Community Guidelines

WriteTheRest is for writing each other's stories. Dark themes are fine in fiction; hurting real people is not. Rate your work honestly, be kind in comments, and report anything that crosses the line. These guidelines sit alongside our Terms of Service.

Every prompt and story needs a rating. When in doubt, pick the higher one. Anything above General is hidden behind a warning until the reader chooses to show it.

• General audiences: suitable for anyone. Mild peril, no swearing beyond the occasional “damn”, no sexual content. Example: a dragon who is afraid of heights.
• Teen (13+): some violence, moderate language, romance without sexual detail, non-graphic references to difficult topics. Example: a sword fight with injuries described briefly.
• Mature (16+): strong language, graphic violence or horror, drug use, serious themes such as abuse or suicide handled without glorifying them, sexual situations implied but not described explicitly. Example: a war story with graphic battlefield injuries.

Mature is the highest rating. There is no Explicit or NSFW rating: sexually explicit content (sexual activity described in graphic detail) is not allowed at any rating and will be removed if it is reported or we find it. Fade-to-black and implied scenes are fine under Mature. Any sexual situation must involve only adults, clearly and unambiguously.

• Sexually explicit content (see above).
• Any sexual content involving anyone under 18, including fictional characters, “aged-up” framing, or ambiguous ages. We report this to the authorities.
• Content that is illegal in the UK, such as terrorist material, threats, or content that incites violence.
• Harassment, bullying, hate speech, or targeting a real person, including writing sexual or violent content about real, identifiable people.
• Doxxing: sharing anyone's personal information, such as an address, phone number or real identity behind a pen name.
• Encouraging or giving instructions for suicide, self-harm or eating disorders. Fiction can explore these themes; it must not promote them.
• Spam, advertising, scams and malicious links.
• Plagiarism: posting someone else's writing as your own. See our Copyright Policy.
• Writing that is not in English (we need to be able to moderate it).

Pen names let you write without your real name attached. Do not use a pen name to impersonate someone, to harass people, or to come back after a suspension, and do not try to work out or reveal who is behind someone else's pen name.

Critique the writing, not the writer. Keep feedback constructive and on topic. Vote on what you actually think; do not use extra accounts or coordinate with others to push content up or down.

Use the Report link on a prompt, story or comment, or email legal@write-the-rest.alexlougheed.dev. You don't need an account to report. Pick the closest reason and, if it is not obvious, tell us what is wrong and where. Reports are confidential: we do not tell the author who reported them.

We aim to review reports within 14 days. Anything that may be illegal or put a child or anyone else at risk is treated as a priority and reviewed as soon as reasonably possible; we may hide it straight away while we look into it. Where needed we will contact you for more detail. WriteTheRest is run by one person, so these are aims, not guarantees.

Depending on how serious it is, we may:

• change the content's rating;
• hide the content (reversible, for example while we look into it) or remove it;
• send a warning;
• suspend the account: a suspended account cannot sign in or post;
• permanently close the account, straight away for the most serious cases such as child sexual abuse material or credible threats.

Removed content is no longer shown to anyone, but a private copy may be retained for up to 12 months as a record of the decision. Where the law requires it, we report content to the police or other authorities.

If you disagree with a decision about your content or account, or with how we handled your report, email legal@write-the-rest.alexlougheed.dev with “Appeal” in the subject line within 30 days. Include a link to the content and tell us why. A person will review it again; we aim to respond within 30 days.

WriteTheRest is not an emergency service. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 in the UK (or your local emergency number). If you are struggling, you can talk to Samaritans any time on 116 123 (UK and Ireland) or visit samaritans.org.