Be honest about books
- Reviews must be your genuine opinion. Critical reviews are welcome and are never penalized by the platform.
- Never offer, request or accept anything in exchange for a rating's positivity: this applies to authors, readers, and anyone acting for them, on or off the platform.
- ARC reviews follow the same rule: an advance copy buys honesty, not praise. ARC reputation measures reliability, never how kindly you rate.
- Do not review-bomb: coordinated ratings by people who have not read the book are moderated as manipulation.
Respect the people behind the books
Criticize the work, not the person. Harassment, hate speech, slurs, threats, doxxing and sexualized attacks have no place here, in posts, comments, reviews or usernames.
- Authors: responding to a critical review with harassment or a call-out campaign is a violation, however sharp the review stung.
- Readers: authors are people at work; disagreement is fine, pile-ons are not.
- No impersonation of authors, readers or Booklabria staff.
Keep content honest and safe
- Use spoiler flags for plot reveals and content warnings where your post or book needs them.
- Adult and explicit books are welcome when they are marked: set the book's content level to Explicit and name its warnings. A book that should be marked and is not can be reported.
- An Explicit book opens only for signed-in readers who have declared they are 18 or older. Coming: Explicit covers will stay off Booklabria's front pages.
- Publish only work you hold the rights to; plagiarism and unauthorized redistribution (including sharing ARC files) are serious violations.
- No spam, engagement bait, undisclosed advertising or deceptive links.
- Nothing illegal, and no sexual content involving minors. This is reported to authorities, not just moderated.
Blocking is yours to use
Blocking someone removes you from each other's Booklabria entirely: content, comments, search results, follows and ARC interactions, in both directions. The blocked person is not notified. You never need to justify a block, and you can undo it anytime in your privacy settings.
How moderation works
Every profile, post, comment, book and review has a Report option. Here is what actually happens next. There is no black box:
- A human moderator reviews the report, oldest first, with the reported content in context.
- Possible outcomes: dismiss the report, hide the content, warn the account, suspend the account, or remove the content. Suspensions always include a written reason.
- Every moderation action is logged. Warnings and suspensions are delivered as account notifications you can respond to.
- You can appeal any action by writing to us; a different moderator reviews appeals where our team size allows.
During the closed beta
Moderation is done by a small human team, so response times are measured in days, not minutes. Report anything urgent to support@booklabria.com as well. Guidelines will evolve as the community grows; changes move the date at the top of this page and are announced in the app.
Related reading
The Terms of service make these guidelines binding, and the Privacy policy explains what we store when you report or block. For everyday questions, start at the Help center.