Content Policy

Version 1.5 — effective 2026-11-16.

Waidrn hosts user-submitted fiction and discussion. It is free to read and free to publish. This policy describes what may be published, what must be labelled, and what will be removed.

Allowed

• Original fiction, poetry, essays and serialised works of any genre.
• Transformative fanworks (fanfiction and fanart) for existing media, published free of charge.
• Discussion, criticism, worldbuilding, creative advice and community projects.
• Links to your own external support pages and portfolios.

Required labels

Every work must declare a rating (General, Teen, Mature, Explicit, or Not Rated), content warnings (or an explicit "Chose Not To Warn" / "No Warnings Apply" choice), a category, and a language. Works rated Mature or Explicit are visible only to signed-in adults who have confirmed adult access for the session; anonymous visitors never see them, and they are excluded from default listings until you opt in. Threads carry the same rating model. Age-assurance beyond a self-declaration at signup is not implemented yet; when it is, this policy will say exactly what is required.

Prohibited

• Content that is illegal in the jurisdiction of the hosting operator, including CSAM, sexual content involving minors, and content that incites violence or terrorism.
• Harassment, hate speech, doxxing, credible threats, and targeted abuse.
• Spam, malware, phishing, and attempts to compromise the site or its users.
• Texts you do not have the right to publish. Copyright complaints are handled through the Copyright & takedown process.
• Commercial solicitation, paywalled or gated access to hosted content, and any attempt to charge readers for hosted works.

Enforcement

Reported content enters the moderation queue (Moderation). Moderators can hide content pending review, remove it with a public tombstone and reason, lock threads, suspend accounts, and record every action in the audit log. Severe violations may be removed and the account suspended without notice. You can appeal a moderation decision to an admin through the report flow or moderation@waidrn.com (see Moderation); copyright matters follow the formal copyright notice and counter-notice process.

Adult content and minors

Waidrn is not directed at children. Users must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in their jurisdiction, to create an account. Adult content is gated and labelled; mislabelling adult content is itself a policy violation.

Accounts, entities and profiles

One person has one account (an entity). An account can present several profiles: the default profile created with it, additional public profiles (pen names), private or unlisted profiles, profiles limited to one realm (scoped), and profiles marked 18+ (adult-only). You switch the active profile in Settings; the profile you post with is the profile shown on the content, and your account email is never shown publicly.

Profile rules apply to every profile:

• No real-human imagery: avatars are artwork, identicons, generated or abstract. Real photos of real people, photorealistic human faces, and real-human intimate imagery are not allowed on profiles.
• Profile text and images pass the same automated policy checks as content at creation and on every edit (we call the check Jev); a check can queue or block a profile change, and blocks are reported to moderators.
• Scoped profiles are locked to one realm's contract; adult-only profiles may only post where the contract is 18+ (and never in tame/standard realms).
• Impersonation of Waidrn staff, other creators, verified organisations or real people is prohibited on every profile and page.

Realm contracts and availability

Discussion boards, realm pages and adult content live under realm contracts: versioned rules for a realm or a single thread. Contracts choose a tier (tame, standard, mature, uncensored-lawful) and a set of flags (adult-only, explicit-sex, image policy, link policy, profile policy, report threshold, age assurance, geo policy, and a real-person-fiction setting). A realm can only become adult-capable with operator approval, and a child realm or thread can only be stricter than its parent — never looser. The platform's unlawful-content floor (below) applies at every tier and cannot be waived by any contract.

When you post in a realm whose contract is stricter than your usual behaviour, the stricter rule wins. If a contract becomes stricter, we show a change notice and a grace window before existing lawful content is judged by the new restriction; unlawful content is removed immediately. Contract versions and acceptances are recorded; we never silently rewrite a version you already accepted.

Legal notices and transparency

Copyright holders and authorities can send legal notices through the paths described in the Copyright policy and DMCA page. Notices are tracked; decisions are recorded with reasons; aggregate counts (kind and outcome only, never identities) appear on Transparency. A receipt is not a decision and not legal advice.

Availability by location (provisional)

Some contracts may be unavailable in some countries where their content is unlawful or restricted. Availability is controlled by a versioned country matrix that is provisional and awaits legal review; hidden pages return an ordinary “not found” and do not disclose what is hidden or why. VPNs and proxies can defeat location checks, so this is a mitigation, not a guarantee.

Communities and organizations (v1.4)

Communities and organizations are social structures on Waidrn, not a licence to publish content that violates this policy. Community owners and moderators and organization owners/admins moderate their own spaces under these rules and the Moderation policy; Waidrn staff remain responsible for platform-wide enforcement, reports, and appeals.

• Impersonation is prohibited: names, pages or badges may not pretend to be Waidrn staff, another creator, another entity, or a verified organization. The product rejects names implying platform endorsement, and organization verification is reviewed by moderators; a verified badge is a statement that evidence was checked, not a guarantee.
• Communities and organizations may not be used to organize harassment, doxxing, fraud, or evasion of a suspension.
• Organization pages may link their own projects and boards; the projects remain subject to the same rules (including the rights matrix for project money).

Political content (v1.4)

Political speech and civic discussion are allowed on Waidrn, including debate about policy and public issues. Candidate or party campaign financing is prohibited: project funding, contributions and community/organization support may not be used to finance electoral campaigns, political parties, or candidates. Political projects, if any, must be clearly civic/informational and may not raise money for campaigns. Waidrn does not endorse candidates or parties.