Sistahology Site Abuse Policy

Suspension

When a single entry is suspended, it is accessible and viewable only to the poster of the entry and select employees. Users are able to edit suspended entries and submit requests for the edited version to be reviewed by the Abuse Prevention Team. Should the edited version comply with Sistahology’s stated policies and Terms of Service, the new entry will again be visible and accessible. Should the edited version not comply with Sistahology’s stated policies and Terms of Service, the entry will remain suspended.

When a user's account is suspended, all entries and comments the user has made through that account anywhere on Sistahology are hidden, and no new entries or comments can be posted. Unless they have been informed that the suspension is permanent, a user can have their account unsuspended.

Read-Only

A journal which has been placed in read-only mode is unable to have new entries or comments posted to it, and the journal owner cannot post new entries or comments anywhere on the site. This status is used as an alternative to both permanent and temporary suspensions in situations where Sistahology believes it is reasonable to do so. Journals which have committed serious violations or which are inherently a violation of our Policies (such as an impersonation journal, or those journals which exist solely to harass others) will be subject to suspension rather than read-only.

Termination

A terminated user refers to a person who has had all accounts belonging to them permanently suspended, and has been informed they are not welcome to continue using Sistahology.com.

Notice of No Contact

A Notice of No Contact prohibits two users from having any contact with one another in any form on Sistahology. This is used in very limited cases where extensive harassment between two users has occurred over a long period of time, and cannot be resolved through any other means (such as banning the other user from their journal). This is considered a last resort and a final warning; violation of a Notice of No Contact will generally result in termination.

Disable Access to Material

Sistahology’s available tools for removing access to material are to either suspend a single entry, suspend an entire account, or to delete the content. Sistahology will opt to suspend single entries before entire accounts where it is possible and reasonable to do so. Deletion of content by Sistahology staff is our least preferred method of disabling access to material, and will generally only be done when a user cannot edit or delete content themselves (such as anonymous comments, content posted by accounts which are in a "purged" status, or content which is present in communities to which the user no longer has access).

Repeat Offenders

Users who have repeatedly violated the same policy will have further action taken against them for each subsequent violation. Emails to users who have violated a policy should explain what specific action will be taken on their next violation. Any violation, if committed enough times, can lead to termination.

Violations which were posted prior to the first warning being sent will generally only result in a new warning being issued. Exceptions to this principle will usually only occur when Sistahology has a legal obligation to do otherwise, as is the case with Copyright Violations.

The standard process for most cases is to suspend a single entry on first offense. On second offense, the entry is suspended and the journal placed in read-only mode until the journal owner has contacted the Abuse Prevention Team indicating they will not continue to violate the same policy. Subsequent offenses would result in violating entries being suspended and the journal being placed in read-only mode. Finally, should there be repeated and systematic offenses of the same nature, Sistahology will terminate the account.

Standard Compliance Timeline

In cases where it is not possible to disable access to material, a user is given 72 hours to comply from the time an email is sent, with the time rounded as necessary to bring the deadline to 12:01 AM, Pacific Standard Time/Daylight Time. Failure to remove the content by the given deadline will result in the suspension of the account which has posted the material.

A suspended user should receive an email from the Abuse Prevention Team which contains instructions on how to unsuspend their account, as well as information on what actions they will need to take to prevent being re-suspended.

Once a user has unsuspended their account, they will have 2 hours to make the necessary corrections. Additional time may be granted at the discretion of the Abuse Prevention Team, if they believe this additional time would be necessary to complete the required changes. If a user fails to make the necessary corrections in this time frame, their account will be suspended permanently.

All material on this page is intended to provide the general guidelines used by the Abuse Prevention Team for common violations of Sistahology’s Terms of Service. This is not a comprehensive list of all possible violations, and these policies are subject to change at any time without prior notice. Sistahology.com. is located in Seattle, Washington, United States of America. Accordingly, Sistahology must apply United States law even for users that reside outside of the U.S. Action is only taken on material which is reported; if you have specific questions about any of these policies, please contact info@sistahology.com.

Created June 8, 2009

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