THE BLACK FILES — COMMUNITY RULES & CONTENT POLICY
PART 3 OF 4 — MEMBER CONDUCT & MODERATION
These rules are divided into four parts because of forum post-length limits. All four parts form one complete policy and apply equally to every member.
SECTION 11 — HARASSMENT, IMPERSONATION & MANIPULATION
11.1 — Harassment
Do not repeatedly target another person with unwanted contact, insults, sexual comments, threats, false accusations, or coordinated abuse.
A single disagreement does not automatically constitute harassment. Persistent or escalating conduct may.
11.2 — Impersonation
Do not falsely represent yourself as another member, a public official, journalist, law-enforcement officer, lawyer, medical professional, representative of The Black Files, person involved in a case, or organization you do not represent.
Parody must be clearly identifiable as parody.
11.3 — Brigading and Raids
Do not direct members to flood another forum, profile, business, government office, social-media account, telephone number, or email address.
Do not arrive from another community for the purpose of disrupting discussions or targeting members.
11.4 — Manipulated Participation
Do not use multiple accounts, bots, purchased engagement, coordinated voting, or deceptive campaigns to manufacture support for a claim.
SECTION 12 — SPAM, PROMOTION & COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
12.1 — Spam
Do not post repetitive, irrelevant, automated, misleading, or mass-promotional content.
12.2 — Self-Promotion
Members may share relevant projects in designated areas.
Do not hijack unrelated threads, send unsolicited promotional messages, conceal affiliate relationships, pretend to be an ordinary customer, repeatedly repost the same project, use fabricated testimonials, or promote scams and deceptive services.
12.3 — Financial Claims
Investment theories and financial-system discussions are permitted.
Members may not use The Black Files to operate pump-and-dump schemes, impersonate financial professionals, guarantee investment returns, solicit deceptive investments, or manipulate markets.
Nothing posted on The Black Files should be treated as professional financial advice.
SECTION 13 — MEDICAL, LEGAL & SAFETY INFORMATION
13.1 — No Professional Relationship
Content on The Black Files is provided by independent users for discussion and informational purposes.
Nothing posted here creates a doctor-patient, lawyer-client, therapist-client, fiduciary, or other professional relationship.
13.2 — Dangerous Medical Claims
Members may question medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, research, public-health policy, and accepted medical narratives.
However, do not impersonate a medical professional, guarantee cures, encourage someone to ignore an immediate emergency, promote deliberate poisoning or dangerous dosing, sell fraudulent treatments, or target vulnerable members with dangerous claims.
Members should consult qualified professionals before making decisions involving health, medication, law, finances, or personal safety.
SECTION 14 — GRAPHIC & DISTURBING MATERIAL
14.1 — Content Warnings
Graphic, violent, disturbing, or potentially traumatic material must be clearly labelled.
Use clear warnings such as:
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING
VIOLENCE WARNING
DISTURBING IMAGES
DEATH
MEDICAL IMAGERY
14.2 — No Shock Posting
Do not post graphic content merely to disgust, intimidate, traumatize, or provoke members.
Staff may remove disturbing material even when it relates to a legitimate subject if a description or external citation would be sufficient.
SECTION 15 — PRIVATE MESSAGES
15.1 — Community Rules Apply Privately
Private messages are not exempt from these rules.
Threats, grooming, harassment, scams, doxxing, illegal trade, and prohibited material may result in moderation even when sent privately.
15.2 — Privacy Expectations
Private messages are intended for their participants, but members should not assume absolute secrecy.
The platform may access, preserve, or disclose private-message information when reasonably necessary to investigate reports, protect users, enforce these rules, prevent fraud or abuse, maintain platform security, comply with legal obligations, or respond to genuine emergencies.
Access should be limited to legitimate operational, safety, or legal purposes.
SECTION 16 — REPORTING CONTENT
16.1 — How to Report
Use the forum's report function whenever possible.
For urgent matters, contact:
General Moderation: [MODERATION EMAIL]
Privacy Requests: [PRIVACY EMAIL]
Copyright Complaints: [COPYRIGHT EMAIL]
Legal Process: [LEGAL EMAIL]
Include:
The exact URL
The username involved
A description of the issue
Relevant screenshots or documentation
Whether anyone appears to be in immediate danger
16.2 — Do Not Abuse Reports
Do not submit false, repetitive, retaliatory, or deliberately misleading reports.
Disagreement with a theory is not automatically a rules violation.
16.3 — Immediate Danger
If someone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services first.
The Black Files report system is not an emergency service and may not be monitored continuously.
SECTION 17 — MODERATION AUTHORITY
17.1 — Available Moderation Actions
The Black Files may:
Issue reminders or warnings
Edit titles or formatting
Add content notices
Apply evidence labels
Move or merge discussions
Limit thread participation
Lock threads
Remove links or attachments
Restrict content visibility
Temporarily suspend accounts
Permanently terminate accounts
Block devices, addresses, or networks
Preserve relevant records
Refer matters to service providers or authorities
Take no action when a report is unsupported
17.2 — Moderation Is Contextual
Staff may consider severity, intent, credibility, context, potential harm, posting history, cooperation, repeated conduct, and whether immediate action is legally or operationally necessary.
Not every violation will receive the same outcome.
17.3 — No Guaranteed Warning
Serious conduct may result in immediate restriction or termination without a prior warning.
Examples include credible threats, child exploitation, doxxing, malware distribution, criminal coordination, non-consensual intimate imagery, severe harassment, attempts to compromise the platform, and ban evasion following a serious violation.
17.4 — Staff Discretion
Staff may act against conduct not expressly listed when it creates a substantial risk to users, the platform, the public, or the lawful operation of The Black Files.
This authority will not be used merely because staff disagree with a member's opinion.
17.5 — Moderation Is Not Endorsement
Leaving content online does not mean that The Black Files agrees with it.
Removing content does not necessarily mean that The Black Files has determined it to be false or unlawful.
Moderation decisions may reflect safety, privacy, relevance, legal risk, evidentiary weakness, community health, or operational limitations.
SECTION 18 — APPEALS
18.1 — Requesting an Appeal
Members may appeal eligible moderation decisions by contacting:
Appeals: [APPEALS EMAIL]
Include your username, the moderation action, the date, the relevant thread or post, why you believe the decision should be changed, and any supporting context.
18.2 — Appeal Conduct
Appeals must be respectful and submitted in good faith.
Creating additional accounts, threatening staff, publicly targeting moderators, deleting evidence, or encouraging others to pressure staff may result in further restrictions.
18.3 — Final Decisions
The Black Files may limit repeated appeals after a decision has been reviewed and finalized.
END OF PART 3
Continue to Part 4 — Legal & Platform Policies.