Community Guidelines

1. Welcome to the Community

The CoveredGeekly community is a space for pop culture fans to connect, debate, share opinions, take quizzes, rank their favourites, and celebrate the things they love. Whether you're a lifelong horror fan, a gaming enthusiast, a movie buff, or someone who just loves a good quiz - you're welcome here.

We're building something ambitious: a platform with profiles, activity feeds, leaderboards, achievements, quizzes, community ranked lists, comments, and much more. These guidelines will grow as the platform grows. Our goal is always to create an environment that's welcoming, honest, and genuinely fun.

2. Our Community Values

Everything we do as a community is built on four core values:

3. Expected Conduct

When participating in the CoveredGeekly community - whether in comments, quiz discussions, ranked list debates, or profile interactions - we expect all members to:

• Engage with others in good faith and with basic courtesy
• Keep discussions relevant to the content or topic at hand
• Accept that others may have different opinions and tastes - and that's fine
• Acknowledge mistakes and accept corrections gracefully
• Use clear, readable language (we don't require perfect grammar, but please make an effort)
• Respect the work of our editorial team and fellow community contributors
• Follow any specific rules posted in individual community spaces or features

4. Prohibited Behaviour

The following behaviours are not permitted on CoveredGeekly and may result in content removal, warnings, or account suspension:

Harassment & Abuse

• Targeting, threatening, or intimidating any individual or group
• Sending unwanted, repeated, or aggressive messages to other users
• Doxxing - sharing someone's personal information without their consent
• Encouraging others to harass a specific person or group

Hate Speech & Discrimination

• Content that attacks or demeans people based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or age
• Slurs, derogatory language, or dehumanising content targeting any group
• Promotion of extremist ideologies or hate groups

Spam & Manipulation

• Posting repetitive, irrelevant, or low-quality content designed to flood discussions
• Using multiple accounts to manipulate votes, rankings, or quiz scores
• Coordinating with others to artificially inflate or deflate community rankings
• Promoting products, services, or external sites without prior authorisation
• Automated or bot-driven engagement of any kind

Gamification Abuse

• Attempting to exploit, circumvent, or artificially inflate XP, level, trophy, or challenge progress through any means not intended by the platform
• Using multiple accounts to earn additional XP or trophies
• Sharing methods or tools designed to exploit the gamification system with others
• Attempting to manipulate the leaderboard through coordinated or automated activity

Follow & Notification Abuse

• Mass following or unfollowing users in rapid succession to game follower counts or harass individuals
• Using follows, likes, or other interactions to deliberately spam another user's notifications
• Following users for the sole purpose of sending unwanted messages or drawing attention to prohibited content

Misinformation

• Deliberately spreading false information about real people, events, or media
• Presenting speculation or rumour as confirmed fact
• Impersonating public figures, celebrities, or other community members

Illegal & Harmful Content

• Sharing, linking to, or requesting pirated or illegally distributed content
• Content that sexualises minors in any way
• Content that promotes, glorifies, or facilitates self-harm or suicide
• Content that violates any applicable law or regulation

5. Content Standards

CoveredGeekly is a general-audience platform covering pop culture. All community-generated content - including comments, profile bios, quiz submissions, and ranked list contributions - must meet the following standards:

• Language: Moderate profanity is tolerated in casual discussion, but excessive or targeted use of strong language is not. Slurs are never acceptable.
• Violence: Discussion of violent themes in media (horror, action, war films, etc.) is entirely appropriate given our content areas. Glorification of real-world violence is not.
• Adult content: Explicit sexual content is not permitted anywhere on the platform. Discussion of mature themes in media is fine when handled appropriately.
• Sensitive topics: Topics such as mental health, addiction, trauma, and tragedy may arise in the context of media discussion. Handle these with care and sensitivity.
• Spoilers: See our dedicated Spoilers Policy below.
• GIFs and emoji: Our comment system supports emoji and GIF images sourced from GIPHY. GIFs and emoji are welcome as part of natural conversation, but must not be used to harass, mock, or demean other community members. GIFs containing explicit, violent, or hateful imagery are not permitted. We reserve the right to remove comments containing inappropriate GIFs. GIF content is subject to GIPHY's Terms of Service.

6. Spoilers Policy

Spoilers are a serious topic in fan communities. Our policy is designed to let people discuss media freely while protecting those who haven't yet experienced it.

When in doubt, add a spoiler warning. It costs nothing and means a lot to someone who hasn't seen it yet.

