Platform Policies
devicebase enables IT administrators, system integrators and interested people to share and expand knowledge about networked products. In order to provide everyone with a safe and authentic experience when using devicebase, some types of content and behavior are prohibited.
Statements of fact, insults or abusive criticism
The right to freedom of expression allows an opinion to be expressed. Exaggerated formulations are therefore permitted:
- "In my opinion, the products are cheap junk"
- "Customer service is apparently there to alienate customers"
However, content is illegal if it contains untrue statements of fact, insults or abusive criticism. Fake reviews are also not permitted. A fake review is usually fake if it does not correspond to the real consumer experience. A fake review also exists if the review does not come from the person who has had their own experience with the company or product.
In the case of content such as reviews, an insult is deemed to have been committed if the author makes an assessment in the form of abusive criticism. This is characterized by the fact that it is not about a debate on the matter, but primarily about belittling and defaming the person, product or company.
Ratings and reviews are intended to help other devicebase users learn more about a product or company and decide whether it is the right product for them. Reviews should therefore represent honest feedback from users. devicebase deletes content that is intended to mislead or manipulate people. The following types of reviews are not allowed and will be removed:
- A review by a person who has a direct or indirect financial interest in connection with a product
- A review from a person who has a close personal relationship with the owner of the product
- A review by the product manufacturer, who claims to be an unbiased buyer
- Multiple negative reviews for the same product from the same person
- A review in return for financial compensation
- A negative review by a manufacturer of a competitor's product
Spam and Junk
Spam has a negative impact on user interaction on the platform, reduces trust and prevents authentic engagement. Spam is defined as one of the following:
- Sale of illegal products, services or technologies, such as escort services, prostitution or illegal drugs
- Sale of weapons or controlled substances
- Advertisements for illegal streaming links or websites, get-rich-quick schemes, miraculous enhancements like quick weight loss programs, scams like advance fee fraud, unofficial password or account recovery services, or hacking services
- Coordinated inauthentic activities, such as election manipulation
- Publishing misleading or malicious links on devicebase, including those that mimic the devicebase user interface and direct users to unexpected websites
- Repeated posting of the same content or repeated sending of the same messages
- One of the following actions with the aim of directing visitors to an external website or making a financial gain:
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- Posting irrelevant answers or comments
- Edit your questions to include links or irrelevant information
Harassment and Bullying
Posting content or engaging in conduct with the intent to harass, intimidate or humiliate any person, whether in public or in private. This includes encouraging others to behave in this way. Examples of this are
- Find a way to repeatedly message or contact someone after they have been blocked
- Creating content with the sole purpose of harassing a person
- Adding questions about a person that would appear to be harassment to a reasonable observer
- Targeted insults or abuse of people based on personal characteristics, such as appearance
- Disclosing an individual's personal or confidential information without permission (also known as doxxing). Examples of what we consider to be personal information under this policy include:
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- Home address
- Physical location
- Identity documents such as government-issued IDs
- Social security numbers
- Financial account information
- Credit card details
- Medical records
- Biometric data
- Private phone numbers
- Private email addresses
If a question is asked about you as an individual on devicebase, you have the right to have the entire question and its content removed. However, we do allow questions about your company and you as an individual, such as legal proceedings or other topics mentioned in the media that may relate to individuals.
Hate Speech
Hate speech is defined as a serious attack on a group or individual because of their race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, caste, serious illness or disability. This includes the use of slurs in a derogatory manner and content that dehumanizes protected groups or incites violence, exclusion or segregation.
Examples include:
- Statements such as "[insert race/ethnicity] are not welcome in our country"
- Statements like "[insert religious group] are parasites"
- The use of racist expressions in a derogatory manner
Denial of the following events in which protected groups were the primary targets is prohibited: the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.
