Content and Community Guidelines

Tapas Media Services ("Tapas Media," "Tapas," "Tapastic," "Service" or "Services") are provided by Tapas Media, Inc. ("We," "Our" or "Tapas").

The Tapas community is made up of creative people from around the world, with different cultural backgrounds, opinions, and perspectives. Each and every person helps make our community what it is, and together we can keep Tapas safe and fun for everyone. 

These content and community rules were created not as a means of punishment, but rather to ensure a positive experience for everyone. Please respect the spirit in which these rules were intended, rather than trying to pick apart the language to find loopholes.

This page covers both the content that's appropriate and the behavior that's expected on Tapas. We take these guidelines seriously and ask that you read them carefully and take them to heart.

Our guidelines cover:

• Respectful behavior

• Content boundaries

• Reporting and enforcement

• Feedback

Respect the Tapas community

We share the responsibility of ensuring everyone feels respected and free to express themselves.

Here are a few common-sense rules to help make that happen:

Be cool

• Respect copyright: Only upload things that you made or have permission to use. You are responsible for all activity associated with your account, including any content you post. If you're unsure whether it's ok for you to upload something, check out the content section of our Terms of Service.

• Give constructive criticism: Feedback can be a valuable tool, and when done with respect can be a great way to make friends and help others improve. Share your opinion in a constructive (rather than destructive) way, and remember to focus on the content rather than the person who created it.

• Don’t be a bully: Be a buddy. We will not tolerate participating in or encouraging abusive, demeaning, or threatening behavior within the community. Don't ask your friends or subscribers to pile on, and don't mobilize your social media followers to harass or stalk someone on Tapas or elsewhere. 

• Protect privacy: Don’t share someone's personal details without permission. This includes real names, private conversations, photos, phone numbers, home or email addresses, or other sensitive information that may compromise their safety.

• Be cool: Behind every story and profile there's a real person. Rather than assuming the worst, try giving them the benefit of the doubt. Even if they truly are the worst, stooping to their level only brings down the whole community. In a nutshell, it's okay to not like things (or some people), but don't be a dick about it.

We think these expectations are reasonable, and ask you to think about these guidelines before you post. 

Do have fun, share stories, and participate. Don't be a downer or try to bum people out. 

Limit self-promotion

Tapas is a place where creators can connect directly with readers, as well as like-minded artists and authors. Promoting your work is important, and we know firsthand how difficult it can be to grow your audience. However, when it comes to building a loyal following, thoughtful interactions between creators and their fans are much more effective than outright solicitation or other activities that will be perceived as "spammy."

With that in mind, do not post identical or nearly identical comments, private messages, wall posts, or forum posts asking people to check out your content, subscribe, or give you money. The best promotions and requests are relevant and valuable, not annoying or desperate.

Don't spam

No one likes spam. We're working behind the scenes to keep spam on Tapas to a minimum, but we also have policies in place that prohibit spammy activity and the use of related services.

The following activity is not allowed on Tapas:

• Posting unsolicited or unwanted content or links

• Creating profiles primarily to drive traffic to external websites, via messages, comments, profile and series descriptions, or artwork

• Creating multiple accounts with the intention of inflating the popularity of other profiles

• Creating, using, or promoting bots or other automated means to increase view counts or perform social interactions

• Using misleading titles, descriptions, tags, or thumbnails 

Be you

Tapas welcomes the use of pen names (or nom de plume, if you're fancy) and online identities, but don't impersonate someone else, take credit for their work, or pretend to be associated with someone you aren’t – even if you feel you're helping them out by doing so.

Don't create profiles or post content intended to make people think you are someone else, and don't use someone else's name or trademark without their permission.

Content boundaries

Mature content

Tapas allows mature content featuring violence; strong, vulgar, or lewd language; or non-graphic sex and nudity, as long as it is behind our Mature (aka NSFW) content filter.

