Community Guidelines

1. Welcome to the Community

Inkwell is a space for authentic human expression. There are no algorithms deciding what you see, no ads monetizing your attention, and no engagement tricks competing for your time.

Your journal is yours — we just provide the paper and the pen.

These guidelines exist to keep Inkwell a place where every writer feels safe to be honest, vulnerable, and creative. They’re short on purpose. We trust you to write with care.

2. Be Kind, Be Genuine

Treat others the way you’d treat a pen pal: with warmth, curiosity, and good faith. We’re all here to write and to read — not to score points.

Constructive feedback is welcome when invited. Cruelty never is.

Respect people’s pronouns and chosen names. If you make a mistake, correct yourself and move on — no drama needed.

Remember that there is a real person behind every journal entry. Write your comments and guestbook messages accordingly.

3. What Belongs Here

Inkwell is built for long-form personal writing: reflections, creative writing, poetry, essays, fiction, travel journals, tutorials, reviews, letters to no one in particular.

Art, photography, music recommendations, reading lists, and anything you’d put in a zine or a handwritten letter — it all belongs here.

If your content touches on mature, sensitive, or potentially distressing topics, please use a content warning so readers can make an informed choice before reading. This isn’t censorship — it’s courtesy.

4. What Doesn’t Belong Here

Hate speech, slurs, or content that targets people based on their identity — including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, or nationality.

Harassment, bullying, doxxing, threats, or coordinated pile-ons against any individual or group.

Non-consensual intimate imagery, or any sexual content involving minors. This results in an immediate permanent ban and a report to law enforcement.

Spam, scams, phishing, or commercial solicitation disguised as journal entries.

Malware, malicious code, or any attempt to exploit other users or the platform.

5. Privacy and Consent

Don’t share another person’s private information — real name, address, workplace, photos — without their explicit consent.

Don’t screenshot or redistribute entries that were shared as friends-only or with a custom filter. Those privacy settings exist for a reason.

Respect the boundaries others set for their work. If someone asks you to remove something you’ve written about them, honor that request.

Your pen pals trust you. Be worthy of that trust.

6. The Open Social Web

Inkwell is part of the fediverse — a network of independent platforms connected through ActivityPub. Your public entries may be seen by people on Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other federated services.

These community standards apply equally to content that travels across the fediverse. What you publish here carries the Inkwell name with it.

Be a good neighbor. We may limit or suspend federation with instances that don’t uphold basic safety standards — and we expect other instances to hold us to the same bar.

7. Intellectual Property

Share your own original work, or content you have clear permission to share.

Credit your sources and inspirations. A link, a mention, a hat-tip — it goes a long way.

Don’t plagiarize or claim someone else’s writing, art, or ideas as your own. The internet has a long memory.

When in doubt, link instead of copy. Fair use has limits, and respecting creators is part of being one.

8. When Things Go Wrong

If you see something that violates these guidelines, let us know. You can reach us at hello@inkwell.social or through the community roadmap.

We investigate every report fairly and act proportionally. Our graduated response is: a friendly reminder, then a formal warning, then a temporary suspension, and finally a permanent ban.

You may appeal any moderation decision. We’re human too, and we’d rather have a conversation than make a mistake.

Our goal is to guide, not to punish. Most issues resolve with a simple conversation — and we’d like to keep it that way.

Questions?

If you have questions about these guidelines or need to report a concern, reach out to us at hello@inkwell.social or through the community roadmap.