RULES

Kitchen Instinct is an open platform that exists to share ideas, recipes, knowledge and perspectives from the world’s most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers.

We welcome thoughtful and civil discussion from a broad spectrum of viewpoints. Nevertheless, to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for a wide range of people to engage in meaningful conversations, we prohibit certain conduct.

Each participant in our community is responsible for maintaining these standards.

In deciding whether someone has violated the rules, we will take into account things like the context and nature of the posted information, the likelihood and severity of actual or potential harms, and applicable laws.

Violations of our rules may result in consequences such as account restrictions, limited distribution of your posts, and suspension of your account. KI has the sole authority and final decision as to whether content or behaviour violates our rules.

If you find a post or account on Kitchen InstinctKitchen Instinct that you believe violates these rules, please report it.

Threats of violence and incitement

We do not allow content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly.

Hateful content

We do not allow content that constitutes or promotes violence, harassment, or hatred against people based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.

We do not allow posts or accounts that glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths of individuals or groups. This includes the use of scientific or pseudoscientific claims or misleading statistics to pathologize, dehumanize, or disempower others. We do not allow calls for intolerance, exclusion, or segregation based on protected characteristics, nor do we allow the glorification of groups which do any of the above.

We do not allow hateful text, images, symbols, or other content, including in your username, profile, or bio.

Harassment

Kitchen Instinct exists to share and discuss ideas. We don’t tolerate harassment, which includes:

Bullying, threatening, mocking, or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so
Engaging in a repetitive or targeted campaign of harassment against someone or a group of people
Using derogatory language, racial slurs, or obscenities to disparage or attack someone or a group of people
Using Kitchen Instinct features like responses, private notes, mentions, follows, story requests, or writer requests in a way that attempts to or does annoy or harass someone, or to draw inorganic attention to your content on Kitchen Instinct.
Reviewing businesses or products in a gratuitously harmful or abusive manner

Privacy and Reputation

We do not allow the following:

Posting images of, transcripts of, copies of, or links to private communications between private individuals without the explicit consent of all parties to the communication. Redacting names or other information does not supplant the need to secure permissions
Doxing, which includes not only private or obscure personal information but also the aggregation of publicly available information to target, shame, blackmail, harass, intimidate, threaten, or endanger a person or group of people
Posting intimate or explicit images taken or posted without the subject’s express consent
Content that violates others’ privacy or personal safety, including sensitive or confidential information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, non-public phone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, or other similar information

Restricted categories

We do not allow posts or accounts that engage in the following restricted categories of activity:

Promotion of controversial, suspect, or extreme content
Facilitation of gambling or betting
Facilitation of buying or selling social media interactions, including off-platform
Facilitation of sexual services
Facilitation of copyright or other intellectual property violation
Facilitation or evidence of violating the terms of service of Kitchen Instinct or third party(s)
Facilitation of illegal hacking (e.g., stealing credentials, compromising personal data)
We do not allow the use of pseudoscience, disinformation, or other content that is contrary to public health or safety

Related conduct

We do not allow content or accounts that engage in on-platform, off-platform, or cross-platform campaigns of targeting, harassment, hate speech, violence, or disinformation. We may consider off-platform actions in assessing a Kitchen Instinct account, and restrict access or availability to that account.

Graphic content

We do not allow posting, linking to, or otherwise promoting pornographic images or videos. We do allow erotic writing and non-graphic erotic images.

We do not allow gratuitously graphic or disturbing media, regardless of subject matter.

Exploitation of minors

We do not allow content promoting the sexual, violent, or other exploitation of minors, including the sexualization of fictional minors.

Promotion and glorification of self-harm

We do not allow content or activities that encourage, promote or glorify acts of self-harm, such as cutting, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, and suicide. If you encounter users contemplating or threatening self-harm, please report it to us via the form or email address linked below.

Duplicate Content

We do not allow posting duplicate copies of the same content to Kitchen Instinct, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts, either publicly or as an unlisted story.

