Community Guidelines

Last updated: [[EFFECTIVE DATE]]

Sithea's community is a peer-support space for people managing chronic health conditions. These Guidelines are part of the [Terms of Service](TERMS_OF_SERVICE.md) and apply to everything you post — rooms, posts, comments, reactions, direct messages, your public name, and your profile. They exist to keep the space safe, kind, and lawful.

By posting in the community you agree to follow these Guidelines. Breaking them can lead to content removal, a warning, suspension, or a permanent ban.

What this space is

• Peer support, not medical care. Members share lived experience. Nothing here is professional medical advice, and no member speaks for Sithea. See the [Medical Disclaimer](MEDICAL_DISCLAIMER.md).
• Frank talk is welcome. Describing your own symptoms, pain, side effects, bad days, and dark moods is normal and allowed. You will never be penalised for describing your own illness or feelings.

Be kind and stay safe

Do not post content that:

• Harasses, bullies, threatens, or demeans another person, or targets anyone with hate on the basis of who they are (race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or similar).
• Gives dangerous medical advice to others — for example urging others to stop prescribed treatment, or promoting a harmful substance or "cure" with dosing instructions. Sharing *your own* experience is fine; instructing others is not.
• Is sexual content, graphic violence, or gore.
• Reveals another person's private or identifying information without their consent ("doxxing").
• Is spam, scams, advertising, or solicitation, including selling treatments or supplements.
• Impersonates another person, a clinician, or Sithea.
• Is unlawful, or infringes someone else's rights (including copyright or trademark).

Self-harm and crisis

If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, please contact your local emergency number or a crisis line immediately — Sithea cannot help in an emergency. When our systems detect a member in crisis, we show support resources and a human moderator may review the post. We treat these situations with care, not punishment.

Reporting and blocking

• Report any post, comment, or member that breaks these Guidelines using the in-app report action. Reports are confidential; the reported member is not told who reported them.
• Block any member to immediately hide their content from you and yours from them.
• Reports may be retained for safety and moderation purposes as described in the [Privacy Policy](PRIVACY_POLICY.md).

How we moderate

• New posts pass an automated safety screen. Clearly harmful content may be held for human review before it appears; borderline content is published but queued for a moderator to look at.
• Human moderators review reports and queued content. Depending on severity and history, we may: leave the content up, remove it, issue a warning, temporarily suspend an account, or permanently ban a member. A banned member keeps read access and can still export or delete their data, but can no longer post, comment, react, follow, or message.
• We aim to apply these Guidelines consistently, but we use judgement and act to protect the community.

Reporting illegal content (notice-and-action)

Anyone — member or not — can notify us of content on Sithea they believe is illegal, and we will act on valid notices without undue delay.

Send a notice to [[CONTACT EMAIL]] with the subject line "Illegal content report", including:

1. A link to, or a precise description of, the content and where it appears. 2. An explanation of why you believe it is unlawful (and under which law, if you know it). 3. Your name and a contact email (so we can update you and, where required, pass your notice to the poster). You may request confidentiality. 4. A statement that you believe, in good faith, that the information in the notice is accurate and complete.

What happens next:

• We acknowledge valid notices and review them promptly.
• If content is unlawful or breaks these Guidelines, we remove or disable access to it and, where appropriate, act on the account.
• Where the law requires, we tell the affected member what was removed and why, and both the notifier and the member may contest the decision by replying to our notice.
• We preserve records of illegal-content notices and our actions as required by law, and report to authorities where we are legally obliged to.

Intellectual-property complaints (copyright, trademark) can use the same address with the subject "IP takedown"; include proof you hold the right and identify the infringing content.

Emergencies: if content indicates a credible, imminent risk to someone's life or safety, contact your local emergency services first, then notify us.

Changes

We may update these Guidelines as the community grows. Material changes will be reflected in the app.

Contact

[[CONTACT EMAIL]] — [[LEGAL ENTITY]], [[POSTAL ADDRESS]].