description' field of your post. In the future, we hope to offer a more streamlined and useful system for the promotion of your own work.
If you wish to promote your product or service, please contact [email protected] with any questions/approvals
Visit https://e621.net/forum/show/10410 for more information

This is intended to prevent people from using e621’s forums and posts from being a source of income/traffic for their unrelated business. If someone would like to advertise on the website, we encourage them to contact us so we can try and get them better exposure. This also allows them a place to go if they want to pay for a banner on the website. Not all ads have to be paid for either, and in some cases, we allow businesses or projects to receive free promotions in order to do good for the community.

Age Restrictions
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Any persons under the age of 18, or as determined by local laws
  • Any comment or evidence of being under the age of 18

Your account is your responsibility. If your account was breached/hacked, then you can dispute the problem and we will look into it on a case-by-case basis
If found to violate this rule, the account may be banned until the user’s 18th birthday.

Even though different states/provinces/territories have different rules, e621.net’s management and service office is located in Arizona, USA and it is by those laws that we are responsible for. We cannot knowingly allow any minors to view pornographic content, so we must be proactive in preventing this underage access. This includes accounts that are either legally or illegally accessed by minors. Furthermore, we require photo identification and proof of someone turning 18 in order to release access to their account. Such proof can be sent to the senior management group to determine authenticity, and must include the user’s face as well as the government or state issued identification, or other applicable document.

Backseat Moderating
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Implying moderator/administrator privileges where none exist
  • Non-administrator/moderator/staff threatening to use disciplinary actions against another user
  • Demanding, ordering, or otherwise stating to an administrator/moderator/staff certain administrative actions to be taken against another user

This is aimed at preventing non-administrators from attempting to enforce the rules of the website. It does not matter if the user was correct, or incorrect, in their actions. Most, if not all, users are largely unaware of the daily dealings with the admin staff and would not be aware of any pending changes or discussions. In addition, users cannot demand an admin ban someone, report a comment, take down art, or any of the moderator/administrator actions. However, they can request that we look into something, so that we may perform our own research and resolve it without bias. Example: Sending a PM to an admin telling them to ban a user, with or without a reason. Example: Sending in a ticket citing a rule violation, then stating that if it wasn’t done to their satisfaction, they want all of their art removed from the site.

Bestiality
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating a post, forum post, or thread that is an inappropriate reference to real-life bestiality, sexual relations, or bodily functions
  • Linking or commenting on a website that promotes material that contains inappropriate references to real-life bestiality, sexual relations, or bodily functions

The two keywords here are “real-life” and “inappropriate”. Obviously, there are going to be bestiality references, and the nature of our site has to be more lenient about it than most. However, the moment someone mentions or posts about a real-life animal and makes sexual comment about it, then they fall under this. No personal discussion. If someone makes a sexual reference to a drawn or imaginary animal, that is fine. Example: I tried to get the horse penis to be realistic in size (okay) Man, I fucked my neighbor’s horse so hard last night (not okay).

Refusal to Use Blacklist
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that complain about artwork that can be blacklisted
  • Wrongfully claiming lack of knowledge about the blacklist system to avoid punishment from the previous rule

This is intended to reduce or eliminate the complaints that users make about seeing a certain type of content on the site. If a user chooses, or refuses, to utilize the blacklist, but continues to complain about content they find offensive or unsatisfactory, then this rule may be enforced. Additionally, if a user finds a post that is incorrectly tagged and willingly chooses to complain about seeing it instead of placing the correct tag, this rule may also be enforced then.

Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Posting anything on another account
  • Having someone post on your behalf

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternate accounts are generally okay, so long as they are not used to evade the suspension/ban

Fairly self-explanatory. If someone gets Suspended or Banned, and they try to go on a friend’s account, or alt account, and post anyway, that account gets banned as well. The other side to this is if they were under a short-term suspension and they go around to circumvent it, that short-term suspension becomes a permanent ban. If a user does this, but acts in such a way as to not continue the actions that got them banned, then an admin may choose not to enforce this rule, under the guise of helping the greater good.

