These community guidelines apply to all areas of BookClub community interaction, both on the platform and in other online spaces and events affiliated with BookClub. By using BookClub you agree to abide by them.
BookClub is an inclusive community where you can engage in the book-related discussions you’ve always imagined, whether that’s with friends and fellow book lovers, or even directly with the author. BookClub is a space where diversity of thought and opinion is welcomed, but hate/harassment is not.
BookClub is powered by You
BookClub is led by authors and powered by you. Your interactions with each other are essential to establishing BookClub as a thriving and inclusive community built on dynamic, engaging conversations. Your discussions with authors, moderators, and other readers will build and expand BookClub, allowing for more authors and even more readers to join our community.
Be Respectful and Considerate
We want everyone who joins BookClub to have the best experience imaginable. The BookClub community is knowledgeable and diverse, which means that not everyone will share the same perspective. BookClub encourages a diversity of opinion and believes our community will be a great place to share your ideas. Respectful and lively debates are welcomed, as challenging the opinions of others is one of the things that makes BookClub great.
Zero Tolerance for Harassment and Discrimination
BookClub is dedicated to a harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, body size, age, race, or religion. Harassing individuals for their opinions is unacceptable, and hate speech, bigotry, threats, and ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated. For a list of what is considered harassment, click here.
Stick with Original Content
BookClub prides itself on our original content, as well as content created by our authors, our moderators, and you. We put authors and their work first in order to celebrate what they are creating and create a space for them to engage with it. We support original, creative contributions to BookClub and ask that all users respect the creation of that content and keep in mind that plagiarism will not be tolerated. Content that is shared on BookClub with permission and/or credit to the original creator is allowed and encouraged.
Authenticity is Key
BookClub is all about learning and original conversations, and we want you to bring your authentic self to BookClub. We ask that you do not participate anonymously or with a pseudonym*, misrepresent your identity or create accounts in order to harass authors or other members, abuse features, or evade our rules. Spam is prohibited, as are spammers and scammers who might bring that type of content to our community, as well as blatant self-promotion or promotion of products or services not affiliated with BookClub.
*Should your participation in BookClub be prevented without the use of a pseudonym for legitimate purposes, please contact support@bookclub.com.
Have Fun, Stay Curious
BookClub is here for you to create community around books while you challenge yourself and engage in new and exciting conversations. We know you’ll bring incredible discussions to the community and ask that you prioritize adding value to the community and don’t spend time diminishing it. We can’t wait to hear the conversations you have.
Harassment includes but is not limited to:
- Abusive or offensive comments regarding gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
- Racist language or specific references to violence against people due to their race.
- Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
- Simulated physical contact (i.e., textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) or actual physical contact without consent or after a request to stop.
- Sexually explicit images or images depicting violence, physical or mental abuse.
- Strong language, including, but not limited to, sexually explicit language or language threatening physical, mental, or emotional harm.
- Threatening language, including inciting violence towards any individual or encouraging an individual to die by suicide or engage in self-harm.
- Deliberate intimidation, including stalking, following, taking harassing photography, recording, or logging online activity for harassment purposes.
- Unwelcome sexual attention or other patterns of inappropriate contact, such as requesting or assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
- Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
- Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without permission or in an attempt to incite harassment.
- Publication of non-harassing private communication, personal information, or confidential information about a company or individual.
- Unwanted comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
- Sustained disruption of discussion.]
If you see content that violates our guidelines, contact us by emailing support@bookclub.com. We do not expect you to correct the content that others post on BookClub, and ask that you do not encourage content that violates our guidelines by engaging with it. Reported content will be attended to by our community management team. Retaliatory behavior in response to reported content will result in a lifetime ban from BookClub and BookClub-affiliated organizations.