GuitarSipra site rules and community guidelines
Here at GuitarSipra, we value your thoughts and opinions. We encourage you to comment on every tab and shot you check out and every article you read. An honest comment and a fair rating can be very helpful to authors and other users. Remember, there are real human beings with real feelings behind most of the posts on GuitarSipra so please try to stay friendly and amicable with each other. Just because this is an online community, doesn’t mean that you can treat anyone less decently than you would in face to face interactions.

General rules
Forum and moderation an guidelines
News, reviews and lessons guidelines
Tab Authors community and moderation guidelines
Shots community and moderation guidelines
General rules
Prohibited content on GuitarSipra
Content intended or likely to cause harm are not allowed, including but not limited to:

Illegal
Pornography
Violent or encourage violence
Personal or confidential information
Spam
Advertisement of any product
Learn more about Prohibited content.

Toxic behavior
It’s prohibited to post or message offensive content, including but not limited to:

Personal attacks
Harassment
Racism
Sexism
Hateful speech
Vulgar or pornographic images
Learn more about Toxic behavior.

*Hate speech
Hate speech is not allowed on UG. We remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on any of the following attributes (but not limited to):

Age
Caste
Disability
Ethnicity
Gender Identity and Expression
Nationality
Race
Religion
Political views
Sex/Gender
Sexual Orientation
Posting content or comments against individuals or groups based on any of the attributes noted above is not allowed on UG.

One account per user
Each person is only allowed to have one account on GuitarSipra. If you have unknowingly made multiple accounts in the past or you are aware that someone else using the same IP address has an GuitarSipra account or is planning on making one, PM a moderator.

Escalation of enforcement
Moderators and administrators are doing their best to communicate and enforce rules, as well as have the final say in interpretation and enactment of site rules. There are variety of ways to pursue justice including, but not limited to:

Removal or closing thread/posts
Asking you to calm down
Asking to be nice by sending a comment
Giving a warning if you didn’t understand a harmless comment
Giving you a ban (temporary or permanent) depending on a rule you broke
Removal of privileges from an account
Removal of content
Please note, two active warnings give you a temporary (60 days) ban.

Forum guidelines
Each subforum is its own community, so some places you post might be more or less strict about things like being on-topic. Check out the subforum rules or read some of the discussions going on there to get an idea of what’s good before you post.

Retaliation or responding to flaming or insults are not an acceptable excuse for failing to follow the rules; report bad threads/posts and move on.

English is the primary language on this forum. Please avoid using other languages. If you must post in another language, please provide translations so other users can understand your post.

News, reviews and lessons guidelines
Do not complain about the article contents, the title of the article or the author. Doing so in the comments section is neither constructive nor helpful. If you have a suggestion for the site or would like to provide feedback about the content on UG, there are appropriate channels in the UG Forums to do so.

Insults towards bands, artists and genres are considered “bashing” and is not allowed. “This band sucks!” is an example of bashing and will not be tolerated. “I do not like this band because…” is acceptable and the correct way to express your opinion.

Comments in the articles section
Here at GuitarSipra.com, we value your thoughts and opinions. We encourage you to comment on every article you read and every video you watch. An honest comment and a fair rating can be very helpful to writers and other users. Put simply, a good comment can easily make someone’s day.

And here at UG we are against both abuse and misuse of this system. New writers should be encouraged to improve, but angry comments easily discourage them from writing altogether. In the same vein, insulting bands and users promotes hostility in the columns, thus discouraging readers from sharing their opinions. As such, the following areas of the site are carefully moderated:

News
Reviews
Lessons
Tabs
The team that moderate these areas are called Column Cleaners.

The following is a list of rules that ALL users must abide by when posting in ANY comments section. Please be advised that, depending on the severity of the infraction, rule-breaking comments may be met with (1) a deletion, (2) a warning, or (3) a banning.

1. NO SPAM

Keep your comments relevant to the topic. Do not contribute meaningless or irrelevant comments. This includes, but is not limited to, position comments, whether you care about the article or not, “Tl;dr”s and so on.
Pornographic or gore links ARE NOT ALLOWED. Users who post these will be banned immediately.
No advertising. Promoting your own or some other website is not allowed and will result in a warning. It is also asked that you DO NOT QUOTE OR REPLY TO THE ADVERTISING SPAM.
Do not complain about the article contents, the title of the article or the author. Doing so in the comments section is neither constructive nor helpful. If you have a suggestion for the site or would like to provide feedback about the content on UG, there are appropriate channels in the UG Forums to do so.
2. NO TOXIC BEHAVIOUR

Racist, homophobic, sexist, any form of hate against others and general vulgar comments will not be tolerated.
3. NO FLAMING OR BAND/ARTIST/GENRE BASHING

