Genius aspires to be a place where everyone feels welcome and safe. We want this to be a community where everyone knows the power of their words at all times, and feels both the joy and responsibility that comes with such power.
The exception is abuse and harassment, which we take seriously. Everyone is welcome here; abuse and harassment are not—in annotations, forums, chat, or private messages. If anyone feels they are being abused or harassed, please report it to a moderator (purple names) or staff member (steel blue names) immediately. You can reach all of us at once by writing “@genius-moderation” in any forum thread or as a comment on any annotation on site. On our Web Annotator tool, every annotation has a “Report Abuse” button that allows any user or visitor to flag an annotation for review by moderators and staff. People who abuse or harass other contributors will lose the privileges of their account. This may include temporary penalty boxing, permanent loss of account access, or the loss of mediator, editor, or moderator privileges.
Respect your fellow contributors. Though we believe in freedom of expression, we also want our contributors to think about the impact of their words on others. We encourage everyone on the site to send a private message to a contributor anytime they see someone using language in a way that undermines the community. It’s the responsibility of all of our contributors to make sure that the site is welcoming to everyone and focused on its goal to add knowledge to the world. This is especially true for mediators, editors, moderators, and staff members who are role models on the site.
Please also respect the site’s mission, which is to promote human understanding by annotating the world. In the course of this project, we will allow controversial texts to be posted, but we expect informed and thoughtful readings of those texts from our community members.
If you feel we’ve failed in any way, feel free to hit up a moderator or staff member to explain the issue.