Creating Duplicate Forum Threads
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum threads about existing topics less than six months old
  • Creating a separate forum thread about an existing topic for further discussion in another forum category
  • Creating a separate forum thread about an existing locked topic for further discussion in any forum or site

This is intended to reduce clutter on the website, discouraging users from posting similar or same content in multiple, potentially unrelated, forums or topics. If someone would like to increase visibility of a post for any reason, they can request it from an admin.

Creepy Comments
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum posts, threads, or comments that cause an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease, or are sexually inappropriate

This is intended to ensure that users do not express their personal fetishes/desires publicly. Users have the right, within realistic expectations, to browse comfortably without unneeded or unnecessary commentary of those who wish to express their desires.

Discussing Disciplinary Actions
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Creating forum posts, threads or comments to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a member, including chat logs and email correspondence between a member and an administrator/moderator
  • Creating forum threads or posting comments to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a content post, or other submission to the site

Link to public records is located at https://e621.net/user_record
If you have a question about a disciplinary action, please contact the admin or site owner via dmail or email.

This is intended to prevent drama and concerns over how someone was disciplined. While records are publicly available information, any disputes/communication over said records or any other disciplinary action is confidential between the user and the admin team. Discussing it publicly would only serve to cause disruption and is generally ill-advised. It is encouraged that any and all discussion about disciplinary actions occur via email or dmail and directly to the admin in question or senior management group.

Disregard of the Site Administration
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Failure to abide by direct instructions by an administrator, moderator, and/or employee of Bad Dragon or Dragonfruit

This is intended to make sure that any instructions given by the staff of e621 are followed, but is mainly for minor things that are annoying or disrupting.

Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Releasing or assisting in releasing any real-life information about other members or employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or anyone else

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action

Self-explanatory for the most part, but any attempt to reveal personal information, whether true or not, about someone will qualify. Example: I heard EDFDarkAngel1 lives in Phoenix (okay) I heard that EDFDarkAngel1 drives a red 1961 Ferrari GT California (not okay).

Extreme Sexuality / Violence
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme real-life violent sexual activity
  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme real-life violence
  • Linking to websites that refer to extreme kinks and/or fetishes

The intent is to prevent real-life violent content from websites we do not control from being exposed to users of e621. The rule specifically mentions links to other websites since we control the content here. As to what defines as “extreme kink” is going to be judged on a case-by-case basis. However, if it is ruled that one thing is extreme kink, it must be consistent in that ruling. For example, if you consider scat as an extreme kink (not saying that we should), all posts and comments that contain scat should be removed as well, so judge wisely. Example: a post of a drawn character getting graphically and brutally slaughtered (okay). A forum thread linking to 4chan’s /c/ thread (not okay)

Harassing or Defamatory
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Insultingly refer to other people, employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or any groups of people
  • Performing actions which result in ongoing harassment to other people, employees of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, or any groups of people

This will be rendered against intent as well as action. The idea is to prevent a member from being uncomfortable in the forums or on the site.

This is intended to stop the insults and offensive comments that some people use. If someone makes a public comment, and someone finds it offensive, it will most likely fall under this. Example: I don’t agree with the admins (okay) The admins here are fucking stupid (not okay)

Major Religions, Religious Figures, Political Parties, or Political Figures
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Any discussion in forum posts, threads, or comments regarding major religions or religious figures
  • Any discussion in forum posts, threads, or comments regarding major political parties or political figures

The main point behind this is, while we do encourage free speech and we have no problem with someone saying “thank God” or “Jesus blesses you”, we have to draw the line at an actual discussion, as it often leads to passionate and heated debate and a general distraction from what is ultimately a porn website. The same goes for politics, we know that people want to talk about it, and often do, but there are places for that and they are not here.

National Hatred
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Promoting national hatred
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with recognized national slurs
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with hateful content
  • Alluding to symbols of national hatred

This is intended to make sure people aren’t outwardly offending people’s national pride or members of a government. This is something that we need to gauge by intent, not just presentation. There are acceptable forms of art that present shock value, or an unpopular point of view, but where we need to step in is if someone is deliberately being malicious.

