Community guidelines

SohoPage works because the people who write and read here treat the page with care. These guidelines describe what that care looks like in practice. They apply equally to stories, profiles and responses.

The spirit of the place

Write as you would for a reader you respect. Strong opinions are welcome, and so is disagreement; long-form writing is often at its best when it argues. What we ask for is honesty about your sources and ordinary decency towards the people you write about and the people who answer you.

What is not allowed

The following have no place on SohoPage, in any story, profile or response:

• Anything illegal, or content that encourages or helps others to break the law.
• Malware and phishing. No harmful files, no links designed to deceive, and no links that disguise where they lead or exist to harm the person who follows them.
• Harassment, hate and threats. Criticise ideas and work freely; do not attack, threaten or demean people, or groups of people.
• Other people’s private information, such as home addresses, private messages or personal documents, shared without their consent.
• Impersonation of another person, writer or organisation, or a profile meant to mislead readers about who is writing.
• Plagiarism and copyright infringement. Quote with attribution, and publish only words and images you have the right to use.
• Sexual content involving minors, in any form, without exception.

For writers

Credit your sources and link to them where you can. Use cover images you took yourself or have permission to use. Links in your stories are ordinary links, so make sure each one goes where your reader expects it to.

For responses

Every response is reviewed before it appears. Responses should be on the subject of the story and civil in tone. Those that are off-topic, abusive or written only to point readers elsewhere will not be approved.

How the guidelines are applied

Moderators may remove a story or a response, or close a blog, that breaks these guidelines. Serious or repeated breaches are the most likely to end with a blog being closed.

Reporting a problem

If something on SohoPage seems to break these guidelines, tell us through the contact page and choose Report a post or comment. A link to the page and a sentence on what concerns you are enough for us to look into it.