II. Content Policy

II.A. Offensive Content

Unless content violates another part of this Content Policy or our Terms of Service, Handcarve will not remove content solely because it is offensive, unsettling, controversial, or disliked by some users.

Handcarve is a fan-led archive and collective. We recognize that transformative work may involve difficult themes, strong emotions, disagreement, discomfort, grief, anger, desire, horror, satire, criticism, or other forms of challenging expression.

II.B. Fanworks

Works submitted to Handcarve must be fanworks, transformative works, or works directly connected to fan-made creative practice. Posting a work that primarily consists of non-fanwork content is not allowed.

Bookmarks, recommendations, collection entries, or external links should be created only for fanworks or fanwork-related materials. You may link to fanworks hosted on third-party sites where such linking is otherwise permitted.

II.C. Commercial Promotion

Promotion, solicitation, or advertisement of commercial products, paid services, paid memberships, commissions, sales pages, affiliate links, or other commercial activities is not allowed unless Handcarve has expressly permitted it in writing.

Handcarve is noncommercial in spirit. The site exists to preserve and present fan-made work, not to serve as an advertising platform or marketplace.

II.D. Copyright Infringement

Reproductions of large excerpts of copyrighted works are not allowed without permission from the copyright owner. This includes, but is not limited to, stories, artwork, songs, poems, transcripts, scans, screenshots, scripts, translations, audio recordings, video files, and other copyrighted material.

Crediting the original creator does not, by itself, give you the right to upload, reproduce, translate, adapt, record, or distribute someone else’s work without permission, whether the source is a fanwork, professional publication, artwork, song, video, or other protected work.

Epigraphs, short quotations, commentary, criticism, references, and transformative works that are set within or based on existing works may be allowed, provided they do not otherwise violate this policy.

Handcarve supports transformative fanworks as meaningful creative expression. Complaints based only on the existence of fanworks, references to fictional worlds, or mentions of trademarks will not automatically result in removal.

II.E. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of another person’s words, images, structure, distinctive expression, or presentation of ideas without appropriate attribution. Plagiarism is not allowed on Handcarve.

Minor changes, such as replacing names, substituting synonyms, rearranging a few words, changing tense, or lightly editing another person’s work, are not enough to make the work your own.

Creating a work that uses the same general idea, trope, pairing, prompt, mood, or genre as another work is not necessarily plagiarism. However, citation, credit, or explanation may be appropriate where your work substantially responds to, remixes, translates, adapts, or draws from another specific work.

II.F. Personal Information and Fan Identities

You may not upload, post, link to, or otherwise make available seemingly accurate, non-public information about another person without authorization.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• revealing the identity of the creator of an anonymous, orphaned, pseudonymous, or otherwise intentionally separated fanwork;
• linking someone’s fan identity, username, pseudonym, or fandom account to their legal, professional, school, family, workplace, or “real life” identity without permission;
• sharing information sufficient to identify someone else’s legal identity, professional identity, private account, workplace, school, home, physical location, or travel plans;
• posting private contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses, residential addresses, hotel room numbers, private social accounts, or other identifying details; and
• disclosing personal data, sensitive personal information, or other private information without authorization.

Fiction about public figures or real-person subjects will not ordinarily be treated as disclosure of private information merely because it includes publicly known names, usernames, public roles, or public biographical details. However, such content must not be used to reveal non-public information, encourage harassment, or invade privacy.

Handcarve reserves the right to hide, delete, restrict, or otherwise make unavailable content that violates this policy.

II.G. Impersonation

You may not impersonate another person, group, organization, moderator, contributor, Handcarve representative, site function, or affiliated entity. You may not falsely state, imply, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person, group, project, fandom, organization, or service.

Fiction, parody, roleplay, commentary, or transformative work that is clearly presented as fictional is not considered impersonation merely because it depicts or references a person, character, group, or organization.

II.H. Harassment

Harassment is behavior that creates a generally hostile environment for its target. Examples may include bullying, threats, intimidation, repeated unwanted contact, targeted personal attacks, coordinated abuse, doxxing, or attempts to drive a person or group away from the site.

Harassment is not allowed. When deciding whether content or behavior constitutes harassment, Handcarve may consider relevant context, including whether the behavior was repeated, targeted, difficult to avoid, connected to a broader pattern of conduct, or directed at a specific user, creator, group, or community.

Repeated or knowingly baseless reports, especially reports targeting a specific user, creator, group, ship, fandom, or community, may also be treated as harassment.

In general, threatening content will be treated more seriously than content that is merely rude, annoying, critical, or offensive. Not all users agree about what is objectionable. Users are encouraged to use available tools such as blocking, muting, filtering, warnings, and tags to manage their own experience where possible.

This Harassment Policy is primarily concerned with user conduct and non-fictional content. However, it may apply to all parts of Handcarve, including comments, profiles, submissions, reports, messages, moderation interactions, and other site activity.

II.I. User Icons

User icons, avatars, profile images, and similar account images must be appropriate for general audiences. They must not depict explicit sexual activity, genital nudity, hate symbols, graphic violence, targeted abuse, or imagery that promotes, advocates, or causes real-world harm.

II.J. Mandatory Tags

Handcarve may require certain fields, labels, warnings, ratings, fandom information, language information, format descriptions, or other metadata in order to submit, edit, import, or display a work.

Tags entered into mandatory fields must meet the minimum requirements set by Handcarve. Required fields are used to support organization, discovery, accessibility, moderation, user choice, and reader safety.

A creator may be allowed to choose a non-specific label, such as “Not Rated,” “Creator Chose Not to Use Specific Warnings,” “Unspecified Fandom,” or a similar option, where Handcarve provides such a label. A non-specific label may indicate that the work contains content some users would otherwise expect to be specifically labeled.

Some tags may be automatically applied, edited, normalized, or organized. Handcarve may determine that tags or required metadata are inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or insufficient. In such cases, Handcarve may remove inaccurate tags, add non-specific tags, add required tags, ask the creator to adjust tags, hide the work, restrict the work, or take other appropriate action.

II.K. Illegal and Inappropriate Content

You may not upload, post, link to, embed, distribute, or provide instructions for obtaining content that appears to contain or purports to contain sexually explicit or sexually suggestive photographic or photorealistic images of real children.

You may not upload, post, link to, embed, distribute, or provide instructions for obtaining malware, viruses, warez, cracks, hacks, stolen credentials, malicious scripts, executable files, tools intended to compromise security, or other materials that threaten users, devices, networks, or the technical integrity of Handcarve.

You may not upload, post, link to, embed, distribute, or provide instructions for obtaining trade secrets, restricted technologies, classified information, or other materials that you are not legally permitted to share.

Conduct that threatens the technical integrity of Handcarve is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, attempting to hack Handcarve, spreading malware through Handcarve, disguising files, mislabeling file types, using non-image files with image extensions, bypassing security measures, or interfering with site operations.

Spamming behavior is prohibited. Repeated identical or nearly identical posts, comments, links, tags, messages, or submissions may be treated as spam, whether or not the content is commercial.

Handcarve may use automated or manual tools to identify spam, abuse, security risks, or policy violations. If you believe your content was mistakenly filtered, hidden, or removed, you may contact Handcarve through the appropriate support or appeal channel.