Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines

Readers, comments and independent authors are what make OpenPost a community rather than just a website. These guidelines exist so that everyone can take part safely. When you comment, apply to write or publish on OpenPost, you agree to follow them.

What we ask of everyone

• Be respectful. Disagree with ideas, not with people.
• Stay on topic. Keep comments relevant to the article.
• Be honest. Do not state things as fact when you know they are false or are not sure they are true. Say where your information comes from when you can.
• Be yourself. Use your own name or a consistent display name. Do not pretend to be someone else.
• Be kind to the vulnerable. Take extra care when writing about victims, children and people in distress.

What we do not allow

• Hate speech, or attacks on people because of their race, ethnicity, tribe, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age or similar characteristics.
• Threats, or calls for violence against any person or group.
• Harassment, bullying and personal abuse.
• Sharing private information about others, such as home addresses, phone numbers or private photos, without their consent.
• False statements of fact that damage the reputation of a named or identifiable person or organisation.
• Illegal content, or content that encourages illegal acts.
• Sexually explicit or graphic content.
• Spam, advertising, repeated posting and long lists of links.
• Copyrighted material that you do not have the right to share.
• Scams, or requests for money other than through the official Support buttons on the site.

Guidelines for authors

Authors publish under their own name and can receive support from readers, so we hold them to a higher standard.

• Original work. Submit only work you wrote yourself. Do not copy other people’s articles, photos or videos without permission and credit. If you use AI tools to help you write, you are still responsible for every fact and every word.
• Accuracy and fairness. Check your facts, name your sources where you can, and give people you criticise a fair chance to respond. Our standards are described on the About Us page.
• Declare your interests. If you write about a business, product, organisation or person you are connected to, or you were paid or given something in return for a story, say so clearly in the article. Sponsored content must be labelled as sponsored.
• Use photos you have the right to use. Credit the photographer in the photo credit field.
• Honest support links. Your Support link must point to your own Peacro Pay account. Never ask readers to send money any other way through your stories or comments.
• Editorial review. Every story is reviewed by an editor before it is published. We may edit for length, clarity, accuracy and legal safety, and we will talk to you first about any major change. We may decline to publish a story that does not meet these guidelines.
• Keep your profile truthful. Your name, photo, job title and bio must be accurate.

How moderation works

Every comment is read by a person before it appears. We approve comments that follow these guidelines. We may decline or remove any comment that does not, and we do not have to give a reason, although we will try to explain if you ask. We do not change the meaning of your comment. Comments are the views of the people who write them. They do not represent OpenPost, and we do not check every claim in them.

If someone repeatedly or seriously breaks these guidelines, we may stop accepting their comments. For authors, we may unpublish stories, remove the Support button, or suspend or close the author account. Our Terms of Use explain what happens to an author membership in that case.

Reporting a problem

If you see a comment, article or author profile that breaks these guidelines, email editor@openpost.co.zw with the link and a short description. If you think we made the wrong decision about your comment or story, write to us and we will take another look.