Rules

Odyssey is an open social platform that allows for the creation, discovery and amplification of content, giving people the opportunity to share what’s most important to them and their communities, amplifying unique perspectives and moving conversations forward. We encourage all Odyssey users to share their perspectives on a range of topics to cultivate a digital space where people can share their voice.

Due to the diverse views represented on our platform, some disagreements, debates and disputes are inevitable. However, in all cases, we expect our users to treat each other with respect—our aim is to fuel conversations and forge connections, but never to misinform or discourage dialogue.

Odyssey features communities overseen both by editors as well as individual users who post content to our site. Therefore, not everything is seen, edited and approved by our internal team before being posted. True to our open platform format, we always look to our greater Odyssey community to weigh in. That’s where you come in.

Being an open space for people to freely express their thoughts, we believe in the power of a great comeback. Whenever disagreement arises, we want to empower individuals to enter the conversation with a response, rather than dismissing ideas with censorship.

We have guidelines (featured below), that help Odyssey determine when a post is unfit to be posted on our platform. If you find an article that violates one of our guidelines, please let us know by emailing us at edithelp@theodysseyonline.com

The Rules

Plagiarism and Copyright

We do not permit plagiarism of any kind. If you believe an article has been copied from another source, please report it here. We will pull the article down, review the case and report back our findings.

Hate speech

Hate speech is any speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits, and is unacceptable in any capacity. Odyssey reserves the right to request edits to any piece of content that may include hate speech, as well the ability to remove the piece from the site.

Harassment

Odyssey does not permit articles that harass, shame or threaten individuals and/or groups, or would encourage others to do so after reading. These include but are not limited to:

Posting any personal images taken or posted without the owner’s express consent
Bullying or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so
Using responses, in a way intended to annoy or harass someone as opposed to joining the conversation
Using personal information to target, shame, blackmail, harass, intimidate, endanger, etc.
Posting copies of private communications between private individuals without the explicit consent of all parties to the communication

Threats of violence

Content posted should never threaten, encourage or incite violence against anyone, either directly or indirectly. We may remove any users or pieces of content that incite violence in any capacity.

Spam

Posting content promoting another organization or site is allowed in most circumstances. However, we do not allow users to post spam articles on our platform. This may include:

Any content that is a blatant advertisement intended to drive Odyssey’s audience to an external site
Re-posting content, whether from a single Odyssey account or across multiple accounts for personal gain

Graphic content

Do not include any pornographic or sexually explicit images in your article. We do allow erotic writing and suggestive images that are not pornographic or violent.

Self-harm content

Many times our Creators will feature personal experiences with self-harm, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and sexual assault. Our Creators can continue to write on these topics as long as the articles do not encourage or idealize these acts.

Content that encourages or promotes acts of self-harm, (i.e. cutting, eating disorders or suicide) are subject to removal. Steps will be taken with any content pertaining to these issues if a resolution or avenue to receive help is not addressed as the purpose of the post. If you encounter users contemplating or threatening self-harm, please contact us at edithelp@theodysseyonline.com

One of the tenets of Odyssey’s mission is to surround conversations on important topics, so we use the company’s social media pages to amplify a wide range of perspectives. There are several ways content is discovered and posted on Odyssey’s social media pages. Odyssey is a social media platform and the opinions of our creators and readers are what drives our posting decisions, not Odyssey employees’ personal opinions.

Odyssey’s social channels are used to amplify trending and popular content to highlight resonating perspectives and relevant conversations. That said, racism, hate speech, personal bullying, and other prohibited content should never be shared by Odyssey’s social media pages.

How to report a violation

If you find a post or user account on Odyssey that violates these guidelines, you can send an email to edithelp@theodysseyonline.com. Please provide as much detail as possible, and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

If you break the rules

If someone reports that you have broken one of our guidelines, a member of the editorial team may contact you directly to discuss your piece. We reserve the right to ask you to change or delete sections, as well as, without notice, to remove your piece altogether and remove you as a user from the platform.

As our platform grows, we may change these guidelines at any time, so be sure to check back here for current versions as they become available.