Community rules

Talk about books like you'd talk to someone across a table. That's most of it.

Always fine

• Disagreeing about a book, strongly.
• Honest reviews, including bad ones. Criticise the book, not the author.
• Authors talking about their own books, in their book's own thread in Book Talk.
• Spoilers in a book's own discussion thread (that's what it's for). Anywhere else, warn first.

Not fine

Numbered, so a moderator can say which one a post broke.

1. Abuse or harassment. Abuse, harassment, threats, or piling on someone.
2. Hate. Hate aimed at people for who they are.
3. Sexually explicit. Sexually explicit content, anywhere on the site.
4. Spam. Spam, including posting the same promotion in lots of places. Authors: one listing per book, and talk about it in its own thread in Book Talk, not in other people's threads.
5. Selling services. Bervet isn't a marketplace. No offering or advertising cover design, editing, proofreading, formatting, marketing, ghostwriting, reviews or anything else for hire, in posts, messages, listings or profiles. Recommending a book is fine; touting for work isn't. Posts that look like service offers are held for a moderator automatically.
6. Unwanted messages or review trading. Private messages nobody asked for, selling, or asking people for reviews in exchange for anything.
7. Other people's work or details. Posting other people's work, or anyone's personal details.
8. Impersonation. Pretending to be someone else, including another author.
9. Fake reviews. Fake reviews: of your own book, a friend's, or a rival's.
10. Unmarked spoilers. Spoilers outside a book's own discussion thread without a warning.
11. Off topic. Nothing to do with the thread it's in.

Who moderates

• Moderators and admins, across the whole site.
• Authors, in their own threads: threads they started, their book's thread in Book Talk, and their advance copy's thread. They can hide a post that breaks these rules, pin one post to the top, and lock the thread. That's all: no reports, no queue, nothing outside their own threads. Moderators see everything they do and can switch the tools off.
• Automatic checks: three reports from different members hide something until a moderator looks, and posts that look like service offers are held for one.

What happens

Use "Report" on anything that breaks these rules. A moderator looks at every report. Depending on what it is, we hide it, warn you, suspend your account for a while, or close it. Moderators are held to the same rules, and reports about a moderator go to the people above them.

A hidden post leaves a note in its place saying who hid it (a moderator, the author who runs the thread, or an automatic check) and which rule. The member who wrote it gets a notice, can still see it, and can appeal from the post. A moderator decides the appeal, never whoever hid it. Every moderation action is recorded, so moderators answer for what they do.

Accounts used for spam, scams or abuse may be restricted, and their posts removed, without notice.

Private messages

Moderators don't read your messages. We only see a message if someone reports it, and messages never appear on the public log. You choose who can message you in your account (nobody, until you change it), and you can block anyone. Moderators and admins can always message you about your account.