Illegal Drugs or Activities
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Forum threads or comments that references to abusing illegal drugs
  • Forum threads or comments that references to performing illegal activities

This is intended to make sure we are not promoting drug use in commentary form. It is okay if someone posts a picture of someone shooting up, but it is not okay if someone comments that they like to shoot up. We do not want anyone looking at the comments and thinking drug abuse is acceptable (because someone else is doing it). Example: a post where a strung-out character has a needle in their arm (okay) Comment in the post’s thread: Oh wow, that reminds me of me an hour ago! (not okay)

Impersonating an Employee or Moderator
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Passing yourself off as a current or past employee of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, especially to post false information
  • Passing yourself off as a current or past moderator of Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621, especially to post false information

Passing yourself off as anyone else is not generally acceptable, and if it is someone who has been suspended or banned, it may lead to your account being banned

This is intended to make sure that all official information comes from admin accounts, and not someone else. This includes posting official information on a friend’s account, or even an alternate one. Make sure that if you are posting information, you do it from your administrator or moderator account. This also goes for ban-evaders, if someone tries to impersonate them, we will assume it is them trying to evade the ban. Example: Hey everyone, it’s EDFDarkAngel1 on a friend’s account. I wanted to tell you about some of the upcoming site changes…

Plagiarism
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Wrongfully claiming ownership of artwork
  • Tracing artwork without the consent of the original owner or artist
  • Repeatedly creating unauthorized edits after the original artist asked to stop

Commonly known as art theft, this is something we take very serious as the work of artists are the life blood of our website. Any found traced pictures will be deleted and any wrong claims will be hidden or corrected.
Important to note, we still allow “fan edits” but we will remove them if the artist wishes so and we may take action against the editor if the edits continue to be uploaded after the artist has asked to stop them.

Posting Abuse
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Knowingly uploading previously deleted content
  • Posting content listed in the Avoid Posting List (https://e621.net/wiki/show?title=avoid_posting)
  • Knowingly adding or editing a post source to an incorrect link
  • Knowingly or repeatedly uploading a lower-resolution image, if there is a higher-resolution of that image available
  • Uploading screenshots, images under 200x200 pixels, images with artifacts or large watermarks, and/or non-artistic images (motivational posters, Second Life, memes, image macros, etc.)
  • Editing/creating post descriptions (if you are not the artist, uploader, character owner, or commissioner) to create information
  • Using post descriptions to express personal feelings, create drama, or otherwise take away from describing the attached post
  • Please try to use proper spelling and grammar in post descriptions

This is intended to ensure there is a minimum level of quality on the website, by ensuring people who have specifically requested that their art not be on the site, removing art that is sufficiently poor quality, or encouraging tag usage. It also is expanded to include post descriptions and ensure that no one uses it to vandalize someone’s post.

Posting Hacks, Trojan Horses, or Malicious Programs
Suggested Suspension Length: Permanent
This category includes:

  • Creating posts, threads, or comments that link to hacks or malicious programs/viruses

If you want to report a hack or other malicious program, please contact the site administrator via the Contact Us page with screenshots and/or other evidence sufficient to reproduce the problem
If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned regardless of previous disciplinary action
Alternatively, you may contact any admin via dmail, email, or IRC chat to report this issue

This is intended to keep the website free of unwanted software/malware. Understand that the user may not be outwardly aware that their link is harmful, but most are pretty obvious that they intend to infect others. Example: a post containing a hyperlink to a website with generic/unrelated content and a large number of attention-grabbing ads

Posting Unreleased Content / Hacking Data Files
Suggested Suspension Length: e621 or Bad Dragon related, Permanent. All others, 3 to 7 days
This category includes:

  • Showing unreleased content from anyone that has been discovered through unauthorized means
  • Showing the results of successful or attempted hacks of the Bad Dragon, Dragonfruit, or e621 servers, websites, or affiliates
  • Showing paid content, or creating posts or comments that link to content only available through paid subscription services
  • Discuss, or display any data not available via public websites
  • Quoting, or otherwise referencing, another user who posts illegal/paid content or data

Please note that paid content over 2 years old is acceptable to post

Since e621 is an extension of Bad Dragon, with it comes the expectation that if someone comes into access with unreleased content, whether it be an unreleased toy, new concept or design, or paysite material, that they do not post it in e621. We take our security very seriously, and any breaches are investigated fully. Example: a post containing a Bad Dragon toy that isn’t released yet.

