The Village

Community Guidelines

Last updated July 21, 2026

This platform was built for a community that has been talked over, talked about, and rarely talked with. These guidelines protect that. They apply everywhere on the platform — posts, comments, groups, events, messages, and profiles.

1. Bring Something Real

Say what you think. Disagree openly. Argue hard about ideas.

What we ask is that you come with something real — your experience, your question, your work, your support. A community is built from people who show up honestly, not from people performing.

2. Attack the Argument, Not the Person

You can tear an idea apart. You cannot tear a person apart.

The line is simple: if your reply is about what someone said, keep going. If it turns to what someone is, stop.

3. Zero Tolerance

These end an account. Not a warning, not a timeout.

• Racial slurs and hate speech — against any group.
• Anything that sexualizes a minor — reported to authorities as well as removed.
• Credible threats of violence — against a member, a group, or anyone else.
• Doxxing — posting someone's address, phone number, workplace, or other private details.
• Coordinated harassment — organizing others to pile onto a member.

4. Keep It Clean

• No pornography or sexually explicit images.
• No gratuitous violence or gore.
• No spam, pyramid schemes, or get-rich pitches.
• No impersonating another member, a moderator, or an organization.

Selling is welcome in Buy Black Marketplace. Elsewhere, keep the pitch out of the feed.

5. Somebody Else's Business Is Theirs

Do not post another person's private information — where they live, where they work, their number, their medical or legal situation — without their clear permission.

If a conversation was private, it stays private. Screenshots of private messages posted publicly are a violation.

6. Groups Have Their Own Rooms

Every group has a Leader who sets the tone inside it. A Leader can set additional rules for their group and remove members who ignore them.

Group rules can be stricter than these guidelines. They can never be looser. Platform moderators can act inside any group.

7. Report It

Every post has a report option in its menu. Use it. You are not tattling, you are helping.

Reports go to our moderators. We aim to review within 48 hours, and faster where someone may be in danger.

Filing false reports to harass someone is itself a violation.

8. What Happens When Rules Are Broken

• Warning — for a first or minor issue. The content comes down, you hear why.
• Timeout — you keep your account but cannot post for a set period.
• Suspension — your account is closed to you pending review.
• Removal — your account and content are deleted. This is where zero-tolerance items land immediately.

Every one of these actions is permanently logged, including who took it and why.

9. You Can Appeal

10. Tools You Control

You do not have to wait for a moderator to protect your own space:

• Block — they disappear from your feed and you from theirs.
• Private profile — limit your posts to people you have accepted.
• Report — send it to moderators for review.

All three are in Settings and on member profiles.

11. What This Place Is For

This platform exists so that Black voices have somewhere that belongs to them — to organize, to build, to grieve, to celebrate, and to be heard without translation.

Protect that for the person next to you and you have understood every rule on this page.