7. Profiles & Identity

Your CoveredGeekly profile is your identity on the platform. The following rules apply to all profile content:

• Username: Must not impersonate a real person, celebrity, or other community member. Must not contain slurs, hate speech, or explicit content. Must not be designed to mislead or deceive. Usernames can be changed once every 6 months. A record of previous usernames is retained for moderation and security purposes.
• Profile picture: Must not contain explicit, violent, hateful, or copyrighted imagery. You are responsible for any custom photos you upload. Real photos of yourself are welcome but not required. Administrators reserve the right to remove inappropriate photos and revoke upload permissions.
• Bio: Subject to the same content standards as all other community content. Promotional content in bios is not permitted without authorisation.
• Status & activity: Your public activity (articles read, quizzes taken, comments posted) may be visible to others by default. You can control the visibility of your activity in your Privacy Settings.
• One account per person: Creating multiple accounts to circumvent bans, manipulate rankings, or misrepresent your activity is prohibited.

8. Quizzes & Ranked Lists

Quizzes and community ranked lists are core features of the CoveredGeekly platform. The following rules apply:

Quizzes

• Quiz scores are personal and reflect your own knowledge - do not share answers or coordinate with others to achieve artificially high scores
• Do not attempt to reverse-engineer quiz answers through repeated attempts in a way designed to manipulate leaderboard positions
• Feedback on quiz questions is welcome and encouraged - use the feedback mechanism provided

Community Ranked Lists

• Vote honestly based on your genuine opinion - do not coordinate with others to manipulate rankings
• Do not create multiple accounts to cast additional votes
• Ranked list discussions should be constructive - passionate disagreement about rankings is welcome, but personal attacks on other voters are not
• Rankings reflect the community's collective view at a point in time and will naturally evolve - accept this gracefully

9. Moderation

CoveredGeekly uses a combination of automated tools and human moderation to maintain community standards. Our moderation approach is:

• Proportionate: We aim to match the severity of our response to the severity of the violation. Not every misstep warrants a ban.
• Consistent: The same rules apply to everyone, regardless of account age, follower count, or history on the platform.
• Transparent: Where possible, we will explain why content was removed or why an account was actioned.
• Humane: We recognise that people make mistakes. First-time minor violations will typically result in a warning, not an immediate ban.

Moderators have the authority to remove content, issue warnings, restrict account features, or suspend accounts where these guidelines are violated. Moderator decisions can be appealed - see the section below.

10. Reporting & Appeals

Reporting Content or Users

If you see content or behaviour that violates these guidelines, please report it using the report function available on comments, profiles, and community features. When reporting, please:

• Select the most accurate reason for your report
• Provide any additional context that would help our moderation team
• Report in good faith - false or malicious reports are themselves a violation of these guidelines

We aim to review all reports within 48 hours. High-severity reports (threats, illegal content) are prioritised.

Appealing a Moderation Decision

If you believe a moderation decision was made in error, you can appeal by contacting us at our contact page with the subject line "Moderation Appeal" and the following information:

• Your username
• The content or action being appealed
• Why you believe the decision was incorrect

Appeals are reviewed by a senior member of the team. We aim to respond within 5 business days. Our decision on appeal is final.

11. Enforcement & Consequences

Violations of these guidelines may result in the following actions, depending on severity and history:

We reserve the right to skip levels for particularly severe violations. Permanent bans are not subject to appeal in most circumstances.

12. Content Creators & Contributors

CoveredGeekly may in the future offer community members the ability to contribute content - articles, quizzes, ranked lists, and more. Contributors are held to the same standards as all community members, plus the following additional expectations:

• Accuracy: Contributed content must be factually accurate to the best of your knowledge. Deliberate misinformation will result in content removal and potential account action.
• Originality: Submitted content must be your own original work. Do not plagiarise or submit AI-generated content without disclosure.
• Disclosure: If you have a personal or commercial interest in the subject of your contribution, disclose it clearly.
• Editorial standards: Contributed content is subject to review by our editorial team and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, or style before publication.
• Rights: By submitting content to CoveredGeekly, you grant us a non-exclusive licence to publish, promote, and display that content on our platform and associated channels. You retain ownership of your original work.

13. Changes to These Guidelines

As the CoveredGeekly community platform grows and evolves, these guidelines will be updated to reflect new features, community needs, and lessons learned. We will notify registered members of significant changes via the platform and/or email. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

Continued participation in the community after changes are published constitutes acceptance of the updated guidelines.

14. Contact Us

If you have questions about these guidelines, want to report something not covered by our in-platform tools, or need to appeal a moderation decision, please get in touch: