This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion
Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.
Improve the Discussion
Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
- Name-calling
- Ad hominem attacks
- Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
- Knee-jerk contradiction
Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.
Your Participation Counts
The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.
Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.
Let’s leave our community better than we found it.
If You See a Problem, Flag It
Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.
Always Be Civil
Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:
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Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech. This includes swearing at someone, making threats, and using insults or slurs.
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Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
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Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
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Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.
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Please refrain from trauma dumping. While the community here is very open and supportive, the forum is not equipped to handle situations of intense psychological distress. (If you are in need, please know that help is available to you through many free official mental health resources.)
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Please use Trigger Warnings, protective blurs and adhere to the Mature Content Safety Guide when sharing content that mentions certain mature topics
To hide words, phrases, or content in your writing with a protective blur, highlight it, click the gear button up top in the formatting, and select either Hide Details or Blur Spoiler.
This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.
Keep It Tidy
Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:
- Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
- Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
- Don’t post no-content replies.
- Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
- Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.
Sharing Content
While most of what is shared here in the Spells8 Forum will be done in your own words, sometimes you may come across a wonderful spell, interesting article, or fun witchy picture from another site that you want to share- thanks for thinking of your coven!
In order to post responsibility and avoid potential problems with copyright ownership, please keep the following in mind when you are sharing content that is not your own.
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Do not share any exclusive content such as premium content or that which was granted as a reward.
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If you choose to post content from an external site or source that is allowed to be shared, please include a source link giving credit to the owner. See below for guidelines about giving credit for different types of content!
For written text (article, list, etc.):
When directly copying and pasting:
1-2 paragraphs can be copied and pasted exactly from a web-based source, so long as explicit credit is given to the original source and a link to where the text was taken from is included with the borrowed material.
Out of respect to the source (and to avoid being flagged by web search algorithms!) please do not share the entire article/list/page/book/etc . If you have a large amount of content you’d like to share, please post a small amount followed by a credit link to the original source- it is fine to let users go read the rest from the source for themselves!
When paraphrasing:
- When paraphrasing content (taking information that is not general knowledge and putting it in your own words), please remember to give credit to the original source by including the name of the source and adding a link to where you found the information.
For sharing pictures:
Your personal pictures can be shared freely. For pictures that are not yours (but are taken by/portray) people you know, please get permission before posting them.
In order to share pictures with minors, you MUST have received prior approval from the minor’s legal guardians
For pictures taken from around the internet, please write name of the photographer/owner or the name of the site where you found them, and share a direct link/URL to where you found the image.
For sharing videos:
Feel free to freely share links to YouTube videos, as the video owner and all relevant information is automatically attached to the video.
For non-YouTube videos, please make sure that the original sources’ details are shown somewhere on the video. If there are none, please include a source link to where the video was found.
Exceptions: For sharing memes and GIFs:
Memes and GIFs (“Graphics Interachange Format” aka moving images) are unique forms of media that are usually created with the goal of rapidly spreading across social media platforms.
Due to their nature and the fact that it can be extremely difficult to locate the original source, memes and GIFs are NOT required to have a source or credit.
You are welcome to share appropriate memes and GIFs freely in the forum without any need for including a source.
For using AI (Artificial Intelligence) Content:
- Artificial intelligence art is any visual artwork created through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) programs such as DALL-E, Nightcafe, and MidJourney. [1]
- According to a U.S. court in Washington, D.C., any work of art created by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted [2], although legal cases are ongoing and laws around AI art ownership continue to be developed.
- As of March 2023, AI written work can be copyrighted, but only on a case-by-case basis by the US Federal Register. 3
At this time users are not required to give a credit or source note in the same way as when using copyrighted content. However, out of respect to the complexities and constantly developing nature of AI content copyright laws, users are required to label any AI content they choose to use.
→ This can be as simple as writing “AI” or mentioning that AI was used in the post containing the AI content.
Labeling AI pictures and text as such lets our Moderators know that the content being used is not copyrighted (and is thus not in violation of the Guidelines) while also adding some protection for users against potentially stricter laws around AI in the future.
When in doubt…
If you find something amazing on an external site that you want to share with the Spells8 forum but are worried about giving proper credit, the best thing you can do is to simply share the URL of the site .
Doing so lets users go and check out the article, text, spell, recipe, or another fun thing you found for themselves. It is a great way to share witchy materials while respecting the rights and property of other sites!
Please know that all users must follow the Content Standards and Rules About Your Content as outlined in the Spells8 Terms of Service.
By using this forum, you agree that Spells8 is not liable for any copyright violations made by you.
If you are unsure of anything or require additional guidance, please feel free to reach out to the friendly Spells8 Staff Team- we are here to help you!
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Terms of Service
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