Rugela Acceptable Use Policy

Effective date: October 1, 2026

This is Rugela's Acceptable Use Policy. It states the conduct rules that every member agrees to follow. It is incorporated by reference into the Rugela Terms of Service, and capitalized terms used but not defined here have the meanings given to them in the Terms of Service. It applies to all members and to anyone accessing the platform.

Rugela also has Community Guidelines and a Values Statement. They describe the community we hope to build together, and we encourage every member to read them. This document does a different job: it states rules, and we enforce them.

This policy is the minimum that applies everywhere on Rugela. Communities may set stricter rules for their own spaces.

The sections below are numbered so that a violation can be identified by its section.

1. Purpose of the Platform

Rugela is a home for the Jewish community. This section is for accounts that come to use it rather than to be part of it.

Using Rugela primarily for something other than taking part in the community is a violation of this policy. That includes proselytizing members toward another religion, campaigning against the community or its members, and advancing an unrelated agenda.

2. Threats and Safety

You may not make credible threats of violence against any person or group of people.

You may not post content that creates a risk of imminent physical harm to others, including deliberately false information likely to cause such harm.

You may not post content that encourages, glorifies, or provides instruction for suicide or self-harm. Discussing your own mental health, struggles, or recovery does not by itself violate this rule.

3. Hate and Dehumanization

You may not dehumanize people: calling groups of people animals, vermin, or disease; celebrating or endorsing harm to them; or denying their humanity. This applies to any group of people.

You may not attack people based on who they are, such as their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability. This includes identities and distinctions within a community, such as descent, denomination, observance, language, or conversion.

Slurs violate this section, and slurs include otherwise-ordinary words when they are used as insults against people or as stand-ins for a group of people. This section also covers statements about a group's religion, culture, practices, or identity when they amount to attacks on the people themselves. In every case, what matters is how the usage would generally be understood, not its dictionary meaning or the speaker's stated intent.

Criticism of ideas, ideologies, movements, and governments violates this section when it amounts to an attack on people, including through terms used as proxies for a group or through false claims about who a group is.

4. Harassment

You may not harass members: subjecting a person to unwanted contact, abuse, or intimidation.

You may not organize or participate in coordinated harassment: pile-ons, brigading, or recruiting others, on or off the platform, to target a member or community.

If a member has blocked you, you may not evade the block to keep reaching them: through other accounts, through intermediaries, or by posting where they must encounter you.

Disagreeing with someone is not by itself harassment, even when the disagreement is strong or repeated, and even when it is expressed through negative votes. Sustained targeting of a person, by any mechanism including voting, is.

5. Privacy and Personal Information

You may not share a person's private or identifying information without their consent, including their address, contact details, workplace, or their legal identity when they participate here under a different name. Information a person has shared publicly or connected to their presence here themselves is not private under this rule.

You may not share intimate imagery of a person without their consent, whether the imagery is real or manufactured. Threatening to share it is treated the same as sharing it.

6. Sexual Content and Minors

Rugela is not an adult-content platform.

Child sexual abuse material is absolutely prohibited, whether real, manufactured, or drawn. We report it to the appropriate authorities as required by law. Content that sexualizes minors is prohibited regardless of whether it meets a legal definition of child sexual abuse material.

You may not post sexualized imagery: pornographic or sexually-oriented visual material involving adults.

Non-sexual nudity (art, medical content, body acceptance, breastfeeding) is allowed under this policy with a content warning.

Sexuality as a topic of discussion is not restricted by this section.

7. Spam, Fraud, and Impersonation

You may not post spam: bulk or repetitive unsolicited content, or use of the platform primarily as a marketing channel, other than through features Rugela provides for that purpose.

You may not engage in fraud or deception: scams, phishing, or soliciting money or information under false pretenses. Raising funds for a real cause you genuinely represent does not by itself violate this rule.

You may not impersonate any person or organization, on the platform or in how you present your account.

8. Illegal Activity

You may not use Rugela to engage in, promote, or facilitate illegal activity.

You may not post content that infringes another person's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights. Infringement notices and disputes are handled through Rugela's copyright process.

9. Security and Automated Access

What members share here is meant for the people here.

You may not access accounts, data, or systems without authorization; probe or circumvent security measures or access controls; or distribute malware or other harmful code.

You may not extract content or data from Rugela by automated means (bots, crawlers, scrapers, or similar) other than through interfaces Rugela provides for it.

You may not collect or use content from Rugela to train artificial intelligence or machine learning systems.

10. Account Integrity

A restriction applies to you, not just to your account.

If Rugela has restricted, suspended, or removed your account, you may not evade that action: not by creating a new account, not by using an existing one, and not by re-entering through a new invitation.

You may not misrepresent yourself to gain access to the platform.

11. Misuse of Reporting

You may not file false reports: reports containing demonstrably untrue information, submitted to manipulate enforcement into a desired outcome. A report made in good faith that turns out to be wrong does not violate this rule.

12. Disruptive Conduct Not Otherwise Specified

No list of rules anticipates everything.

Conduct that significantly or repeatedly disrupts the community, or other members' experience of it, is a violation even if no rule above names it specifically.

13. Off-Platform Conduct

When evaluating a suspected violation of this policy, Rugela may consider relevant conduct outside the platform. We consider off-platform conduct that is public or that a member has connected to their presence here.

14. Enforcement and Platform Discretion

Note for attorney review: this section may belong in the Terms of Service rather than this policy. It is included here so the policy stands alone until that structure is settled.

Rugela may remove content and may restrict, suspend, or remove accounts that violate this policy. Responses range from a warning to permanent removal, at Rugela's judgment based on the severity and pattern of the conduct.

Rugela does not pre-screen content and has no obligation to monitor the platform. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove or to refuse to remove any content. Acting on one violation does not obligate us to act on every violation.

Violations can be reported through the platform's reporting tools. We may act on reports or on conduct we encounter ourselves.

Rugela may refer matters to law enforcement where the law requires it or where safety demands it.