Acceptable Use Policy

Effective date: 10 May 2026 Last updated: 10 May 2026 Version: 1.0

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") describes the standards we expect from everyone who uses Σmind (sumofmind.co.uk). It forms part of the contract between you and us under the Terms of Service. Where a sub-document (e.g. the Shop Terms) sets a more specific standard for a particular surface, that more specific standard also applies.

This is a written-content platform. We aim to host considered, thoughtful writing — and the corresponding social, editorial and commerce features that support it. We are not a general-purpose social network and we are not a political or fringe-content platform.

By using Σmind you agree to follow this AUP.

1. The basic principles

The detailed rules below come down to four principles:

1. Don't break the law. UK law applies to us as a UK platform. If something would be unlawful offline, it is unlawful here too.
2. Don't harm other users. Includes harassment, deception, doxxing, threats, exploitation.
3. Don't break the platform. No scraping, bots, exploiting bugs, evading bans, or interfering with security.
4. Be honest about who you are and what you're posting. Misrepresentation, manipulated provenance, and undisclosed paid promotion all break the social trust the platform relies on.

When the rules below are silent on something, the four principles still apply. Use your judgment.

2. Content rules

2.1 You may post

• original writing — essays, reviews, fragments, surveys, book reviews, opinion;
• considered commentary on news, science, philosophy, ethics, law, history, public policy, culture;
• educational content, tutorials, study notes, lecture summaries;
• correctly-attributed quotation and paraphrase;
• citations of academic and journalistic sources;
• artwork and design that you have the right to publish;
• Lean code, mathematical proofs, and formal arguments.

2.2 You may not post

Illegal content

• Anything that breaks UK law, including content unlawful under:
• the Online Safety Act 2023 (illegal-content categories: child sexual exploitation; controlling/coercive behaviour; threats to kill; assisting suicide; sexual offences; harassment, stalking, hate offences; revenge porn / intimate image abuse; modern slavery; people-smuggling; firearms / drugs offences; terrorism; extreme pornography; foreign interference offences; etc.);
• CDPA 1988 (copyright);
• the Equality Act 2010 (unlawful discrimination);
• defamation under the Defamation Act 2013;
• the Malicious Communications Act 1988, Communications Act 2003 s.127, Public Order Act 1986, Protection from Harassment Act 1997;
• sanctions and counter-terror legislation.

Content harmful to children

• Sexual material involving anyone under 18, simulated or otherwise.
• Material that grooms, solicits, exposes, or otherwise harms a child.

We have a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Reports go to the Internet Watch Foundation and / or the National Crime Agency (NCA-CEOP) as appropriate.

Targeted abuse

• Personal harassment, bullying, threats, intimidation.
• Doxxing (publishing someone's private personal information without consent).
• Encouraging others to pile on, harass or report-bomb a specific user.
• Hate speech directed at an individual or a protected group on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or similar.

Self-harm and dangerous content

• Encouragement, glorification, or detailed how-to of suicide or self-harm.
• "Pro-ana" / pro-eating-disorder content.
• Detailed instructions for committing violence, building weapons, or evading lawful authorities.

Misinformation that risks harm

• Health misinformation that contradicts widely-accepted public-health guidance and could cause physical harm if followed.
• Election misinformation in violation of electoral law.

This category is narrow and is applied with care. Disagreement with mainstream consensus is not, in itself, a violation of this AUP. The bar is "could cause physical or civic harm if followed".

Spam, scams and manipulation

• Bulk-posting, repost rings, auto-generated low-effort content.
• Unsolicited commercial advertising.
• Phishing, fraud, fake-charity solicitation, romance scams.
• Cryptocurrency / NFT pump-and-dump promotion.
• Fake review rings — coordinated rating, comment or follow campaigns.

IP and confidentiality violations

• Posting content you don't own or don't have a licence for.
• Posting confidential business information you've obtained in breach of duty (e.g. leaked NDAs).
• Republishing someone else's writing as your own (plagiarism).

Adult / pornographic material

• Σmind is not an adult platform. Sexually explicit imagery is not allowed. Tasteful nudity in artistic or academic context is allowed where clearly relevant; gratuitous sexual content is not. We err on the side of removing.

Privacy violations

• Posting someone else's personal data (address, phone, email, ID document, messages) without their consent.
• Uploading photographs of identifiable individuals taken in private settings without their consent.

2.3 Content that needs care

These are not always violations but require honest framing.

• AI-generated content. Allowed, but disclose it. We treat undisclosed AI generation in academic / scholarly posts as a misrepresentation of authorship.
• Paid promotion. If you have been paid to mention a product or person, disclose it (UK ASA / CAP code).
• Affiliate links. Allowed, but mark them clearly. We do not allow comment-spam affiliate dropping.
• Sensitive content with a serious purpose. Discussion of suicide, eating disorders, drug use, abuse, war crimes etc. for analytical, educational or news-reporting purposes is allowed, but use content warnings and avoid graphic detail beyond what the analysis requires.

