Community Guidelines

The Splash **Community Guidelines** (often abbreviated **CG** or **CGs**) are the official set of guidelines that tell Splashers how to act appropriately on the Splash Website. There are other etiquette rules that should be followed, but are not part of the Community Guidelines.

The Community Guidelines used to be called "Terms of Use". The name was changed because "Terms of Use" gave the impression of a long piece of "technical jargon."

## Information

The guidelines are summarized into six simple guidelines, as the Splash Team is aware that many people dislike reading pieces of text. A further simplification is below.

### Guidelines Summary

* **Treat everyone with respect.** - Splash can share content that excites them or celebrates their identity. Scratchers must not attack other Splashers about their background or interests.
* **Be safe: keep personal and contact information private.** Personal information used for private communication, in person or online, cannot be shared. This includes sharing real last names, phone numbers, addresses, hometowns, school names, email addresses, usernames or links to social media sites, video chatting applications, or websites with private chat functionality.
* **Give helpful feedback.** Content posted must not be critical, but should be kind. It is encouraged to offer suggestions or mention appreciated features. Being sarcastic or disrespectful is not allowed.
* **Embrace remix culture.** Splashers may use content from other projects in theirs, but must give credit to the Splashers' whose content was used. All shared content is free for other Splashers to use.
* **Be honest.** Splashers must be honest and authentic when interacting with others on Splash, and remember that there is a person behind every Splash account. Spreading rumors, impersonating other Splashers or celebrities, or pretending to be seriously ill is considered disrespectful and not allowed.
* **Help keep the site friendly.** If something on Splash is unfriendly, insulting, too violent, or otherwise disruptive to the community, click “Report” to message the Splash Team, instead of replying back to such content or gossiping about the creators of such content. The Splash Team will look at reports and take the appropriate action.

## Broken Rules

When a rule is broken by a Splashers, the Splasher receives an alert from the Splash Team. After multiple messages, a user may be banned, or blocked temporarily, or (in case of a serious offense) even permanently. An account may even be deleted in very severe cases. The Community Guidelines also show up on the ban page.

If somebody else has broken a rule, such as being aggressive and mean towards a user, the Splash Team has clearly stated that responding to it in the same kind of manner will also count as breaking the community guidelines, and both accounts may be alerted or banned. Additionally, threatening to report something is not considered respectful. Instead, Splashers are encouraged to report the comment or project without responding.

## Location

The Community Guidelines can be accessed from the footer on the bottom on the Splash Website. It is the first link under "Community".