Spam or Site Misuse

We do not allow spam or misuse of Kitchen Instinct. All spam or misuse will be immediately removed from KI without notification. Examples of spam or misuse include:

Posting content primarily to drive traffic to, or increase the search rankings of, an external site, product, or service
Scraping and reposting content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains
Posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts
Stories where the content is clipped with the purpose of linking to the rest of the article on a different website
Performing a disproportionately large number of interactions, particularly by automated means. This includes bulk or indiscriminate interactions, such as following of other accounts (follow spam) clapping, highlighting, or leaving notes
Repeatedly using responses or other interactions as a method of promotion or marketing
Participating in bounty campaigns or brigades to artificially inflate rankings for posts, accounts, businesses, or products
Use or re-use content templates with slight modifications across multiple posts and accounts

For each of these behaviors, when we talk about “content,” we mean not only posts but also any other feature that allows you to add your own text or media. When we talk about “interactions,” we mean any feature that allows one user to interact with another person or post.

Copyright and trademark infringement

Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. Per our Terms of Service, we require users to have permission to post the content they publish on Kitchen Instinct. Additionally, we have specific policies around plagiarism, to which all KI accounts are held. Users found in violation of our copyright rules are not eligible for appeal or restoration. Kitchen Instinct defines plagiarism as any act of taking the words and/or ideas of others and presenting them as original or without proper acknowledgement or permission. This includes directly copying ideas and text (whether entire articles, paragraphs, or sentences), as well as paraphrasing and slight re-writes and failure to cite sources.

Deceptive conduct

We do not allow deceptive conduct on KI. This includes:

Posting content or impersonating a person or organisation in a way likely to deceive people. Parody and satire are fine, but make clear that is what you’re doing.
Using Kitchen Instinct for phishing or fraud. Don’t use tags, links, titles, or other metadata in a misleading way. Don’t link to or embed malicious or harmful code or software in your posts
Don’t use deception to generate revenue or traffic
If you have received free goods or services, or anything of value in connection with the topic of a post, you must make this clear.

Ads, Promotions, and Marketing

Third-party advertising and sponsorships are not allowed. While you may promote your own business, you may not advertise or promote third-party products, services, or brands through Kitchen Instinct posts, publications, or letters. This includes images that indicate brand sponsorship in a post or letter, or as part of a publication name or logo.
Images functioning as third-party ads are not allowed. Inline images or embeds that link out and function as banner ads for third-party brands are not allowed.
You must disclose affiliate links. Affiliate links, such as link out to Amazon with your code, or any other link out where you will receive a commission or other value, are allowed in posts. But, you must disclose somewhere in the post that it includes affiliate links. If you have received payment, goods or services, or something else of value in exchange for writing a post, you must still disclose this fact in writing within your post
Multi-level or affiliate marketing content is not allowed.

Embedded Content and Collection of Personal Information

To ensure the data privacy and security of our users, embedded content must comply with the following requirements. An “embed” includes a link, form, or a request for information or other content.

Embeds directly collecting data through Kitchen Instinct form fields, comments or other onsite means are not allowed. This includes embeds that facilitate the submission of email addresses, credit card information or other personal information. If you want to collect information from your readers, you will need to follow these requirements:

- If you link out from your post on Kitchen Instinct to a form hosted elsewhere, that form must make it clear to a user that they are no longer in the Kitchen Instinct network and the information they disclose is subject to the third-party’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy,
- If the link directs users to your own platform to subscribe to your newsletter, blog or other content you create, then in your Kitchen Instinct content immediately next to the link you must disclose that the link will take the user offsite outside of Kitchen Instinct.
- If your content includes a form that sends user information to you or a third-party, immediately next to or within the form you must disclose that the form will send the user’s information to an offsite third-party outside of Kitchen Instinct that is subject to that offsite third-party’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, or offsite outside of Kitchen Instinct, to you directly.