Content Guidelines

Animals.com com welcomes contributors to create links and discussion questions that inspire a greater appreciation for animals and our shared ecosystem, and that empower people to live more animals-friendly lives, whatever they decide that means based on informed and respectful discussion.

Please consider the following when you are contributing new links or discussion questions:

• Animals.com is striving to create a lively but polite and balanced discussion of many issues and topics, some of which generate heated debate. Different perspectives are welcome, but inflammatory content is not.
• While this site is not for kids when it comes to contributing content and participating in discussions, kids are curious about animals (a very good thing), and a lot of them come to Animals.com looking for information and photos. We want content that is safe for kids, even if it's over their heads. So please, leave the profane punctuations out of your post, however wimpy they may be.
• By submitting content to Animals.com, you are subjecting it to any commentary that's in line with our commenting guidelines. You cannot delete comments you do not like, though you may flag for review any comments that you think violate the guidelines.
• Links are for sharing information, news, videos or photographs that add to the discussion about what it means to be animals-friendly, motivate users to do something along those lies, or inspire a greater appreciation of animals.
• Linking to events or announcements about your own activities or otherwise plugging yourself is fine as long as you are genuinely participating on the site and not using it simply for advertising.
• You should make your content contributions original and meaningful. Avoid cutting and pasting titles and large sections of text. If you are creating a link, tell people why you would recommend they look at it or why you think it's significant.
• Discussion questions should help to frame the debate around a particular issue in terms of what people can do about it and why. We will generally edit them carefully, whereas links we do not.

Animals.com reserves the right reject content for any reason. We also understand the importance of transparency and fairness, and are working on ways to make the criteria we use to judge content as open as possible. Animals.com is also building an Advisory Board to help hone our editorial policies and decide when and if questionable comments or content should be published. We are seeking for a balance in interests and perspective on this board. If you would like to participate on our Advisory Board, please write to us using this feedback form.

Questions? Comments? Let us know!