Harmful Activities and Self-Harm
- Threatening violence or inciting serious bodily harm to a person (e.g. "I hope you die", "Someone has to find you and mutilate you", "I hope you get [insert disease] and die")
- Encouragement, glorification or promotion:
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- Physical acts of violence against others by civilians (excluding discussions of appropriate self-defense and violence related to military action)
- Physical acts of violence against others by other non-state actors, such as terrorist organizations
- Suicide or self-harm (including eating disorders). This includes soliciting or sharing information, strategies or methods on how to commit suicide or self-harm
- Cruelty to animals
- Expression of a specific intention to commit physical violence
- Intention to join a terrorist organization or to recruit on behalf of a terrorist organization
- Graphically violent profile photos, images in questions and answers, as well as in updates
Examples include:
- Glorification of violent mass death (e.g. "I am so glad that [insert terrorist group] bombed this building")
- Explain how long it takes to die after a self-inflicted injury, or share the easiest way to harm yourself or commit suicide
- Telling someone to kill themselves
- Share a link to a video about animal cruelty and say that the animal "deserved" it
- Provide tips on how to carry out known behaviors associated with eating disorders
devicebase may also ban and remove any content from users who are a confirmed and/or declared member of a group that is on lists of terrorist organizations, or who are proven to be involved in acts of mass violence or hate crimes.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
Children and Minors
Sexually explicit or suggestive content (written or visual) involving children and minors. If we become aware of any child sexual abuse material, we will remove it, report it to the relevant authorities and your account will be permanently blocked.
Examples include:
- Sexually explicit or suggestive content involving children and minors (this may include content involving minors who are fully clothed and not engaging in overt sexual activity)
- Descriptions, whether real or imagined, of sexual interactions with children and minors
- Encouraging the exchange of sexually explicit or suggestive images involving children and minors
- Sending or requesting sexually explicit media to or from a child or minor
- Content that describes various ways in which children and minors can be forced into sexual acts
- Advocacy or glorification of relationships between minors and non-minors
- Passing on external links to content that violates this policy
Animals
Sexually explicit or suggestive content (written or visual) involving animals with humans.
Adults
Sexually explicit graphic content involving adults that does not appear to be consensual or violent, and any content that promotes or glamorizes non-consensual sexual activity.
Impersonation and Deceptive Activity
Do not use devicebase to impersonate another person, act as another entity without authorization, or create multiple accounts with the intent to violate devicebase's policies. Using multiple accounts to feign or manipulate engagement, create targeted user/content reports, or to evade or circumvent enforcement actions is not permitted.
Intellectual Property and Personal Rights
Do not publish any content that infringes the intellectual property or personal rights of others, including copyrights, trademark rights or data protection rights.
Profile Names
On devicebase, you are free to choose what you want to be called as long as your name does not contain explicit content or violate our platform guidelines. Many people on devicebase use their real name to lend legitimacy to the content they post and create a sense of trust in the community.
Profile names must not contain the following:
- Profanities, slurs, or other obscenities
- Sexually explicit language
- Phone numbers
- Any content that violates our existing platform policies
If you believe that your profile name has been wrongly reset, please submit a request to ten.esabecived@ofni.
Questions and Answers
Questions and answers must comply with the devicebase platform guidelines and the additional guidelines listed below:
- Questions and answers are considered community property
- A question can be merged with another question if both ask the same thing
- devicebase as a business plattform requires that correct spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization are used in questions and answers
- Questions and answers should not be used to promote a company or service or for recruitment purposes
If you believe that your question has been wrongly deleted, please write to ten.esabecived@ofni to lodge a complaint.
The following applies to writing answers:
- Answers should respond to the question posed
- Humorous answers and reviews are only allowed if they make the site more helpful to someone who is interested in the answer to the question
- A user should explicitly disclose all relevant affiliations in a reply or in the credentials that appear with the reply. Affiliate links are not allowed
- Links for self-promotion or self-promotion that are not part of a direct and helpful answer to the question are not allowed
- It should be possible to understand the essence of the answer without leaving devicebase and accessing an external website. Answers that cannot be understood without navigating to an external website and appear to be for advertising purposes may be removed