SOVABOO

Community and Moderation Guidelines

Effective date: April 28, 2026

These Community and Moderation Guidelines explain the rules of conduct, content standards, reporting process, and moderation measures that apply to the community features of Sovaboo Digital OÜ, registry code 17150442 (“Sovaboo Digital”, “Sovaboo”, “we”, “us”, or “our”).

These Guidelines apply to https://sovaboo.com, its subdomains, user accounts, author profiles, user profiles, comments, reviews, blog posts, author materials, public interactions, and other community or interactive features operated by Sovaboo Digital (the “Services”).

These Guidelines should be read together with our Terms of Use and Digital Content Purchase Terms, Copyright Policy, Content and Age Rating Policy, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Refund Policy.

1. Purpose of These Guidelines

Sovaboo Digital is a digital publishing platform and online bookstore for literary works and related digital content.

We aim to support a respectful, safe, creative, and legally compliant environment for readers, authors, contributors, and rightsholders.

These Guidelines are intended to:

  1. explain what behaviour is expected from users, readers, authors, and contributors;
  2. define rules for profiles, comments, reviews, blog posts, and public interactions;
  3. help prevent harassment, abuse, spam, misleading activity, and unlawful content;
  4. support fair and consistent moderation;
  5. explain how reports and complaints may be handled.

2. Scope

These Guidelines apply to all community and interactive areas of the Services, including:

  1. user profiles and author profiles;
  2. avatars, profile photos, biography texts, and public profile information;
  3. comments, reviews, replies, ratings, and discussions;
  4. author blog posts, announcements, updates, and related materials;
  5. public messages, submissions, links, images, and other user-provided materials;
  6. reports, complaints, moderation requests, and support communications related to platform conduct.

These Guidelines apply regardless of whether content is free, paid, author-published, commercially licensed, promotional, editorial, or community-generated.

3. General Conduct Standards

Users, readers, authors, and contributors must use the Services lawfully, respectfully, and in good faith.

You must not use the Services to:

  1. harass, threaten, abuse, intimidate, stalk, shame, or target another person;
  2. publish hate speech, discriminatory content, or dehumanising statements;
  3. impersonate another person, author, publisher, company, public figure, or Sovaboo representative;
  4. mislead others about your identity, rights, affiliation, qualifications, or intentions;
  5. publish spam, scams, phishing links, malware, fraudulent offers, or deceptive promotions;
  6. manipulate ratings, reviews, recommendations, comments, or platform visibility;
  7. disclose another person’s private or personal information without lawful authority;
  8. encourage violence, exploitation, self-harm, unlawful conduct, or serious harm;
  9. interfere with the operation, safety, reputation, or integrity of the Services;
  10. violate applicable law, these Guidelines, or any other Sovaboo policy.

4. Author Conduct

Authors and contributors are expected to maintain professional and respectful conduct when using the Services.

Authors must:

  1. provide accurate information about themselves, their works, and submitted materials;
  2. respect readers, other authors, reviewers, moderators, and Sovaboo staff;
  3. avoid misleading promotional claims, fake engagement, fake reviews, or coordinated manipulation;
  4. respond to moderation, rights, or safety inquiries in good faith;
  5. ensure that author-provided materials comply with applicable law and Sovaboo policies;
  6. avoid using the platform to harass critics, pressure readers, or retaliate against negative reviews.

Author status, publication access, visibility, monetisation, or cooperation with Sovaboo Digital may be restricted if an author materially violates these Guidelines or other applicable policies.

5. User Profiles and Author Profiles

Profile information should be lawful, accurate, respectful, and appropriate for a literary platform.

Profiles, avatars, profile photos, biography texts, links, and public profile information must not include:

  1. impersonation or false affiliation claims;
  2. explicit sexual imagery, pornographic visual content, or sexually exploitative material;
  3. hateful, extremist, violent, or discriminatory symbols or statements;
  4. private information of another person without permission;
  5. misleading professional, legal, publishing, or rights-related claims;
  6. spam links, phishing links, malware, scams, or deceptive promotions;
  7. links to piracy, unlawful file-sharing, or unauthorised copies of books;
  8. content that violates our Content and Age Rating Policy or Copyright Policy.

Sovaboo Digital may edit, hide, restrict, or remove profile elements that violate these Guidelines or create legal, safety, rights, or platform-integrity risks.

6. Comments, Reviews, and Discussions

Comments, reviews, ratings, and discussions should be relevant, respectful, and made in good faith.

Users may express honest opinions, including critical opinions, about books, authors, themes, style, quality, or reading experience. However, criticism must not become harassment, abuse, threats, discrimination, or targeted attacks.

