Community Guidelines

Unknown Tales is a collaborative fiction platform. Every chapter is part of a shared story tree that other writers can continue. These guidelines explain what makes a good contribution, what is never acceptable, and how we handle content that breaks the rules.

1. The spirit of the platform

Unknown Tales exists to let readers become authors. The best contributions are creative, generous to future writers, and respectful of the readers who follow the story. When you write a chapter or a path, ask yourself: does this open up new possibilities for the story, or does it close them down? Does it add something worth reading?

Every chapter you write will be the foundation someone else builds on. Write as if you care about the reader sitting at the end of your branch.

2. What is welcome

• Fiction of any genre — adventure, horror, comedy, mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and more.
• Dark or morally complex themes handled with craft and intention (villains, tragedy, moral ambiguity).
• Stories that challenge the reader — provided the challenge serves the narrative.
• Divergent continuations that take a story in a direction the previous author did not anticipate. That is the mechanic.

3. What is never acceptable

The following content will be removed and may result in account suspension or permanent ban, regardless of fictional framing:

Child safety

• Any content that sexualises, exploits, or endangers minors. This is an absolute rule with no exceptions.
• Stories that glamourise, normalise, or instruct in the abuse of children.

Illegal content

• Content that is unlawful under English law or constitutes a criminal offence in the user's own jurisdiction.
• Content that promotes, facilitates, or glorifies terrorism or mass violence.
• Content that constitutes incitement to hatred on the basis of a protected characteristic.

Harassment and abuse

• Targeted harassment of a specific person, whether a user of this platform or anyone else.
• Hate speech directed at individuals or groups on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics.
• Doxxing — revealing or implying the real identity, location, or personal details of a private individual, even when disguised as fiction (“a character who happens to share your address” is still doxxing).
• Impersonating another person or organisation in a way that is misleading or harmful.

Spam and platform abuse

• Branches written to advertise a product, service, or external site.
• Repetitive low-quality content intended to flood the story tree.
• Content designed to manipulate the platform rather than contribute to a story.

4. AI-assisted writing

Unknown Tales is for human-authored collaborative fiction. We do not object to using AI as a tool in the early stages of your process: brainstorming ideas, testing prompts, outlining possibilities, or getting light feedback on your own draft are all fine.

What you may not do is submit prose that was substantially or wholly written by a model and present it as your own chapter or path text, or upload an AI-generated image as a story icon. The final published writing must be the result of human authorship, and story icons must be human-made images. If a machine produced the creative work, it does not belong on this platform.

We may remove content that appears to breach this rule, ask you for clarification about how a chapter was written, and suspend or ban repeat offenders. Read our AI Policy for the full position and moderation approach.

5. Copyright

Only submit content you have the right to publish. Do not copy significant portions of copyrighted text — books, lyrics, scripts — without a licence to do so. Fan fiction is generally fine as transformative creative work; wholesale transcription is not.

All content you submit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. See our Content Licence page for the full picture.

6. Age and mature content

Unknown Tales is open to users aged 13 and over. The platform does not currently support a mature-content toggle or age-verification gate. Until such a feature exists, please write for a general audience: strong themes are fine; explicit sexual content is not.

7. Moderation

We review reports and take action when content breaches these guidelines or our Terms of Use. Actions we may take include:

• Removing a specific chapter or path.
• Issuing a warning to the author.
• Suspending or permanently banning an account.

We aim to notify affected users of moderation decisions where practicable. We are not obliged to do so, and we reserve the right to act without notice where a risk of harm requires it.

8. How to report content

If you believe a chapter or path violates these guidelines, email daniel@unknowntales.net with the URL of the content and a brief description of the concern. We will review all reports and respond within a reasonable time.

For copyright complaints specifically, please see our Notice-and-Takedown Policy.

9. Appeals

If your content was removed or your account was actioned and you believe this was a mistake, email us at daniel@unknowntales.net with “Appeal” in the subject line. We will review the decision and reply within 14 days.

10. Changes to these guidelines

We may update these guidelines as the platform grows. Material changes will be communicated to registered users by email at least 14 days before they take effect.