Community Guidelines /

The key principles

We want the StoriBoard Platform to provide a safe place for individuals to share their lived experience to help others who are going through something similar. We understand that every lived experience has a lifecycle: starting when you first encounter a particular life event (be it an illness, condition, bereavement or otherwise) and ending when you finish that particular stage in life (be that recovery, acceptance or just moving forward). Central to this, is that with all difficult aspects of lived experience, time is a great healer. When an experience is new it is often the most difficult part.

StoriTellers on the StoriBoard Platform are individuals who have had a video of their story published as a Featured Talk. We do not publish every video that is submitted to the StoriBoard Platform. We review videos and those that we determine to be suitable in accordance with these community guidelines (the Guidelines) and the StoriBoard Terms and Conditions (the Terms) will be published as a Featured Talk. These Guidelines help to explain what type of content is suitable for a Featured Talk and also suitable content for elsewhere on the StoriBoard Platform (for example, comments or information provided within our Groups functionality). To protect all users and the StoriTellers we think that stories are best shared by an individual when that individual has reached the end of a lived experience lifecycle. We like our StoriTellers to be able to share a positive note and any lessons that they have learnt from their experiences. We review all videos submitted to the StoriBoard Platform to ensure that they comply with the Terms and these Guidelines.

We ask that all users help us to keep the community on the StoriBoard Platform safe and inclusive by following these Guidelines. By using the StoriBoard Platform, you agree to the Terms and the Guidelines. We are committed to these Guidelines and we hope that you are too. Overstepping any boundaries set out in these Guidelines may result in your content being deleted, your account being disabled or other restrictions that we consider appropriate.

You should only share your own personal story and always follow the law. You should respect all users on the StoriBoard Platform, not spam people or post nudity.

More detailed principles

The StoriBoard Platform is a reflection of our diverse community of cultures, life experiences, ages and beliefs. We have spent a lot of time thinking about the many different life experiences and different points of view that create a safe and open environment for everyone. We have created these Guidelines so you can help us foster and protect this amazing community.

In some cases, we allow content for public awareness which would otherwise go against these Guidelines – if it is newsworthy and in the public interest. We only do this after carefully considering the public interest value against the risk of harm and we look to international human rights standards to make these judgments.

Share only content that belongs to you or that you have the right to share.

As always, you own the content that you post on the StoriBoard Platform (see our Terms for further details). We ask that you post authentic content, and do not post anything that has been copied or that you do not have the right to post.

Post content that is appropriate for a diverse audience.

We do not allow nudity on the StoriBoard Platform. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes photos, videos and digitally-created content that shows sexual intercourse, genitals and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos or videos of female nipples. In the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness or gender confirmation surgery) certain content may be acceptable.

We have zero tolerance when it comes to sharing sexual content of minors or threatening to post intimate images or videos of others. For safety reasons, we may remove images that show nude or partially nude images.

Cultivate meaningful and genuine interactions.

Help us stay authentic by not artificially collecting likes, views, followers or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people for commercial purposes without their consent. The StoriBoard Platform may not be used to promote giveaways of money in exchange for likes, views, followers, comments or other engagement. You must not post content that engages in, promotes, encourages, facilitates or admits to the offering, solicitation or trade of false reviews or ratings.

You do not have to use your real name on the StoriBoard Platform, but we do encourage you to do so. To this end, it is important that users only share information when they feel ready and that they are comfortable being published. We also require users to provide us with accurate and up-to-date information. See our Terms for more information. You must not impersonate others or create accounts for the purpose of violating these Guidelines or to mislead other users.

Follow the law.

The StoriBoard Platform must not be used to support or praise terrorism, organised crime or hate groups. Offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms, alcohol and tobacco products between private individuals, and buying or selling non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs are also not allowed. We also remove content that attempts to trade, co-ordinate the trade of, donate, gift or ask for non-medical drugs, as well as content that either admits to personal use (unless in the recovery context) or coordinates or promotes the use of non-medical drugs. StoriBoard also prohibits the sale of live animals between private individuals. No one may coordinate poaching or selling of endangered species or their parts.

Remember to always follow the law when offering to sell or buy any kind of regulated goods.

Respect other users of the StoriBoard Platform.

We want to foster a positive, diverse community. We remove content that contains threats or hate speech as well as content that targets private individuals to humiliate them, personal information meant to blackmail or harass someone, and repeated unwanted messages. We do generally allow stronger conversation around people who are featured in the news or have a large public audience due to their profession or chosen activities.

We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any content that encourages violence or attacks anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities or diseases. When hate speech is being shared to challenge it or to raise awareness, we may allow it. In those instances, we ask that you express your intent clearly.

Threats of harm to public and personal safety are prohibited. This includes specific threats of physical harm as well as threats of theft, vandalism and other financial harm. We carefully review reports of threats and consider many things when determining whether a threat is credible.

Maintain our supportive environment by not glorifying self-injury.

We want to ensure that the StoriBoard community cares for each other. The nature of the StoriBoard Platform means that it is often a place where people facing difficult issues (such as any kind of mental health condition, eating disorders, cutting or other kinds of self-injury) come together to create awareness or find support.

It is strictly prohibited to urge people to embrace self-injury of any kind. We will remove content and or disable accounts if such content is reported to us. We may also remove content identifying victims or survivors of self-injury if the content targets them for attack or humour.

How you can help

Every user (whether or not a StoriTeller) is an important part of the StoriBoard community. If you see something that you think may violate these Guidelines, please help us by using the reporting function on the StoriBoard Platform or by contacting us. We have a human team that reviews these reports and works within 24 hours to remove content that does not comply with these Guidelines. You may find content that you do not agree with but it may not breach these Guidelines. If that happens, you can unfollow or block the user that created the content. If there’s something that you don’t like in a comment on your own content, you can delete that comment.

Many disputes and misunderstandings can be resolved directly between members of the community. If one of your original videos was posted by someone else, you could try commenting on the post and asking the person to take it down. If that doesn’t work, you can report to us.

We may work with emergency services and law enforcement, including when we believe that there’s risk of physical harm or threat to public safety.

Thank you for encouraging the sharing of life experiences for a better world.

Storiboard