3. Account rules

You agree:

• to keep your contact email accurate and your password secret;
• not to share or sell your account;
• not to register multiple accounts to evade a ban or to manipulate engagement;
• not to impersonate another person, organisation or staff member;
• not to claim affiliation with Σmind that we have not granted in writing;
• to use the Founding Member invitation code system in good faith — see the Founding Member Programme Terms.

4. Platform integrity

You agree not to:

• scrape, harvest or auto-collect data from Σmind beyond what is in our public RSS / sitemap and within the rate limits we publish;
• run bots, scripts or automation against the platform without our prior agreement;
• exploit bugs, race conditions or rate-limit gaps for unfair gain — please report them to security@ via the procedure in our Privacy Policy contact section;
• reverse-engineer, decompile, or interfere with the security of the platform;
• attempt to DoS, flood, or destabilise the service or any other user;
• circumvent rate limits or moderation by using VPNs, proxies, or similar.

If you find a security vulnerability, please tell us at the contact above. We will not pursue legal action against you for good-faith security research that follows responsible-disclosure principles, gives us a reasonable window to fix, and does not exfiltrate, retain, or share other users' data beyond the minimum needed to demonstrate the issue.

5. Commerce-specific rules

5.1 Paid content (Scholar tier)

If you sell paid content on Σmind:

• You must own or have the right to sell what you publish.
• The content must broadly match its description and price page.
• You may not gate factually-misleading or harmful content behind a paywall.
• You may not use paid content to deliver scams, "exclusive" pyramid-scheme content, or hidden adult material.

5.2 Tipping

• Don't beg or harass users for tips.
• Don't tip-launder (use tipping to move money for unrelated reasons).

5.3 Shop merchandise

• The designs we sell are our IP or our licensors'. You may not produce derivative merchandise from them.
• Don't place fraudulent orders.

6. Citation library and uploaded files

The citation library accepts certain kinds of academic / scholarly source files. The detailed list of what you may and may not upload is in our Citation Library Acceptable Use Policy, which is also linked from the upload form.

Files you upload to the citation library:

• must be relevant to your writing on Σmind;
• must be lawful for you to upload (your own work, or a use covered by UK fair dealing under CDPA 1988 ss. 29 and 30, or US fair use, or properly licensed);
• are encrypted at rest and never made public.

We reserve the right to remove uploads that breach the AUP or the citation-library AUP, and to suspend or terminate accounts of repeat infringers.

7. Reporting violations

If you see content or conduct that breaks this AUP:

• Use the Report button on the post, comment or profile (creates a ContentReport we triage internally).
• Or email support@sumofmind.co.uk for issues that need a more detailed explanation.

For copyright takedowns, follow our Copyright Takedown Procedure. For DMCA notices, the designated agent's contact is in that procedure.

For child safety concerns, you can also report directly to:

• NSPCC: https://www.nspcc.org.uk
• NCA-CEOP: https://www.ceop.police.uk
• Internet Watch Foundation: https://www.iwf.org.uk

8. How we enforce

We try to apply the AUP consistently. The actions available to moderators range from least to most severe:

• Warning to the user in-app or by email.
• Removal of the offending content with notification.
• Restriction of account features (e.g. comment-only, no new posts, no shop orders).
• Suspension for a fixed period.
• Termination of the account.

We will normally tell you what was removed and why. For some categories (illegal content, immediate-harm content, ongoing harassment) we may act first and explain afterwards.

You can appeal any moderation decision by emailing support@sumofmind.co.uk with subject "Moderation appeal — [content URL]". We aim to respond within 14 days. The Online Safety Act requires us to operate a clear appeals route — this is it.

8.1 Repeat infringers

In line with §512(i) of the US DMCA and analogous UK practice, we operate a published repeat-infringer policy:

• Two valid takedowns or AUP removals against the same account: temporary suspension.
• Three: termination of the account, at our discretion.

Sanction decisions take account of the severity, the time between incidents, and whether the user has acknowledged and corrected behaviour.

9. Online Safety Act 2023

Σmind is a regulated user-to-user service under the Online Safety Act 2023. We apply this AUP and the related moderation processes as part of our compliance with that Act. See our public Online Safety Compliance Statement for the high-level summary.

10. Changes

We may update this AUP from time to time. The "Last updated" date and version at the top change. We notify users of material changes in-app.

11. Contact

• Reports and complaints: support@sumofmind.co.uk
• Copyright takedowns: dmca@sumofmind.co.uk
• Security disclosures: security@sumofmind.co.uk