Content Policy

Smart voices are welcome

All types of thinkers, writers, and storytellers find their home on Differ, with stories covering every topic under the sun. So if you have an idea to share respectfully, it’s welcome to be published to the member community.
Topics you care deeply about make the best posts, and we encourage you to highlight your own perspective — whether that comes from real-world experience, original research, or reporting in the field.

Introduce yourself

Let readers know who you are and what you write about by completely filling out the user profile.

Use the right tags

You can tag your stories with up to five tags to help readers find your work. Accurately and carefully tagging your post will increase its potential distribution and exposure to the right audience.

Finishing touches matter

Use an appropriate title and subtitle to best reflect your idea and to help promote it in post listings on and off the platform. We strongly recommend scanning for typos before publishing and sharing.

Images count

Differ posts with one or more quality images relevant to the content perform better both on Differ and when shared on other networks. Double-check to make sure you’re not violating copyright or licensing with your images. Free resources like Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash are great for sourcing Creative Commons-licensed images.

Keep the conversation going

If you receive responses to your post, engage with your readers by responding to them.

Original content only

For your content, including all writing and images, to not get flagged for plagiarism, you must either own the copyright, have explicit permission to use it, or have a good faith belief that you are using it lawfully. Stories where the content is clipped with the sole purpose of linking to the rest of the article on a different website are not appreciated. Cross-posting content you have published elsewhere is allowed provided your story contains a disclaimer with the original link. Avoid publishing multiple versions of the same story on the platform.

Prohibited Conduct

The following are not suitable for our platform, if found will be immediately removed:

• Advocate or promote intolerance or prejudice against individuals or groups, including the use of scientific or pseudo-scientific claims to pathologize, dehumanize, or disempower others
• Gratuitously use profanity or excessively graphic language and images for the purposes of shock or incitement
• Glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths
• Exist mainly to target, shame, intimidate, or harass identified, identifiable, or anonymous people
• Dox someone, including by exposing personal information or aggregating of public information
• Review businesses or products in an inflammatory or abusive manner
• Consist of unsubstantiated, unverified, or misleading claims and reporting

Policy Enforcement

Differ reserves the right to review posts or accounts at any time and remove posts or ban accounts if required. In deciding whether something has violated the Rules and Guidelines, we will take into account things like the context, newsworthiness, and nature of the posted information and applicable privacy laws.
Repeated violations of these rules will result in a permanent ban from the platform.

Reporting content

If you see content that you believe violates these rules and guidelines, please drop the post’s link with an appropriate message to hello@plainenglish.io for review.