Community Guidelines

Stepping Stones is a platform that exists to further the gospel around the world, it is an open platform for anyone to come and read, but it is not an open platform for just anyone to post and publish.

Our service is a publishing platform for faith groups and individuals of many denominations that agree to our Statement of Faith, which contains a very generic widely agreed upon standard already agreed upon by the majority of those who come from mainline Christian denominations and backgrounds.

In addition to our Statement of Faith, posting content must adhere to the following guidelines set out in this document. Users who violate these rules will have their post removed. After repeated offenses a user risks having their account suspended entirely and all content produced by the account removed.

Blasphemy and Contempt of Christianity

It is considered blasphemy to insult or to mock Christianity or any part of the Trinity – Father (God), Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Honest articles and blog posts about the nature of God, and Christian Theology is allowed, but derogatory remarks are not. Contemptuous remarks regarding Christianity or Christian practices are also not allowed.

Vulgarity and Profanity

Please do not post, or link to violent, disturbing, graphic or sexually explicit images or text. Profanity or foul language is not allowed. This includes punctuation, symbols or acronyms that bypass the profanity filter.

Topics Requiring Special Consideration

*Promotion is defined as encouragement of the progress, growth, or acceptance of something, including advertising and publicity.

Abortion, adultery, premarital sex, masturbation, and marijuana use may be discussed - but encouraging participation in these activities is not allowed. Illegal activities may not be encouraged or promoted.
Homosexuality, same-sex marriage, bisexuality, transsexualism and transgenderism may not be promoted* (including on member profiles).
- Homosexuality, same-sex marriage, bisexuality, transsexualism and transgenderism may be discussed, without promotion*
Promoting* or proselytizing religious beliefs or religions other than Christianity is not allowed. Members who are Satanists (followers of any form of Satanism) are not allowed. For the purpose of these rules, Christianity is defined by SSIM's Statement of Faith.
Requesting specific prayers for deliverance from demonic activity, or requesting advice on how to exorcise or bind demons is not allowed, SSIM is a platform produced for the purpose of giving instruction and teaching, not soliciting it.
Biblical end times date setting is not allowed.
Giving professional, legal, financial, medical, or other counseling is not allowed. Do not direct, imply, or suggest that others should disregard doctors' orders regarding medical diagnosis and/or treatment.
Q-anon conspiracy theories are not allowed.
Promotion of King James Version Only-ism (KJVO) or King James Bible Only is not allowed. Stating one has a preference for King James Version is fine. Tying salvation to what version is used will be seen as flaming.
Posts that are political in nature are strictly prohibited. This includes but is not limited to:
- Endorsements of political parties, candidates or political platforms.
- Discussions or debates about political policies, elections, or political figures.
- Sharing news articles, opinion pieces, or media content with political content or implications.
- Posts that contain slogans, symbols, or hashtags associated with political movements.

Flaming and Goading

Please treat all members with respect and courtesy through civil dialogue.
Do not personally attack (insult, belittle, mock, ridicule) other members or groups of members on SSIM, or use nicknames to do so. Address only the content of the post, not the poster.
NO Goading. This includes images, cartoons, smileys or post ratings which are clearly meant to goad. Quoting and then editing other members posts to change the original meaning, commonly referred to as "fixed it for you" (FIFY), is considered goading.
"Calling out" a member is an unsolicited remark about another member in reference to something they may have said, their personal beliefs, their signature, or their avatar (challenging the member in a negative manner). This applies to any content of any kind on SSIM, whether the called-out member is participating in that context or not. Do not quote, or make comments about another member, in your signature or user title.
Offensive derogatory nicknames and egregious inflammatory comments about public figures may be considered goading.
Stating or implying that another Christian member, or group of members, are not Christian is not allowed.
If you are flamed, do not respond in-kind. Alert SSIM to the situation by utilizing the report button.

Harassment

Be considerate and do not make another member's experience on this site miserable. This includes making false accusations or persistently attacking them in any content having to do with SSIM
Respect another member's request to cease personal contact.

Privacy, Impersonation, Confidentiality

For your own safety, please do not publicly disseminate any personally identifiable information such as your home address, phone number, social security number, or credit card information. You may place your Email address and instant messenger information in your profile (however it is highly discouraged).
Be truthful about your identity. This includes the gender, age, etc. that you are. Don't impersonate others.
Publicly releasing the contents of a member's private communications without permission is not allowed.

Copyright Legalities, Spamming and Advertising, Signatures, Videos

Quoted portions of any work should not exceed 20% of the total work. Materials owned by the Associated Press must be quoted using only one sentence. All quoted copyrighted material must be linked to the web page from which it was taken. Do not violate the copyrights of others or promote another work as your own.
Repetitive posting of similar or identical articles or blog posts is not allowed. Do not advertise commercial products or services. This prohibition includes begging or soliciting donations or financial support (charitable or otherwise) anywhere on the site. Do not advertise or promote other sites in your signature or your custom username title.
Signatures may have tickers and SSIM internal links, but not other external links. If desired, place these other links on your profile page.
YouTube videos, blogs, and offsite materials written by members may be posted to further conversation and provide relevant topics. There are however some restrictions. You may not participate on SSIM primarily to drive traffic to your videos, offsite blogs, or offsite articles. SSIM staff will use their own discretion as a team in deciding if your participation here is being used for this purpose and it may result in staff action.
Linking to videos is discouraged, but not prohibited. Remember the purpose of SSIM is to provide a platform that is highly translatable. Videos, text-based photos and linking to audio content defeats this purpose.

Duplicate Content

We do not allow posting duplicate copies of the same content to SSIM, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts. (You are allowed to cross-post content from your blog to SSIM, provided you own the rights for the content.)

Disruptive Behavior, Campaigning, Staff Disciplinary Action

To maintain the peace and harmony on SSIM you must refrain from doing the following

Making posts that speak of any Staff action either with you or another member (including any bans, warnings, or editing or removal of posts).
Complaining about another members articles/posts, SSIM or its staff.
Spite reports - e.g., reporting in retaliation, multiple reports on a member using opposing arguments but are not violations, or repeatedly reporting a member in harassment.
Attempting to undermine these rules or policies via campaigns, petitions, or protests is not allowed.

Bypassing Bans

Do not bypass bans by creating or using sock accounts or modifying your IP address. Doing so will result in a permanent ban and/or an IP ban and a complaint to your ISP (internet service provider).

Account Deletions

Definitions:

Account Ban – A user will lose the ability to login and use an account, either temporarily or permanently, but content will remain visible on SSIM.
Soft Delete – A user will lose the ability to login and use their account, all content is no longer visible or available on the SSIM, but is still hosted on SSIM servers and has the ability to be reversed.
Hard Delete – A users account and content is deleted entirely off all SSIM servers and is irreversibly gone.

SSIM bans accounts, and in some circumstances will soft delete accounts, only under some extreme circumstances SSIM staff will determine if hard deleting of account information is necessary.

Reporting a Violation

If you find a post or account on SSIM that you believe violates any SSIM rules, please report it. You can find the report button in the 3-dot menu on every article, blog post or account page.

If you need to provide more detail or need to report other conduct you believe violates our rules, additionally you can send an email to [email protected].