Rules of Use

The Ecohome Network exists to share ideas and perspectives from the world’s most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers.

We welcome thoughtful and civil discussion from a broad spectrum of viewpoints. Nevertheless, to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for a wide range of people to engage in meaningful conversations, we prohibit certain conduct.

Each participant in our community is responsible for maintaining these standards.

In deciding whether someone has violated the rules, we will take into account things like newsworthiness, the context and nature of the posted information, the likelihood and severity of actual or potential harms, and applicable laws.

Violations of our rules may result in consequences such as account restrictions, limited distribution of your posts, and suspension of your account. We may limit the distribution of controversial or extreme content.

Threats of violence and incitement

We do not allow content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly.

Hate speech

We do not allow content that promotes violence or hatred against people based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.

We do not allow posts or accounts that glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths of individuals or groups. This includes the use of scientific or pseudoscientific claims to pathologize, dehumanize, or disempower others. We do not allow calls for intolerance, exclusion, or segregation based on protected characteristics, nor do we allow the glorification of groups which do any of the above.

We do not allow hateful text, images, symbols, or other content in your username, profile, or bio.

Harassment

The Ecohome Network exists to share and discuss ideas. We don’t tolerate harassment, which includes:

Bullying, threatening, or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so
Using The Ecohome Network features like responses, private notes, mentions, follows, story requests, or writer requests in a way intended to annoy or harass someone
Reviewing businesses or products in a gratuitously harmful or abusive manner

Privacy and Reputation

We do not allow the following:

Posting copies of private communications between private individuals without the explicit consent of all parties to the communication
Doxing, which includes not only private or obscure personal information but also the aggregation of publicly available information to target, shame, blackmail, harass, intimidate, threaten, or endanger
Posting intimate or explicit images taken or posted without the subject’s express consent
Content that violates others’ privacy, including sensitive or confidential information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, non-public phone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, or other non-public information

Restricted categories

We do not allow posts or accounts that engage in the following restricted categories of activity:

Promotion of harmful conspiracies
Facilitation of gambling or betting
Facilitation of buying or selling social media interactions, including off-platform
Facilitation of illegal sexual services
Facilitation of copyright violation

Related conduct

We do not allow posts or accounts that engage in on-platform, off-platform, or cross-platform campaigns of targeting, harassment, hate speech, violence, or disinformation. We may consider off-platform actions in assessing a Ecohome Network account, and restrict access or availability to that account.

Duplicate Content

We do not allow posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts, either publicly or as an unlisted story.

Spam

We do not allow spam on The Ecohome Network. All spam will be immediately removed from The Ecohome Network, without notification. While it is hard to define this content with precision or completeness, here are some representative behaviors we look for that are characteristic of spam:

Posting content primarily to drive traffic to, or increase the search rankings of, an external site, product, or service
Scraping and reposting content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains
Posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts
Stories where the content is clipped with the sole purpose of linking to the rest of the article on a different website
Performing a disproportionately large number of interactions, particularly by automated means. This includes bulk, indiscriminate interactions, such as following of other accounts (follow spam) liking, or leaving notes and messages
Repeatedly using responses or other interactions as a method of promotion
Participating in bounty campaigns or brigades to artificially inflate rankings for posts, accounts, businesses, or products
Use or re-use content templates with slight modifications across multiple posts and accounts

For each of these behaviors, when we talk about “content,” we mean not only posts but also any other feature that allows you to add your own text or media. When we talk about “interactions,” we mean any feature that allows one user to interact with another, or with a post.

Paid, automatic, bulk, or non-genuine interactions

The Ecohome Network depends on various user behaviors — like follows, favorites and likes for example — to determine what content to feature and make the site work well for everyone. So, we don’t allow artificial behaviors that skew this system and as a result degrade or distort other users’ experiences. This includes:

Buying, selling, or trading in accounts or account interactions — including follows, claps, highlights, responses or other traffic
Using services, apps, or arrangements that offer you more follows, claps, or other interactions on your Ecohome Network account or content
Registering accounts, posting content, or interacting with users or content automatically, systematically, or programmatically

Copyright and trademark infringement

Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. Unless you’re authorized to use someone else’s copyrighted work or trademark (either expressly or by legal exceptions and limitations like fair use), don’t do it. We respond to notices of alleged infringement as described in our Terms of Service, Copyright and DMCA Policy, and Trademark Policy .

Deceptive conduct

We do not allow deceptive conduct on The Ecohome Network. This includes:

Posting content or impersonating a person or organization in a way likely to deceive people. Parody and satire are fine but make clear that is what you’re doing. Our (4) Username Policy has specific requirements for parody accounts
Using The Ecohome Network for phishing or fraud. Don’t use tags, links, titles, or other metadata in a misleading way. Don’t link to or embed malicious or harmful code or software in your posts
Don’t use deception to generate revenue or traffic
If you have received compensation, free goods/services or anything of value in connection with the topic of a post, you must make this clear

Ads, Promotions, and Marketing

Third-party advertising and sponsorships are not allowed. You may not advertise or promote third-party products, services, or brands through The Ecohome Network posts, publications, or letters. This includes images that indicate brand sponsorship in a post or letter, or as part of a publication name or logo.
Images functioning as third-party ads are not allowed. Inline images or embeds that link out and function as banner ads for third-party brands are not allowed.
You must disclose affiliate links or payment for a post. Affiliate links where you will receive a commission or other value, are allowed in posts. But, you must disclose somewhere in the post that it includes affiliate links. If you have received payment, goods or services, or something else of value in exchange for writing a post, you must still disclose this fact in writing within your post (as per FTC Rules and Guides).
Multi-level marketing content is not allowed.