Comments, reviews, and discussions must not include:

  1. personal attacks, threats, harassment, or bullying;
  2. hate speech, discriminatory language, or dehumanising content;
  3. sexual harassment or unwanted sexualised remarks directed at another person;
  4. doxxing or disclosure of private information;
  5. spam, repetitive promotional messages, or irrelevant advertising;
  6. fake reviews, paid undisclosed reviews, review manipulation, or coordinated rating abuse;
  7. piracy links, unauthorised files, or instructions for accessing content unlawfully;
  8. malware, phishing, scam links, or deceptive external links;
  9. spoilers deliberately posted to harm the reading experience of others;
  10. content that violates applicable law or Sovaboo policies.

Where appropriate, users are encouraged to mark or avoid spoilers in comments or reviews.

7. Blog Posts and Author Materials

Authors may be allowed to publish blog posts, updates, announcements, images, links, or other author-related materials on the platform.

Author blog posts and materials must:

  1. be relevant to the author, books, literary activity, platform content, creative process, publishing news, or related topics;
  2. respect the rights and reputation of other persons;
  3. avoid misleading, unlawful, or aggressive promotional practices;
  4. avoid unauthorised use of third-party images, texts, quotes, covers, logos, or other protected materials;
  5. comply with our Copyright Policy and Content and Age Rating Policy;
  6. avoid content that is unlawful, exploitative, abusive, deceptive, or harmful.

Sovaboo Digital may review, edit, reclassify, restrict, or remove author blog posts or materials that violate these Guidelines or other applicable policies.

8. External Links and Promotions

Users and authors must use external links responsibly.

External links must not lead to:

  1. pirated books, unauthorised downloads, or unlawful file-sharing resources;
  2. malware, phishing, scams, or deceptive websites;
  3. adult services, escort services, pornographic services, or sexually exploitative materials;
  4. hateful, extremist, terrorist, or violent content;
  5. fraudulent stores, misleading payment pages, or unauthorised commercial offers;
  6. content that violates applicable law or Sovaboo policies.

Sovaboo Digital may remove or disable external links where we consider them unsafe, unlawful, misleading, irrelevant, or inconsistent with the purpose of the Services.

9. Reports and Complaints

Users, readers, authors, rightsholders, or other persons may report content, profiles, comments, reviews, blog posts, links, or conduct that they believe violates these Guidelines or other Sovaboo policies.

Reports may be submitted by:

  1. using a Report, Complain, or similar button available near the relevant content, where such functionality is available; or
  2. contacting us by email at [email protected].

When submitting a report, please include:

  1. a link or clear identification of the relevant content, profile, comment, review, post, or account;
  2. the reason for the report;
  3. a short explanation of the issue;
  4. screenshots or supporting evidence, where relevant;
  5. your contact details if you want us to respond or if the report concerns legal rights.

Sovaboo Digital may review reports at its reasonable discretion. We may not provide detailed information about moderation outcomes where doing so would affect privacy, safety, legal compliance, confidential processes, or platform integrity.

10. Moderation Measures

Sovaboo Digital may moderate content, accounts, profiles, comments, reviews, blog posts, links, or other activity before or after publication.

Moderation measures may include:

  1. requesting edits, clarification, or additional information;
  2. adding warnings, labels, or visibility restrictions;
  3. editing or hiding profile elements;
  4. removing comments, reviews, blog posts, links, images, or other materials;
  5. disabling replies, comments, ratings, or other interactive features;
  6. limiting distribution, visibility, or promotional placement;
  7. temporarily or permanently restricting account functionality;
  8. suspending or terminating an account;
  9. restricting author status, publication access, or monetisation;
  10. preserving records for legal, security, rights, or compliance purposes;
  11. notifying competent authorities where required or appropriate under applicable law.

Moderation decisions may be based on these Guidelines, other Sovaboo policies, legal requirements, user reports, author agreements, payment provider requirements, hosting provider requirements, risk assessment, or platform safety considerations.

11. Appeals and Corrections

If you believe that your content, profile, comment, review, post, or account was restricted or removed by mistake, you may contact us at [email protected].

Your request should include:

  1. your account email or profile information;
  2. identification of the affected content or account;
  3. a short explanation of why you believe the moderation decision should be reconsidered;
  4. supporting information or evidence, where relevant.

Sovaboo Digital may review the request and decide whether to maintain, modify, or reverse the moderation measure.

12. Changes to These Guidelines

Sovaboo Digital may update these Community and Moderation Guidelines from time to time to reflect changes in the Services, community features, moderation practices, legal requirements, safety standards, or platform rules.

The updated version will be published on the Website with a revised effective date.

This document is originally written in English. Translations into other languages are provided for convenience only. In case of discrepancies, the English version shall prevail unless mandatory law requires otherwise.