sinter

Community guidelines

Last updated: 1 October 2026

A broad platform, shared with care

Sinter is a welcoming place for anyone who makes things together: crafts, writing, music, home projects, study groups, small teams, games and software, and much more. Share what you are making, ask useful questions, and treat other people's work and time with respect.

What is not allowed

Do not post or send harassment or threats, scams or fraud, other people's private information without their consent, unlawful content, material that exploits others, or nonconsensual sexual content. Do not impersonate others or attempt to access builds or accounts without permission. You are responsible for what you publish, as described in the Terms.

Accounts run by people

Sinter is for people. An account must be run by a person, who is responsible for what it does. AI tools can help with your own work, but automation must not act as your account. Read the Terms for the full rule.

OK: spell-check, translation, drafting help, accessibility tools and dictation.

Not OK: an agent that posts or replies as you, scheduled auto-posting, vote or follow automation, or one person running a fleet of accounts.

If most of a post was made by AI, say so.

Authorship, affiliation and no astroturfing

When sharing your own work, say that you made it. When promoting Sinter or another project, disclose your actual relationship: founder, team member, contributor, paid partner or other material connection. This applies to posts, comments, replies, reviews and outreach on other sites. Put the disclosure with the content, before or beside the promotional link, where readers can see it without opening a profile or expanding hidden text. Disclose payment, gifts and referral benefits explicitly.

Use only wording that is true for you. Examples:

  • Creator: I built this project. I am sharing it for feedback.
  • Sinter founder: I am the founder and builder of Sinter. I am sharing this for feedback.
  • Team member: I work on Sinter. I am sharing this in that role.
  • Paid partner: Sinter paid me to share this. These are my own views.

Do not create fake grassroots support (astroturfing): no fake member accounts, sockpuppets, impersonation, invented testimonials or reviews, or posing as an independent customer while hiding a connection. Do not buy or reward votes, reviews or supportive comments, coordinate votes or comments, or use multiple accounts to inflate engagement. Do not ask others to disguise promotion as independent enthusiasm. Sinter founders, staff and partners follow the same rules as members.

Do not present invented endorsements as evidence of traction. Follow each external venue's rules too: a disclosure does not make prohibited promotion acceptable.

If a disclosure is missing or misleading, pause the affected promotion and correct or withdraw it. Use Report on the affected content, or contact Support with its link and the concern. Reports go to human moderation review; reporting does not immediately remove content. See Terms for moderation and appeals.

Who can join

Sinter is for people aged 16 and over. Sensitive-content labels are voluntary and do not make content suitable for everyone; see the Terms for account eligibility.

Sensitive-content labels and preferences

When publishing an image post, the author can tick "Sensitive content / NSFW - conceal images by default". A labelled post shows a "Sensitive content - NSFW" cover and its content stays concealed until the viewer chooses "View sensitive content"; the viewer can choose "Hide sensitive content" again afterwards.

In profile settings, "Hide sensitive posts from feeds" leaves posts their authors labelled sensitive out of your feeds. This preference is off by default. Labelling is voluntary and does not make prohibited content allowed.

Voting and scores

Upvotes and downvotes are one vote per account on each post or comment, and clicking the same arrow again takes your vote back: every vote is reversible. Voting is private - Sinter shows the net score (upvotes minus downvotes) and your own vote, never who voted which way.

A downvote lowers that net score. It never hides, deletes or moderates a post or comment by itself; only moderators can hide content, and only after review. The net score affects the Top order and, with other people's replies, how Best and Hot rank a post, so a downvote can move an item further down the list. Use a downvote when a contribution did not help; use Report when something breaks the rules.

How the feed is ordered

Posts are ordered by your sort choice: Best, Hot, New or Top. Ranking resists manipulation.

Spam and link drops

Repeated identical posts, link drops, and brand-new accounts used only to advertise are slowed automatically, and a moderator can hold or remove what they leave behind. Known scam and phishing domains are refused with a reason rather than letting the post through. Limits are about pace, not about what you said: they lift on their own, the message always names the one that applies, and nothing is blocked silently. Every automated action says it was automated and a person can reverse it -- the trust, limits and blocks page explains every limit and block in one place.

Platform rules and community house rules are different

Platform rules are the same everywhere on Sinter: no harassment or threats, no scams or fraud, no posting other people's private information without consent, no impersonation, no unlawful or nonconsensual sexual content. A community may add its own house rules on top of those -- how feedback threads run, how questions are answered, or how shared work is credited -- and its owner decides those. Sinter enforces the platform rules only. A house-rules disagreement is settled by the community owner, and a platform removal is never used to settle it.

Reporting and moderation

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services.

Use Report on a post, comment, image, build update or message and choose a reason.