Addendum: If someone asks about unreleased content, and the answer is that it hasn’t been released or is otherwise unavailable, than that is okay. Discussion regarding its contents, location, opinions of such, or anything pertaining to unreleased content is not acceptable.

Racial / Ethnic Hatred
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Promoting racial/ethnic hatred
  • Language that is recognized as a racial/ethnic slur
  • Creating posts, threads, or comments with hateful content
  • Alluding to a symbol of racial/ethnic hatred

The same as National Hatred, we just have to be careful how we judge this. This is something we need to gauge by intent, not just presentation. Example: a post of a black character in a cotton field with a plantation behind them (okay). A post of a black character in a cotton field being whipped by white characters (not okay)

Real-Life Threats
Suggested Suspension Length: 7 days
This category includes:

  • Language that refers to violence in any capacity against a person or persons

If someone is found to have violated this rule, they may be banned with no appeal, regardless of previous disciplinary action

Offensive language and behavior may be tolerated if everyone is okay with things, but the moment it turns into anything else, we need to step in. Administrators and moderators are expressly forbidden to use offensive behavior or language in any communication while assuming official responsibilities. Example: I will kick your ass if you flag one of my posts again (not okay)

Role-Play
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Initiating or partaking in explicit role-play of any type
  • Impersonating fictional/nonfictional characters or people
  • Initiating or partaking in role-play with characters in the related thread/post

This is intended to prevent a culture that is inherently self-destructive and takes away from the website. There are acceptable forms of role-play, typically that which reinforces a point, creates humor, or otherwise does not cause a disruption. Even in this setting, however, role-play must be just a single comment, and cannot be made in response to another role-player.

Sexual Orientation
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Insultingly refer to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other members

The intent is to prevent anyone’s sexual orientation from being the target of malice, harassment, etc. Example: I picked up a fag from the ground (okay). Then I dropped him back down again (not okay).

Spamming or Trolling
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days, or Permanent
This category includes:

  • Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish
  • Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest
  • Causing disturbances in forum threads or comments, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, and/or insult other members
  • Making non-constructive or derailing posts or comments.
  • Abusing the Flagging for Deletion option, Report system, or other website tools by sending false information or nonsensical messages
  • Numbering a thread, IBTL, TL;DR, or any other fad statements

Spamming is self-explanatory, but unless the entire thread is joining in and enjoying an offensive or harassing comment, someone who posts insulting comments should get flagged. We will have to use common sense when enforcing this; people can have opinions and state them, but that does not allow them to make someone else feel bad or unwanted. If no one complains or gets offended, AND it’s not an outwardly offensive remark, then it will be okay. However, if someone complains, gets offended, OR it’s an outwardly offensive remark (I think EDFDarkAngel1 is an asshole and should be shot), then they need to be flagged.

Tagging Abuse / Tagging Vandalism
Suggested Suspension Length: 3 days
This category includes:

  • Failure to cite a minimum of 4 tags to an uploaded post
  • Adding a tag to a post that is not either clearly visible, or reasonably assumed
  • Removing a valid tag, either as part of a dispute/argument, or to place one that is not correct
  • Failure to properly set the rating of your upload (https://e621.net/help/ratings)
  • Adding invalid/disruptive tags, or any tags that could be considered as defamatory or spam
  • Using Unicode in tags, with the exception of foreign artist/character names

The purpose for this is to prevent users from abusing the system that for easy searching/indexing of the posts. This enforces the site’s “Tag What You See” rule, in that you cannot tag an image as “male” or “female” unless there is visible evidence of that. Even if another site has the same character with better visibility of its gender, that post uniquely must contain those elements. Mistagging, adding invalid tags, or removing valid tags are not punishable for a one-time offense, but they will be disciplined if they produce a pattern of tagging abuse.

IMPORTANT
Repeatedly violating any area of the e621 Community and Forums Code of Conduct, including the areas detailed above, will often result in banishment from the forums and site.
This policy is not language-restrictive. Language that falls under this policy will always be subject to the repercussions listed, whether it is inappropriate in English or any other language.
The bottom line is that we want e621.net to be a fun and safe environment for all members. While posting on its forums and on the site, you will encounter thousands of other people who share different experiences and come from vastly different backgrounds. While certain language and images may or may not be offensive to you, consider the fact that the same language and images may have a completely different effect on someone else.

