Codes of Conduct

Code of Conduct for Authors 

At Scriptophobia, constructive feedback is the cornerstone of growth as a writer. To ensure a supportive and professional environment, authors receiving critiques are expected to uphold the following principles. By participating in the critique process, you agree to engage with feedback respectfully, thoughtfully, and in good faith.

Respect the Efforts of Reviewers: Critiques are provided to help you refine and enhance your writing. Acknowledge the time and effort your peers invest in reviewing your work, even if their feedback differs from what you anticipated.

Maintain Professionalism: Always respond to critiques in a courteous and professional manner. Avoid dismissive, defensive, or antagonistic behavior, even if you disagree with the feedback provided. Personal attacks or inflammatory responses will not be tolerated.

Engage with Feedback Constructively: Critiques are intended to address your work, not you personally. Approach feedback with an open mind and focus on how it can help you improve your writing. Use the opportunity to reflect and grow.

Express Gratitude: Thank those who critique your work for their effort, regardless of whether their suggestions align with your vision. Gratitude fosters a positive community atmosphere and encourages constructive dialogue.

Seek Clarification Respectfully: If a critique is unclear or raises questions, ask for clarification in a polite and constructive manner. This promotes understanding and ensures the critique is as helpful as possible.

Report Inappropriate Critiques: If you encounter critiques that are insulting, belligerent, or otherwise violate the community guidelines, report them using the contact form at [link to contact form]. Additionally, critiques that appear padded or overly verbose in an attempt to gain points unfairly should also be reported. The site moderators will review these reports and take appropriate action.

Avoid Pressuring Critics: Respect the voluntary nature of critiques. Do not pressure others for specific types of feedback or insist on faster responses. Allow reviewers to participate at their own pace and in their own style.

No Retaliation Against Reviewers: Disagreeing with feedback is natural, but retaliation against a reviewer—whether through rude remarks, down voting their work, or other actions—is unacceptable. Such behavior undermines the spirit of collabo

Contribute to a Positive Environment: Receiving critiques gracefully sets the tone for a productive and inspiring community. By valuing feedback, you contribute to a culture of mutual respect and growth.

Reports of inappropriate or bad-faith critiques, as well as any violations of this Code of Conduct, will be handled confidentially. Violations may result in actions ranging from warnings to limitations on your ability to post work for critique, or in serious cases, removal from the platform. Thank you for upholding the standards of Scriptophobia and contributing to a thriving community of writers.

Code of Conduct for Critiquers on Scriptophobia

At Scriptophobia, providing constructive and respectful feedback is essential to fostering a thriving community of writers. Critiquers play a pivotal role in supporting authors’ growth and development. To maintain the professionalism and integrity of our platform, all critiquers must adhere to the following Code of Conduct.

Be Respectful and Professional: Critiques should always be delivered in a respectful and professional tone. Avoid using insulting, sarcastic, or disparaging language that could discourage or demean an author. Constructive feedback should focus on the work, not the individual.

Provide Honest and Constructive Feedback: Offer genuine insights that help authors identify strengths and areas for improvement in their writing. Avoid padding critiques with irrelevant or superficial comments just to gain points. Critiques should add value and demonstrate thoughtfulness.

Focus on Constructive Suggestions: Identify specific elements of the work that can be improved and offer actionable suggestions for change. Critiques that are overly harsh or vague without providing helpful solutions are not in the spirit of the community.

Respect Authorial Voice: Recognize that every writer has a unique style and approach. While offering suggestions, avoid imposing your preferences or rewriting the work in your own style unless explicitly asked.

Be Fair and Impartial: Provide balanced critiques that acknowledge both strengths and areas for improvement. Avoid letting personal biases influence the quality or content of your feedback. Remember, new authors may not have the same skill level or experience as you. Be encouraging.

Refrain from Solicitation: Critiques should remain focused on the author’s work. Do not use critiques to promote your own writing, services, or external resources.

Avoid Overly Brief or Superficial Comments: Critiques should reflect genuine effort and engagement with the author’s work. Avoid one-liners or generic remarks that provide no substantive feedback, such as “Good job!” or “I didn’t like it.”

Respect the Reporting Process: If you feel your critique has been unfairly flagged, report the issue using the contact form at [link to contact form]. Do not engage in disputes or retaliatory actions.

Commit to Integrity: Providing fair and thoughtful critiques is a responsibility. Critiques that appear insincere, padded, or designed solely to accumulate points undermine the community’s trust and will be subject to review and potential action.

Be Supportive of Growth: Remember that authors are seeking to improve their skills. Frame your feedback in a way that encourages growth and inspires confidence in their ability to progress as a writer.

Violations of this Code of Conduct, including submitting inappropriate, dishonest, or unhelpful critiques, may result in penalties ranging from reduced access to critiquing features to account suspension or removal from the platform. Thank you for contributing to a collaborative and supportive environment on Scriptophobia. Together, we can make this a place where writers thrive.

The Scriptophobia forums are moderated. Posts and threads that break our rules are deleted without warning, and members may be permanently banned from Scriptophobia for bad forums behavior.

This Code of Conduct applies to the public discussion forums and the discussion forums of both public and private groups.

The forums are not the same as posting writing to the site for critique. Posting writing to the site for critique is governed by our Author and Critiquer Codes of Conduct.

