COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

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  1. No Bullies Allowed: BindleSnitch is an open forum, a place to share ideas and to disagree about them. That means there are going to be conflicts….but it doesn’t mean it is open season on BindleSnitch contributors. You can agree to disagree but you may not threaten other BindleSnitch contributors or hold them up to ridicule. Flame wars and cyber-bullying will not be tolerated.
  2. Hate Speech: Hate speech is difficult to define but we all know it when we see or hear it. Our definition of hate speech is “defamatory, provocative or incendiary statements about any individual or group that refers to their gender, sexual preferences, race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, disability or age.” Because we do not edit articles (unless requested to do so) we would have no advance knowledge that articles might contain hate speech of one kind or another but we will remove articles that are called to our attention by readers when we agree that they exceed the boundaries. Please be aware that writing “I don’t like X kind of people because….” is not an example of hate speech. It  is simply an opinion. In order for hate speech to be actionable, it must advocate the exclusion, outright persecution, or infliction of bodily harm of a specific group of people on the basis of one of the aforementioned characteristics: gender, sexual preferences, race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, disability or age.
  3. No Plagiarism: Anyone found to have published a plagiarized article will be terminated. Plagiarism is knowingly and deliberately publishing another person’s copyrighted material under your byline. You have a perfect right to quote from any copyrighted material without obtaining permission from the copyright owner in the course of writing a news article, a review, a scholarly paper, or any other project in which the opinions of the person being quoted are significant. You must give credit where credit is due by putting quotation marks around the quote and citing the author, the publication, or both. We have software that checks for plagiarism. If we find that you have submitted plagiarized work as your own, you will be terminated. If we find that more than 20 percent of the content of an article (exclusive of direct quotations) was copied, the article will be removed, you will not receive credit for the views earned on that article, and you will be warned. After the third warning you will be terminated. Even if you are terminated, you will continue to receive payments on views earned by your previous articles.
  4. No Pornography: While there are times and places where nude photographs may be required to illustrate an article, we do not permit photographs of sex acts or sex organs. Violators will be warned under the three strike rule. For more information on this subject, refer to Rules for Images
  5. Obscenity or Profanity used to be anything you wouldn’t say in front of your grandmother or a six year-old child. These days, just about anything goes. Nevertheless, excessive obscenity and profanity is boring and only hurts the readability of your articles. If we think you are stepping over the line between literary license and offensiveness, you will be warned under the three strike rule.
  6. Libel is a false or defamatory statement made in a published article. The problem with libel is that the burden of proof is on the writer to prove that a statement is fact. Facts are not libel.  Remember that BindleSnitch accepts no responsibility for the content of the articles published on BindleSnitch, which means that the burden of proof is on you.  It is perfectly acceptable, however, to publish libelous statements as long as they are in quotes and correctly attributed to a third-party.
  7. Do not ask for money.  Do not ask other BindleSnitch members for contributions. Do not give money to anyone on BindleSnitch. Report anyone who asks you for money through BindleSnitch regardless of the reason. You will be contacted by people who will promise to help your articles go viral. They are con artists. Ignore them.
  8. Covert Advertising:  If you attempt to covertly publish advertising or insert links leading to advertisements in your articles, you will be banned from the site. No second chances will be given. Paid links embedded in your articles is an example of covert advertising.
  9. Illicit Activities: Any attempt to conduct  illicit activities through BindleSnitch will be reported to the appropriate authorities and you will be suspended from BindleSnitch. If you have any doubt about whether an activity is permissible, ASK FIRST.
  10. The Three Strike Rule: If a contributor is found to be in violation of our rules and regulations, the contributor will receive an official warning.  If the contributor violate the rules a second time (strike one), the offender will be suspended for seven days.  The third offense will result in a 14 day suspension (strike two.) On the fourth occasion,  the contributor will be suspended pending appeal (strike three.) If the suspension is upheld by a vote of the membership, the contributor’s membership in BindleSnitch will be terminated. Terminated contributors continue to receive commissions on their previously published articles for as long as you continue to earn views on those articles. Members of the Corporation who are terminated as contributors  will be required to cede back their ownership percentage to the Corporation. The Corporation will compensate the contributor based on the fair market value of the ownership share as determined by the Corporation. The Corporation will used a standard valuation term to determine fair market value.