User Ranks

When first creating an account, you will automatically be set as Member. Through tagging/posting contributions to the site, as well as constructive behavior, you may get promoted by an administrator. If you feel that you should get promoted based on your efforts, you can contact the website administration via the Contact Us page and request it.

Member: Can search up to six tags simultaneously. Must wait three days to edit tags, and a week to upload, vote, and comment

Privileged: Unlimited tag edits and comments, can search up to eight tags simultaneously, can apply tag scripts, use Dtext color tags and tag subscriptions

Contributor: No upload limit, submitted posts are auto-approved

Janitor: Can delete forum posts

Moderator: Unlimited access, with the exception of editing forum categories, job tasks, news, takedowns, editing post votes, create/delete aliases and implications, ticket system, change usernames, and modify upload limits

Administrator: Unlimited access to all site tools and reports

If you have been given a position above Member, then it is expected that you will respect others and behave according to the e621 Community and Forums Code of Conduct. If at any time you fail to adhere to these rules, you may lose your elevated position.

Administrators/Moderators must act professionally and kindly when dealing with the userbase, insults and harassment will not be tolerated and will likely lead to that administrator or moderator’s dismissal.

Disciplinary Actions

When a member is found to have violated the Code of Conduct in one or more ways, disciplinary actions will be given from a site administrator in the form of a neutral or negative record. It will contain the specific rule that was broken, and the offending post (or hyperlink to offending post). This is a breakdown of how the disciplinary actions will work:

  • Notification (neutral record): This will serve as an advisement that you have violated the Code of Conduct.
    • If you broke the Code of Conduct in multiple ways that warrant a Notification, everything will be summarized in a single record
  • Warning (negative record): This will serve an official warning that you violated the Code of Conduct.
    • If you broke the Code of Conduct in multiple ways that warrant a Warning, everything will be summarized in a single record
  • Suspension (negative record): This is a temporary ban from the site and forums.
    • If you committed an offense that warranted Suspension, and another one that warranted a Warning, you will only receive one negative record summarizing all offenses. Treat the Warnings as if they were part of the Suspension instead of as Warnings.
  • Ban (negative record): This is a permanent ban from e621.net and all other affiliates. This is reserved for repeated offenses and serious violations of the Code of Conduct
    • If you wish to appeal your ban, you may contact the Community Manager
Contact Information

Senior Management
Dave Reynolds / EDFDarkAngel1 (Community Manager/Lead Admin) – [email protected]
Aaron Urbina / DasaDevil (Admin) – [email protected]
Robert Nobis / NotMeNotYou (Admin) – [email protected]
Varka (Owner) – [email protected]

Questions about the rules?

Questions about the ruling of one of the admins?

Questions about the ruling of EDF?

Please note that we will not discuss actions against a specific user except with the user themselves

These guys can help you with questions in a language besides English.

German: NotMeNotYou
Spanish/Mexican: DasaDevil

Updated by anonymous

In regards to the plagiarism section, what is the difference between "Tracing artwork without consent" and "fan edit"? I have not asked for permission to make posts:
#465910,
#465926,
#466297,
#463091
and #423708.

Are these now considered traced artwork and thus against the rules or are they considered fan edits? (If they are against the rules please give me a short while to ask artist for permission before deleting.)

Updated by anonymous

123easy said:
If material is condemnable regardless of timeframe, it should be condemned. I don't understand how you can consider this fair.

Change the laws, punish people who broke the law before it was official. GENIUS :o

Updated by anonymous

LionCourt said:
In regards to the plagiarism section, what is the difference between "Tracing artwork without consent" and "fan edit"? I have not asked for permission to make posts:
#465910,
#465926,
#466297,
#463091
and #423708.

Are these now considered traced artwork and thus against the rules or are they considered fan edits? (If they are against the rules please give me a short while to ask artist for permission before deleting.)

I'd say they are okay as long as you clearly mark them as edits (by adding the edit tag) and by using the description to state that you edited them yourself (and maybe what you did so people don't have to search).

Otherwise we only really consider them traced if they try to pass it of as their own work.

Updated by anonymous