Code of Conduct

28 Mar, 2025

Bear Blog is a warm, welcoming community. We'd like to keep it that way. While you’re here, we ask that you treat others with kindness and respect.

Here’s what matters most

• Don’t spread hate or tear people down, especially over things like ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, age, gender, ability, politics, religion, or class.
• Don’t harass, troll, or stir up trouble just for kicks.

Abuses here will result in your blog being suspended.

And a few more things

Certain posts or the entire blog may be hidden from the discovery feed to keep our shared garden enjoyable for everyone. Kinds of posts that may be hidden include, but are not limited to:

• Excessively shitty or negative posts.
• Passive-aggressive jabs.
• Subtle digs or vague-posting.
• Gratuitous swearing.
• Lying or amplifying falsehoods.
• Low effort posts.
• AI generated content.

Posts may also be hidden or weighted on the discovery feed at the moderator's discretion. At the end of the day the discovery feed is a community hub and not a means of distributing content. Curation over chaos. The world doesn't need another Medium.

NSFW content

NSFW content such as written erotica and nudity is permitted on the platform but needs to be hidden from the discovery feed (use the make_discoverable: false attribute on the post and (depending on the level of erotica or nudity) require a custom domain so as to not accidentally blacklist the bearblog.dev domain in search engines. Explicitly pornographic content is not permitted.

One last bit

Our community’s a tapestry—different lives, different lenses. Not everyone sees the world like you do, and that’s okay. If someone offers earnest insight, even if you don't agree, they’re sharing because they care. Shutting it down skips a chance to grow.

It is possible to hide blogs which you really don't want to see using the filters on the discovery feed.

"Free speech”

Speaking your mind and being yourself is all well and good. But creating a space that is free from harm, harassment, or abuse is even better. When push comes to shove, creating a wholesome space on the internet takes top priority. You still maintain your right to free speech, but Bear Blog doesn't have to provide the platform for it.

This isn’t negotiable: Bear Blog won’t be a megaphone for hurting people. If you can’t keep it civil, you’ll need to find another sandbox.

Reports, suggestions, and questions

If you have ideas on how to improve the community, and the code of conduct in general, I'm always open to suggestions. Same goes for questions.

If you want to report abuse you can contact Herman.