Community Guidelines Generator
Generate community guidelines with prohibited conduct, an enforcement ladder, an appeals route and a reporting process.
What is Community Rules?
A community guidelines generator. It writes the rules a community is moderated against, including the part most communities leave out: what happens when a rule is broken. An enforcement ladder stated in advance is what lets a moderator act consistently and lets a member know where they stand.
How it works
Each prohibited-conduct item you select becomes a bullet in the rules section, phrased as behaviour rather than as a category, and each enforcement step you select becomes a rung on the ladder from a private note to a permanent ban. The response time for a report, the appeal window and the appeal contact are all taken from your inputs and written as commitments.
- Fill in the details the document needs. Business name, jurisdiction, dates, the clauses that apply to you. Nothing is uploaded and no account is created — the form is the only input, and the document is assembled in the page.
- Watch the blanks, not just the text. Any field you leave empty appears in the document as [[a highlighted marker]], and the panel above the output lists exactly which blanks are left. A half-finished policy should never look finished.
- Copy or download, then have it reviewed. Copy the document to the clipboard or download it as a .md file named for what it is. Every page states the same thing: this is a template, and it needs a qualified lawyer's eye before you publish or sign it.
Examples
A privacy policy for a side project
A solo developer shipping a newsletter signup needs a policy that says what is collected, why, and how to ask for deletion. Selecting the categories actually collected — rather than copying a competitor's list — takes two minutes and produces a document that is true.
Terms of service with a real liability cap
The liability clause is written from a number you supply instead of being left as "our total liability is limited to [amount]". A cap that is never filled in is a clause no one can rely on.
A DMCA notice a provider will actually action
A takedown that is missing the URL of the original work, or the statement under penalty of perjury, is one the service provider is entitled to ignore. Every required element appears in the generated letter, in the order the statute describes.
A DPA for a new vendor
Processors, security measures, breach notification window, transfers and audit rights as one document, with the subprocessor and SCC clauses switched on because this vendor uses both.
Common mistakes
Publishing a template without reading it
A policy that promises something you do not do — deleting data on request within 30 days, or never sharing data with third parties — is worse than no policy, because it is a documented misstatement. Read every clause against what actually happens and cut the ones that do not apply.
Assuming one document covers every jurisdiction
A privacy policy written for the UK does not automatically satisfy California, Brazil or Canada, and an employment clause that is standard in one country can be unenforceable in another. Name the jurisdiction you are actually writing for, and check the rules that follow from it.
Bundling consent and calling it consent
A single "I agree" covering marketing, analytics, photographs and treatment is not valid consent under most regimes, because consent has to be specific and separately given. Use one form per purpose, and never pre-tick the optional boxes.
Leaving the blanks in after generating
The marker can be more subtle to spot in a document than on the page — search the pasted text for the bracket characters before publishing, or use the missing-field list to confirm it is empty.
Frequently asked questions
How much detail should the enforcement ladder have?
Enough that two moderators facing the same post would reach the same decision. Naming the steps and saying that severity and repetition move you up them is specific enough; listing a sanction for every possible offence is not maintainable.
Should appeals exist?
Yes, for anything beyond a private word. A ban with no appeal route pushes people into arguing in public and makes an arbitrary decision permanent. The important detail is that the appeal is reviewed by someone who was not part of the original decision.
Do guidelines create legal obligations?
They can. A published rule you never apply is a fairness problem, and in a paid community it may be a contractual one. Keep the guidelines to rules you are actually prepared to enforce, and reserve the right to remove content that is lawful but damaging to the community.