Community Guidelines

The Internet Sacred Text Archive gathers the scriptures and traditions of the world's religions and cultures. People come here from every faith and from none. These guidelines keep the space around the texts as open and respectful as the archive itself. They apply everywhere members can post: comments, notes, highlights, research, and profiles.

What we expect

• Respect the traditions and the people who hold them. Scholarly disagreement is welcome; contempt for a faith or its followers is not.
• No harassment. Do not target, threaten, demean, or repeatedly provoke another member.
• No hate. No content that attacks people on the basis of religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics.
• Keep it lawful. No content that is illegal, infringes copyright, or violates someone's privacy.
• Protect minors. Any content that sexualises a minor is removed immediately and reported. See the Child Safety page.
• No spam or manipulation. No advertising, bulk posting, or attempts to game rankings or metrics.
• Contribute in good faith. Cite your sources, do not impersonate others, and do not misrepresent a text.

How we enforce

Members can report content using the report action attached to it. Reports go to a moderation queue where our staff review them. Depending on severity, we may remove content, issue a warning, temporarily suspend, or permanently ban an account. Every moderation action is recorded with its reason. To keep discussion healthy and the service stable, posting is subject to reasonable daily limits; normal use will never reach them.

Appeals

If you believe a moderation action was taken in error, you may contact us through the support channel to request a review.