YLF has existed for a long time without heavy handed moderation of user contributions in the blog and forum. With very few exceptions, the community has maintained an extraordinary (for the internet) level of civility and good faith. We hope that continues, but at the same time we would like to clarify and communicate our moderation policy. This policy will evolve over time as we learn what works best, and we will modify this page when it changes.
The YLF terms of service, which has existed since the site launched in 2006, describes what’s ok and what isn’t ok when it comes to posting in the forum and commenting in the blog. Here are the relevant parts:
You agree that you will not:
- use the Site or Service to defame, threaten, stalk, defraud, incite, harass or advocate the harassment of another person, or otherwise interfere with another user’s use of the Site or Service;
- use the Site or Service to post sexually explicit material or pictures that include nudity;
- use the Site or Service to transmit or post spam, junk email or other mass messages, whether commercial in nature or not;
- use the Site or Service for promotional or commercial purposes, except as expressly permitted by YLF;
- use the Site or Service to promote bigotry or discrimination against protected classes;
- use the Site or Service to violate any third party right, including copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity or any other intellectual property or proprietary right
We have three specific asks in relation to the first point about not interfering with another member’s use of YLF:
- Please treat other members with respect. If someone is disrespectful to others, we will remove the posts where they do this. Sometimes this is a hard line to draw and we won’t be trying to define it here. We will use our judgment.
- Please do not police other members. Even if it is done in good faith, it rarely leads to the desired outcome. And often it is itself a form of harassment. If you think someone is violating the terms of service, report the post. Do not take it up with them directly. If someone does call people out directly and publicly in the forum, we will moderate their posts.
- Please avoid divisive, off-topic subjects. This is a fashion and style forum. Politics and religion are too divisive, even for the “off topic” section of the forum, so posts on these subjects will be removed. Sometimes the lines are blurry, but again, we will exercise judgment.
When someone repeatedly breaks the rules, we will disable their ability to post on the forum. We will sometimes give private warnings to help people understand where they are breaking the rules, but won’t necessarily do so. We won’t discuss moderation decisions we make for one member with other forum members.
If you have comments about moderation, please direct them to us using private messaging or the contact form.
YLF is far from perfect. We completely understand that it is not everyone’s cup of tea and won’t be at all offended if you go elsewhere to find style advice or community. But we hope you stick around, because from what we’ve seen, the YLF community is generally the safest, nicest, and most helpful place to talk about fashion and style.
