# Community Guidelines and Appeals

Your guidelines on top of Genuin's policy floor, shown on first post and on every appeal, with versions kept.

Genuin's content policy sets the floor for every network. Your community guidelines sit on top, and they're what creators and members agree to. Moderation enforces both.

[Octo](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/octo-operates-your-business-account-octo-proposes-you-approve), Genuin's Supervised Intelligence interface in your Business Account, proposes this capability when it finds a fit on your sites and apps. It completes the steps under Set it up from your brand context. Nothing goes live until you approve it. It's part of [Control](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/control/control-what-it-does-and-where-to-start), and [Content policies and community guidelines](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/content-policies-and-community-guidelines) explains the policy floor and the appeal flow.

## When to use it

Set your guidelines before go-live. They cover what Genuin's floor leaves to you.

| Layer | Who sets it | What it covers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Genuin's policy floor | Genuin | No illegal content, sexualization of minors, incitement to violence, rights infringement, or deception about paid partnerships |
| Your guidelines | You | Your own rules, the groups they apply to, and what happens on a violation |

A violation of the floor removes the content and can lead to account suspension.

Your brand agrees to the platform guidelines once, when you create it. The **Agreement Guidelines Preview** popup asks for a valid address first, and **Agree** stays unavailable until you add one.

## How it works

- Octo drafts your guidelines from your brand context and your existing policies.
- Every creator and member sees them on their first post and on every appeal.
- Versions are kept. When you change the text, creators are asked to accept the change on their next post.
- Creators and members appeal from the post. Appeals land in the moderation queue with the original decision attached.
- Paid Partner Posts and Takeovers carry a label that can't be removed. Creators disclose material connections on their posts, as [Paid Partner Posts and Paid Partner Takeovers](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/paid-partner-posts-and-paid-partner-takeovers) describes.
- Policies, legal constraints, and past incidents under **Brand** > **Context** > **Policies** shape the draft.

## Set it up

Octo proposes the guidelines with these steps already done. You review the result and confirm it.

1. Edit brand guidelines under **Settings** > **Brand Guidelines**, and a community's own guidelines in its **General** tab under **Manage** > **Communities**. Learn how in [Set moderation and brand safety](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/moderation-brand-safety).
2. Creators accept the guidelines on their first post and on each change.
3. Appeals flow into the moderation queue. [Moderation Baselines and Queue](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/control/moderation-baselines-and-queue) covers how the queue handles them.

## Settings

| Setting | What it controls |
| --- | --- |
| Level | Brand guidelines, or a community's own guidelines |
| Title | A guideline's name, up to 50 characters |
| Description | The guideline text creators and members accept, up to 160 characters |
| Groups | Which groups the guidelines apply to |
| Consequences | What happens on a violation |

Change them under **Settings** > **Brand Guidelines**, where every version is kept. Keep the text short, name the groups, and say what happens on a violation.

### Brand and community guidelines in your Business Account

Business Account keeps guidelines at two levels. Brand guidelines live under **Settings** > **Brand Guidelines**, and the same list appears in **Build** during setup. A change in either place shows in the other.

Each community also has its own guidelines. You create, edit, and delete them in the community's **General** tab under **Manage** > **Communities**.

- Each guideline has a title of up to 50 characters and a description of up to 160.
- The **Add guidelines** drawer lists your saved guidelines, plus suggested ones you can add.
- You can reorder guidelines. If you delete them all, the page shows an empty state.

## What it reports

Appeals and their outcomes also show in the moderation queue. [Content, community & creators: questions and answers](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/content-community-creators-questions-and-answers) explains how guidelines and moderation work day to day.

- **Acceptance rate**: the share of creators who accepted the guidelines.
- **Appeals**: how many decisions creators and members appealed.
- **Outcomes**: how each appeal ended.

Each report in **Moderate** > **Content Moderation** names the community or brand guideline it references, next to the reporter's reason.

## Connect your systems

Guidelines run in your Business Account and need no code. Two live pages cover the moderators and groups that apply them. [Add moderators to a community](https://begenuin.com/developers/developer-resources/api/assign-moderators-to-community-using-api) gives accounts the moderator role. Moderators review posts, approve join requests, and manage groups. [Update a group and its members](https://begenuin.com/developers/developer-resources/api/add-or-manage-group-members-collaborators-using-api) adds or removes members and changes a group's access settings.

The guidelines calls in the [Business Account API](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/business-account-api-provisioning-oauth-and-the-resource-map) are proposed, not live. [Live API today and the Business Account API roadmap](https://begenuin.com/developers/developer-resources/guides/live-api-today-and-the-business-account-api-roadmap) maps what you can call now to what's planned.