Community
Community Guidelines
Community is for talking about books. Love them, hate them, argue about them. The one thing we ask is that you treat the people you're talking with decently. Criticism of a book is not harassment of a reader.
What's welcome
Strong opinions and negative reviews
You can say a book was boring, badly written or not for you. You can disagree with the author's choices.
Civil disagreement
Readers like different things. Debating characters, endings, tropes and writing styles is the point.
Mature books and hard themes
Books cover war, death, abuse, illness, addiction, romance and sex. Talking about how a book handles those things, including criticising it, is fine. So is a bit of swearing.
Your own experiences
Sharing how a book connected to your own life is welcome.
Recommendations and theories
Share what you'd suggest next, or your theory about book three. Mark spoilers.
What isn't allowed
Harassment and bullying
No insults, mocking or ganging up on a person, including for their taste in books. No threats or intimidation.
Hate speech
No attacks on people because of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation or other parts of who they are.
Other people's private information
Don't post anyone's address, phone number, workplace or other personal details.
Unwanted contact
If someone declines a Bookmate request or blocks you, leave it there. Following someone around Community isn't okay.
Spam and scams
No ads, link dumps, scams, misleading links or copy-pasted promotion.
Sexual content aimed at people
Discussing a book's spicy scenes is fine. Posting your own explicit sexual content, making sexual remarks about another reader, or anything that sexualises minors is not.
Violence and self-harm
No encouraging violence against anyone, and never tell someone to hurt themselves.
Spoiling on purpose
Don't post unmarked spoilers to ruin a book for someone, or dodge the spoiler controls.
Getting around a restriction
Don't make another account to avoid a restriction or a block.
Spoilers
Readers often follow books they haven't finished. If your post or comment gives away plot, tick Contains spoilers. Readers then see a "Show spoilers" button instead of the text. To hide just part of what you wrote, wrap it in double bars, like||she was the killer||. If you forget, open the post or comment menu and choose Mark as spoilers. Anyone can report an unmarked spoiler.
Reporting, muting and blocking
Report
Use Report on a post, comment or profile. Pick a reason and add context if you like. Reports are private, the reader isn't told who reported them, and a person reviews them. Nothing is removed just because it was reported many times.
Mute
Hides someone's posts and comments from your feeds and book discussions. They aren't told, and they can still take part in Community.
Block
You and the other reader can't see each other's posts, comments or profiles, and Bookmate links and requests end. Their earlier comments are hidden from you, even in threads you share. They aren't told.
Manage muted and blocked readers in Community → My Bookmates.
How we moderate
Every written post and comment gets an automatic check before others see it. The check is told to protect book discussion, including dark and adult themes, and to look only for things aimed at real people. Clear, serious problems aren't shown to others, and you'll see why straight away. Unclear cases are published and a person takes a look. Links from brand-new accounts, and posts with several links, are also checked by a person. Automatic checks make mistakes, so the team can restore anything they got wrong.
If a person on the team acts on your account, you'll see a notice at the top of Community saying what happened, which guideline was involved and how long any restriction lasts. Depending on what happened, we may remove content, give a warning, pause posting or commenting for a set time, pause Community access, or remove Community access. Your library and shelves are never affected.
Asking for a review
If we removed something or restricted your account and you think we got it wrong, use Ask for a review on the notice within 30 days. You can ask once per decision. Only you and the ShelfGarden team can see it.
Safety concerns
For anything on Community, use Report, or send feedback from your account menu. If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services. See the Privacy Policy and Terms for more.