Community Guidelines

The Codex is built by horror fans, for horror fans. It works because the people who use it care — about getting the taxonomy right, about preserving weird and obscure films, about turning newcomers onto something great. These guidelines describe the kind of community we want to be, and the small list of things that’ll get you a warning or worse.

These guidelines are part of our Terms of Service. Breaking them can result in your content being removed or your account being restricted or banned.

The spirit of the place

• Be a fan first. The Codex isn’t a battleground. We’re here because we love this stuff.
• Argue about films, not people. Disagreement is welcome. Personal attacks aren’t.
• Make the catalog better. Tag a missing keyword, suggest a related film, write a list nobody else has written. The next person to find that page will benefit.
• Punch up, never down. Slurs, harassment, and pile-ons aren’t edgy — they’re cliché. They’ll get you removed.

Specific rules

Comments

• Spoiler tags exist for a reason. Use them when you discuss endings or major reveals. The community keeps spoilers tagged so people can browse film pages safely.
• No personal attacks, slurs, or harassment. Including against the cast, crew, or other users.
• No spam. Don’t promote unrelated products, services, or links.
• Stay on the film. A comment thread on The Thing isn’t the place to argue about something that happened on Twitter.

Photos and stills

• Only upload images you have the right to share. Promotional stills released by the studio are generally fine; bootleg screenshots from streaming services are murky — use judgment.
• Mark uploads with explicit gore, nudity, or major plot reveals as spoilers. The Codex blurs spoiler-tagged photos by default.
• Don’t upload photos of real people in distressing or violent contexts (e.g. true-crime imagery presented as horror).
• If a copyright holder asks us to remove an image, we will, fast. See the DMCA section of our Terms.

Lists

• Keep lists in draft while you’re still building them. Don’t publish a one-film “test” list to the public index.
• Give lists meaningful titles and descriptions. “cool stuff” is not a list title.
• Curate, don’t copy. Don’t republish another person’s list verbatim under your own name. If you’re inspired by someone else’s list, credit them in the description.

Tags and edits

• Edit genre tags, keywords, and related films in good faith. The taxonomy is a shared resource — treat it that way.
• Trolling the taxonomy (mass-tagging dramas as horror, deleting accurate keywords as a joke, etc.) will get your edits reverted and your account restricted.
• If you’re not sure whether a tag fits, leave it off — or ask via the bug-report flow.

Profile

• Don’t impersonate other people, real or fictional. Filmmakers, critics, public figures, other users — don’t.
• Avatar and bio are public. Pick what you’re comfortable showing.

What gets you in trouble

We use a 4-tier role system: admin, moderator, user, restricted. Most enforcement looks like this:

• Minor or first-time issues — we remove the offending content and may DM you a heads-up.
• Repeated issues, bad-faith editing, or harassment — your account is moved to the “restricted” tier, which limits your ability to contribute (no comments, no photo uploads, no tag edits, no list publishing) while still letting you use the site to track and rate films.
• Severe abuse (harassment campaigns, illegal content, deliberate sabotage) — account terminated, no warning required.

How to report a problem

For anything — abusive comment, broken film page, ToS-violating list, photo that shouldn’t be there — use the bug report button in the user dropdown (or in the mobile nav). Site moderators see every bug report and act on them.

For copyright takedowns specifically, see the DMCA section of our Terms for the formal notice requirements.

For account-level issues (someone is impersonating you, your account is compromised, you want to appeal an enforcement action), email [email protected] directly.

Changes

These guidelines will evolve as the community grows. Material changes will be announced with a site banner. The “Effective” date at the top tells you which version is current.