Embedded Content

In (B) ongoing compliance with the European GDPR, we are restricting the behavior of certain embedded content:

Embeds that directly collect data through form fields are not allowed. This includes embeds that facilitate the submission of email addresses and other personally identifying information through forms and the submission of credit card information. If you want to collect information from your readers, you will need to link out from your post on The Ecohome Network to a form hosted elsewhere that makes it clear to a user that they are no longer in the The Ecohome Network

Cryptocurrency Accounts, Posts, and Publications

Posts and accounts that focus on cryptocurrencies which do not meet the following requirements may be considered spam and are subject to suspension, depending on context. The Ecohome Network does not endorse or verify any coin, token, or similar announcement.

To prevent fraud and abuse, you must:

Include a link to your active project domain in your user account bio.
Use an email address from that domain as your verified Ecohome Network account email, and maintain that email account actively.
Link at least one consistently branded social media account (Facebook or Twitter) to your The Ecohome Network account. That social account should also link out prominently to the same domain as is included in your The Ecohome Network user bio.
Include a prominent about page with up-to-date contact information on your project website.

You may not:

Use an anonymous email address which is not linked to your project domain. (e.g., gmail, protonmail, mail.ru, etc.)
Advertise or participate in bounty campaigns, pump and dumps, reviewing for reward, or other forms of brigading or inauthentic activity.
Include shortened URLs in your posts.

Graphic content

We do not allow pornographic images or videos.

We do not allow gratuitously graphic or disturbing media, even if it’s not pornographic.

Exploitation of minors

We do not allow content promoting the sexual or violent exploitation of minors, including the sexualization of fictional or animated minors.

Promotion and glorification of self-harm

We do not allow activities that encourage, promote or glorify acts of self-harm, such as cutting, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, and suicide. If you encounter users contemplating or threatening self-harm, please report it to us via the form or email address linked below.

How to report a violation

If you find a post or account on The Ecohome Network that violates these rules, please flag it. You can provide more detail or report other conduct you believe violates our rules. Additionally, you can send us an email to [email protected]

If you break the rules

We strive to be fair, but we reserve the right to suspend accounts or remove content, without notice, for any reason, particularly to protect our services, infrastructure, users, or community. If you attempt to evade suspension by creating new accounts or posts, we will suspend your new accounts and posts.

Notice

Upon investigating or disabling content associated with your account, we will notify you, unless we believe your account is automated or operating in bad faith, or that notifying you is likely to cause, maintain or exacerbate harm to someone.

Appeals

If you believe your content or account has been restricted or disabled in error, or believe there is relevant context we were not aware of in reaching our determination, you can write to us at [email protected] . We will consider all good faith efforts to appeal.

Government Takedown Requests

If The Ecohome Network receives a request from a government actor to restrict access to content associated with your account, we will notify you unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others. Where applicable, we will work to limit legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where we have a good faith belief that we are legally required to restrict the content. The Ecohome Network submits to the Lumen database government requests to restrict access to content (redacted where appropriate to protect privacy or prevent harm to a person).

We may enforce, or not enforce, these policies at our sole discretion. These policies don’t create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act.

We also may change these rules at any time.

The Ecohome Network is committed to providing a transparent, open platform for expression and therefore supports the goals and spirit of The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation as a starting point for further discussion.

Member Content Guidelines

To be eligible for inclusion and potential monetization from member-only content, user posts must meet all The Ecohome Network rules as well as the following content requirements. We’ve set these additional guidelines for member-only stories to create a fair environment for writers in our Content Creator Program and a richer reading experience for members.

You may not sell advertising in or on your member-only content.
Member stories should not exist with the predominant purpose of driving traffic to an external website, business, or product. All included content must be relevant, substantial and informative.
If you have received compensation, free goods/services, or anything of value in connection with the topic of a post, you must make this clear.
Do not ask for likes or include other calls to action, including gifs of liking, requests for donations, or other links or embeds for the purpose of capturing user information or soliciting money.
Do not use content or images licensed as non-commercial in your Content Creator Program posts.

If you violate these Member content rules

The Ecohome Network reserves the right to review posts or accounts at any time and stop payment for any post or to any account, and/or remove from the Member section content that violates these Member Content Guidelines, or The Ecohome Network’s general rules. In deciding whether something has violated the Rules and Guidelines, we will take into account things like the context, newsworthiness, and nature of the posted information and applicable privacy laws. Repeated violations of the Rules and Requirements will result in permanent ineligibility to participate in the program.

How to report a Member post violation

If you have questions or feedback about these rules, let us know. You can contact us at [email protected]