Community Guidelines

Effective June 5, 2026

deb8 exists to help people who disagree understand each other better. These guidelines describe how we keep that possible. They are part of our Terms of Service and apply to everyone.

The one rule everything else follows

Ideas are free; behavior has standards. You may argue for almost any political, religious, economic, scientific, or moral position — including unpopular and offensive ones. What we moderate is conduct, not viewpoint.

The charter

Attack ideas, never people.
Steelman before you strike — restate the other side fairly first.
Bring evidence or bring curiosity.
Disagreement is the point; contempt is the enemy.
End at a better question or a better solution.

What we reward

deb8 ranks contributions by whether they increase understanding — changing a mind, fairly restating an opponent, citing real evidence, clarifying a thread — not by popularity or outrage. Consistently doing this earns reputation and roles like Bridge Builder, Researcher, and Diplomat.

What isn't allowed (behavior)

Personal attacks & harassment — targeting a person rather than their argument.
Hateful conduct directed at people — dehumanizing or attacking individuals or groups based on protected characteristics. (Critiquing ideas, beliefs, institutions, and texts is fair game.)
Spam, manipulation & vote-brigading — coordinated abuse, bots, or flooding.
Misrepresentation — repeatedly arguing against strawmen after being asked to engage honestly.
Doxxing — publishing private information about someone without consent.
Impersonation.

The hard line (zero tolerance)

This content is removed immediately and is never a matter of "viewpoint":

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any sexualization of minors. We detect, remove, preserve, and report this to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by law.
Credible threats of violence or incitement to imminent harm.
Content that facilitates serious crime — trafficking, terrorism, sale of weapons/drugs, etc.
Non-consensual intimate imagery.

How moderation works

You moderate. Anyone can flag a post (off-topic, needs a source, strawman, or conduct). Flags from established, trusted members count more — so a swarm of new throwaway accounts can't bury a good post.
We collapse, we don't silently delete. When a post crosses a community-flag threshold it is hidden behind a visible notice with the reason and a one-click "show anyway." We do not shadow-ban.
Automated help is narrow. We use automated tools only to detect the hard-line categories above (e.g. image hash-matching for CSAM, safety classifiers for threats). We do not use AI to judge whether an opinion is acceptable.
Appeals. If you think a moderation action was wrong, you can appeal to support@deb8.io. Decisions and rule changes are logged as transparently as we can manage.

Fact-checks & "truth" labels

When the community fact-checks a claim, the stance labels (Verified true → False) reflect the community's evidence-weighted judgment, not an official ruling by deb8. We reward bringing sources; readers decide what's true.

Consequences

Depending on severity and history: a post is collapsed → reputation impact → temporary restriction → suspension → permanent ban. Hard-line violations skip straight to removal, account termination, and (where required) law-enforcement referral.

Reporting

Use the flag controls on any post, or email support@deb8.io for urgent safety issues. To report copyright infringement, see the DMCA section of our Terms of Service.