Certain Topics are Banned in the Main Forums

In the main public forums, all discussion relating to politics or religion is banned. This includes all forms of jokes.

This ban does not apply to member-run groups, who may discuss whatever they like as long as they follow the rest of these Codes of Conduct.

Questions about political and religious matters that are asked for the purpose of research for a writing project are allowed, as long as they do not launch discussion. For example, asking “My character is Middle Eastern. Can someone explain some common religions and their ceremonies for me, so that my novel can be factually accurate?” is allowable, as long as replies remain fact-based and do not become discussions on the validity of the religion.

What constitutes “politics” changes over time. Generally, it refers to worldwide current or recent political figures, events, and hot-button or campaign issues like abortion, guns rights, and so on. This is not an exhaustive list and the forums moderators make final decisions on what is or isn’t considered politics.

Recent history may still be politics, but older history is usually not politics. While Julius Caesar, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Hitler were all political figures, they are now history and not recent or current politicians.

Don’t Insult Or Flame Others

Keep your posts polite, respectful, and friendly. Sarcasm in particular is difficult to convey over the internet; you might not intend offense, but you’re still responsible for offense taken. Don’t be touchy, defensive, mean, or creepy.

Keep Threads On-Topic

Every discussion has its place — and that place is not in the middle of a different discussion. When posting in a thread, your post should address the original topic posed in the first post. Derailing threads with meaningless back-and-forth or a wildly different topic discourages the thread author and confuses readers.

Don’t Call Out Other Members

Airing your private reservations about other members in a public forum isn’t a smart move. At best, you’ll look bad, and at worst you’ll look bad and start a massive flame war. This includes complaints about specific critiques you may have received, and discussing specific members in the forums in any way. This also applies even if you don’t name names — people can still usually figure out who you’re talking about without much trouble.

Don’t Post Your Writing

The forums are not the place to post your writing, even if not for critique. Any writing of any length must be posted to the site using your credits points.

No Discussing Moderator Decisions

Often the forums moderators will delete posts, delete or close threads, or perform other kinds of forums maintenance to enforce these Codes.

The moderators are like referees in sports: While you may not always agree with their decisions, you are required to respect them. That means not sassing moderators or discussing moderator activity in the forums, including with one-liners or asides.

If you want clarification on why a moderator did something, send us a note to discuss the matter privately.

No Advertising

Scriptophobia members don’t respond well to other members who join only to advertise, and you’d only be doing your product a disservice.

Mentioning a work you’ve published, or a helpful service you’ve discovered but are not affiliated with, is OK.

No Matter What, Be Polite

If you find yourself in a situation where you feel the need to act defensively or rudely, stay polite. Keep your cool, don’t stoop to their level, and you’ll be the better person. There’s no need to start an argument and create bad blood; instead, report inappropriate behavior to us using the “Bad Post” button you can find at the bottom of every forum post, or by using our contact form, and we’ll take action.

Code of Conduct for Messaging, Friend Requests, and Social Media Engagement

At Scriptophobia, we are committed to maintaining a safe, professional, and respectful environment for all users. As part of this commitment, we ask that all interactions through internal messaging, friend requests, and social media engagements align with the following principles.

Respectful communication is paramount. Users must ensure their messages and interactions remain courteous, professional, and constructive at all times. Harassment, abusive language, or discriminatory remarks of any kind are strictly prohibited. Should you encounter communications that make you feel uncomfortable, please report them to us immediately at [link to contact form].

The platform is not to be used for solicitation, spamming, or sharing promotional content unrelated to writing. Explicit or sexually suggestive messages, images, or other materials are strictly forbidden. Users are also reminded that this is a space for collaboration and critique, not for initiating romantic or sexual relationships.

Boundaries must be respected at all times. If a user declines or ignores a friend request or message, you must honor their decision. Any attempt to pressure or repeatedly contact someone who has set boundaries will not be tolerated. If you wish to engage in detailed or sensitive discussions, ensure you have obtained explicit consent from the other party before proceeding.

Interactions on Scriptophobia should always remain relevant to writing and its related activities. Any discussions or shared content on the platform’s social media features should focus on professional engagement. Personal information and off-topic discussions should not be shared unless explicitly permitted by the involved parties.

We have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment, stalking, or any form of unwelcome or threatening behavior. Violations of this nature will result in swift action, including but not limited to, restricting access to features of the site or permanently banning the offending account. Creating multiple accounts to bypass restrictions or reinitiate unwanted contact is also prohibited and will result in further penalties.

Scriptophobia encourages privacy and anonymity for its users. Sharing someone’s personal information or private discussions without their consent is strictly against our policies. Users should also be mindful of their own privacy and refrain from disclosing personal details that could lead to offline contact unless they are entirely comfortable doing so.

Any behavior that violates this Code of Conduct should be reported promptly. Please use the contact form at [link to contact form] to report violations. Reports will be handled confidentially, and appropriate action will be taken based on the severity of the offense.

Penalties for breaking the Code of Conduct range from temporary limitations on access to certain site features to a complete and permanent ban from the platform. By participating in Scriptophobia’s community, you agree to adhere to these guidelines and contribute to a positive and respectful space for all users.

Thank you for helping us make Scriptophobia a safe and enriching platform for writers everywhere.