Violence primarily intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful is not ok, nor is sex or nudity primarily intended to titillate or arouse. Sexually explicit content or pornography is not allowed. Don’t post content that is predominantly sexual in nature, or intended primarily as an aid to sexual gratification. There are already plenty of other places to find that content online.

Providing context and clarifying intent in the content title and description are important. For example, depictions of violence, sex, or nudity for diegetic, artistic, or educational purposes are more likely to be allowed than gratuitously graphic ones. 

Any content deemed unsuitable will be flagged and the owner will be requested to take action. Failure to comply with this request will result in the content being taken down. Repeat offenses will result in the suspension or removal of the user’s account. 

• Thumbnails, covers, and banners: Elements that cannot be masked with the Mature content filter must be appropriate for general audiences, as this content can appear anywhere and people may not have an opportunity to opt in or out before being exposed to it. They should also be representative of the actual content, and not misleading.

Harmful or dangerous content

You are welcome to share your opinions and beliefs on Tapas, even if they challenge the status-quo or might be controversial. However, we will not tolerate content that might prove to be harmful or threatening, and Tapas reserves the right to remove it.

Some examples of strictly prohibited content include:

• Dangerous content that we consider to encourage injurious or illegal activities, or which incite others to commit acts of violence, destruction, or self-harm.

• Hateful content that promotes or encourages hate, violence, or discrimination against a person or group based on things like race, creed, cultural or ethnic background, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

• Malicious content which exposes users to harmful software or websites. You are responsible for the safety and validity of outgoing links you post. 

Announcements, advertisements, and other content

Episodes of a series should be episodes. In other words, they should generally be installments of a serialized story, or standalone, one-shot comics or books. Series and episodes are not intended to be announcements, advertisements, or other non-story content.

• Announcements: The use of episodes to post non-diegetic announcements are strictly prohibited. Creators are encouraged to utilize their profile page and wall posts to notify their subscribers of announcements pertaining to series information and creator updates.

• Advertisements: Any noticeable attempt to place an advertisement, redirect traffic from Tapas to third-party websites, and/or harm the user experience of our community (as determined at Tapas’ sole discretion) is prohibited. We allow links to personal websites in Series and Profile descriptions, as well as social media links. We also allow third-party website links in episode descriptions and posts, as long as they provide a relevant, complementary experience for your readers and the Tapas community.

Genres

We believe in the freedom of self-identifying genres for your series and have introduced a number of new genres to help readers find your stories easier. Please use your best judgment to identify the genre of the story that you're telling. Tapas maintains the right to move a series from one genre to another if we find it to not be appropriately reflected by the chosen genre. This is to help maintain the health of certain genres.

Reporting and enforcement

You might not like everything you see on Tapas, and may come across content you find offensive or disagree with from time to time. Often the best thing you can do is ignore it, and avoid those who share it. However, if you encounter content that you think crosses the line or breaches these guidelines, flag it for review using the Report button found at the end of every episode.

If there's a problem with someone's behavior, or if someone is impersonating you or infringing on your copyright, let us know.

• Reports will be reviewed by Tapas staff, and access to flagged content may be restricted during that time. We'll evaluate whether it violates our guidelines, or is otherwise inappropriate.

• If we determine there's a problem, we'll notify the owner of the account and let them know what further action is required. In extreme cases, content may be removed or accounts suspended without warning, but in most cases we try to give the responsible party a warning and an opportunity to fix the issue before taking other measures.

Please keep in mind that something you find unacceptable may not be unacceptable to everyone, nor a violation of our guidelines or terms. We try to maintain a fair and open-minded approach, and reporting content will not always result in it being changed or removed.

Feedback

We’re open to suggestions to help improve these rules, so feel free to tell us what you think. Our policies are subject to evolve and expand in the future in order to steer our platform in the best possible direction, but this page will always host the most current set of policies. 

Any and all policy regulation is open to review. Suspensions of content and or account access can be contested by contacting us.