Governance
The rules, and why each one exists.
8 numbered rules. Every moderation action names the one it enforced, so you can always trace a decision back to something you can read and argue with. Everything not covered here is allowed, including criticism of these rules and of the people enforcing them.
Discuss vendors freely, but do not arrange supply
CriticalNaming a vendor, comparing vendors, and posting an honest good or bad experience with one is allowed and welcome. Arranging supply is not. Do not post price lists, discount or referral codes, organise group buys, offer stock, or move a conversation to DMs or a messaging app to arrange a purchase. This applies to sellers, buyers, and helpful bystanders alike.
Why this rule exists
Members comparing vendors in the open is how bad ones get found out, so this rule used to be broader than it needed to be. What it still stops is the transaction: a forum that brokers supply acquires an incentive to suppress bad news about its sellers, and that is the thing worth protecting against. Talking about vendors is fine. Being the place a deal gets done is not. Discussing the legal and regulatory landscape, including criticism of it, was never covered by this rule.
Do not help people circumvent medical supervision
CriticalDo not give advice on obtaining prescription medicines without a prescription, on which clinicians will approve a request without assessment, or on getting around monitoring requirements.
Why this rule exists
Criticising how access works is legitimate and common here. Coaching a specific person through avoiding a clinician is different, and it is the point at which this community would start doing harm.
No dosing direction and no dangerous protocol advice
SeriousReport what the literature used or what you personally did. Do not tell another person what to take, how much, or how often. Do not suggest that monitoring, bloodwork, or medical supervision is unnecessary, and do not encourage escalation.
Why this rule exists
"The trial used X" and "I ran X and this happened" are information. "You should take X" is a prescription written by someone with no licence, no history, and no liability. The first two are the entire value of this forum; the third is the thing that gets people hurt.
Separate anecdote from evidence, and cite claims
StandardEvery post carries an evidence label and you must pick the honest one. Posts labelled Cited research require at least one source. Do not state clinical claims, that something cures, prevents, reverses, or is safe for everyone, as settled fact without support.
Why this rule exists
n=1 reports are genuinely useful and this community wants more of them. They stop being useful the moment they are laundered into general claims. The label is the mechanism that keeps both kinds of post welcome without letting one impersonate the other.
Argue with the work, not the person
StandardCriticise data, reasoning, methodology, and conclusions as hard as you like. Including ours. Personal attacks, pile-ons, and harassment are removed.
Why this rule exists
This community is explicitly built for candid disagreement. Protecting that requires removing the behaviour that makes people stop posting, which is almost never a strong argument and almost always contempt directed at a person.
No doxxing, no private information
CriticalDo not post another person's real name, address, employer, phone number, or other identifying details. Whether or not they are a member here, and whether or not you found it publicly.
Why this rule exists
Pseudonymity is the only reason a lot of the honest reporting on this forum exists. Breaking someone else's is not a debate tactic, it is an attack on the thing that makes the forum work.
Disclose commercial interest, every time
SeriousIf you are connected to a product, service, clinic, or business, say so in the post itself before you mention it. Referral links, affiliate links, and engineered testimonials are removed on sight. Verified partner accounts are disclosed automatically, by the site, on every post: they do not have to remember and they cannot switch it off. Everyone else discloses by hand, and employees of a partner posting from a personal account are everyone else.
Why this rule exists
We take sponsorship money, which makes this rule more important rather than less. Partners may now speak in threads, promote what they sell, and answer questions about it. What they may not do is look like an ordinary member while they do it, which is why the label is rendered by the site rather than left to the poster. Disclosure is usually all we ask. Several members here work in the field, say so, and are among the most useful posters on the site.
Acute situations go to a clinician, not a thread
SeriousIf you are describing a medical emergency or acute symptoms, contact emergency services or a clinician. Threads asking the community to triage an acute situation will be locked with a pointer to real help.
Why this rule exists
A forum cannot examine you, and the delay while people speculate is the actual danger. Locking these threads is not us dodging the question. It is the only answer that does not risk making things worse.
How moderation works
No shadow banning
There is no state in this system where your content is visible to you and invisible to everyone else. It is not a policy we promise to follow. The database has no such column, and removals write a visible tombstone in place of the content.
Reasons are mandatory
The schema requires a public reason on every moderation action. There is no code path that can remove content, warn, suspend, or ban without one, and the reason is written for the member rather than for a log.
Appeals go to someone else
Any action can be appealed. The moderator who took the action is blocked from deciding its appeal. You get a written decision either way.
Mistakes stay on the record
When we overturn ourselves, the original action stays in the public log next to the reversal. A transparency log that quietly deletes the decisions we got wrong is worse than no log at all.
The appeal process
- 1
You are told
Every action generates a notification and an entry on your moderation record at /account/moderation, with the reason and the rule.
- 2
You appeal
One button on that record. Say specifically which part of the reason you think is wrong. Restating your intent is less effective than quoting the passage that was misread.
- 3
Someone else reviews it
The moderator who took the action cannot decide the appeal. This is enforced in code, not by convention. Another moderator reads your statement and the original content.
- 4
You get a written decision
Upheld, overturned, or reduced, with reasoning. Overturned actions are reversed immediately: content is restored, suspensions are lifted.
- 5
It goes on the public record
The decision appears in the public moderation log alongside the original action, including when the original action was ours to answer for.
Safety
If something is acute, this is the wrong place.
Chest pain, difficulty breathing, a suspected overdose, a spreading skin infection, or thoughts of self-harm are all reasons to contact emergency services or a clinician now. The danger is not that the community lacks knowledge. It is the delay while people speculate. Threads asking the community to triage an acute situation are locked with a pointer to real help, under R8.
For everything else: nobody here is your clinician, including the members who are clinicians elsewhere. This community is educational discussion between peers. Decisions about your health belong with a licensed professional who knows your history and can examine you.
For Research & Educational Discussion Only. Not Medical Advice
Everything on Baseline is community discussion and educational material. It is not medical care, diagnosis, treatment, or prescribing, and no one here is acting as your clinician. Talk to a licensed healthcare professional before making any decision about your health.
Disagree with a rule?
Post it in General Community. Criticism of these rules and of the moderators is explicitly permitted and is not removed for being criticism. If it ever is, that removal will be in the public log with a reason, and it will be appealable like everything else.
For anything that should not be public, baselineforum@gmail.com.