Personal attacks and insults are strongly discouraged on GuitarSipra. There is to be NO flaming towards the authors on this site, members of the GuitarSipra team or your fellow users. Debate and discussion is welcome between users – just keep it clean.
If there is some criticism you would like to give or if you have a problem with an individual, do it appropriately and respectfully. Explain your issue or critique and do not resort to name calling.
Insults towards bands, artists and genres are considered “bashing” and is not allowed. “This band sucks!” is an example of bashing and will not be tolerated. “I do not like this band because…” is acceptable and the correct way to express your opinion.
4. NO TROLLING

Trolling is the act of posting something designed purely to incite negative reactions. Such comments do not belong anywhere in the comments section.
Do not feed or quote the troll. Just ignore it and move on. Responding or arguing with the troll will only make things worse.
These rules are subject to change without prior notice or warning. It is best to point out that each individual punishment is determined by the Column Cleaner giving it out. Stay on topic and follow these rules and you should be fine.

Tab authors community guidelines
We want tab ratings to represent tab quality as well as it’s possible so we pay close attention to the rating process.

It’s forbidden to:

Register additional accounts and rate tabs from them
Ask other users to vote for your tabs
Be honest, make quality tabs that follow the GuitarSipra Tablature Guide and they will sure be rated well.

For in-depth info on tab authors community and moderation guidelines, please check out these articles: GuitarSipra Tablature Guide and GuitarSipra Approval Guide.

Shots community and moderation guidelines
Prohibited content
Shots are aimed to demonstrate your guitar skills. It’s a great platform to be creative. It offers an opportunity to perform your favorite song to millions of music fans around the globe.

Learn more about opportunities in shots here.

However, content that is intended or likely to cause harm is not allowed.
Including but not limited to:

Illegal
Pornography
Violent or encourage violence
Personal or confidential information
Spam
Advertisement of any product
Learn more about Prohibited content.
GuitarSipra is NOT the place to post, share, or promote any of the following, including:

1. HARMFUL OR DANGEROUS OR ILLEGAL CONTENT

When you use UG you are joining a global community of musicians. Don’t post or share content that could harm other users or encourage them to harm themselves – whether through physical, emotional, financial, or legal harm.
2. GRAPHIC OR SHOCKING CONTENT

UG is not the place for graphic, violent, shocking, or sensational content.
3. DISCRIMINATION, HATE SPEECH, HARASSMENT OR CYBERBULLYING

UG is an inclusive community. It is not ok to attack or incite violence against other users. Please keep your interactions civil and treat all users with respect.
4. NUDITY OR SEXUAL ACTIVITY

UG is not the place for sexually explicit content or content intended for sexual gratification. If it isn’t something suitable to be done or shown in public view, don’t post it.
5. IMPERSONATION, SPAM, SCAMS, OR OTHER MISLEADING CONTENT

UG values high-quality, engaging content. Content that is spammy, fake, fraudulent, or misleading is prohibited will be removed.
6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

UG is not a place to post, share, or send any content that violates someone else’s copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights.
Any activity by any member of the GuitarSipra community that harms, defrauds, or misleads other users or harms our community will be considered a violation of our Community Guidelines and may result in your content and/or account being removed. If you see content that you believe violates any of the Community Guidelines, please report it so we can review and take appropriate action. If you have further concerns, please contact [email protected]

Comments in the shots section
Here at GuitarSipra.com, we value your opinions and encourage you to comment on every shot you watch. An honest comment, supportive or with constructive criticism, can be very helpful for artists. Put simply, a good comment can easily make someone’s day.

But posting comments against the following rules is not allowed:

1. NO SPAM

Pornographic or gore links ARE NOT ALLOWED. Users who post these will be banned immediately.
No advertising. Promoting your own or some other website is not allowed and will result in a warning. It is also asked that you DO NOT QUOTE OR REPLY TO THE ADVERTISING SPAM.
2. NO TOXIC BEHAVIOUR

Racist, homophobic, sexist, any form of hate against others and general vulgar comments will not be tolerated.
Commenting with flirting/sexual contest is not allowed
Negative commenting on someone else’s look, face, etc is not allowed
3. NO FLAMING OR BASHING

Personal attacks and insults are strongly discouraged on GuitarSipra. There is to be NO flaming towards the authors on this site, members of the GuitarSipra team or your fellow users. Debate and discussion is welcome between users – just keep it clean.
If there is some criticism you would like to give or if you have a problem with an individual, do it appropriately and respectfully. Explain your issue or critique and do not resort to name calling.
4. NO TROLLING

Trolling is the act of posting something designed purely to incite negative reactions. Such comments do not belong anywhere in the comments section.
Do not feed or quote the troll. Just ignore it and move on. Responding or arguing with the troll will only make things worse.
These rules are subject to change without prior notice or warning. It is best to point out that each individual punishment is determined by the moderator giving it out. Stay on topic and follow these rules and you should be fine.
Shots moderation
Posting prohibited content is a bannable offense here on UG.

Therefore, we have a special moderation process to avoid prohibited content in Shots.

If your video was marked by our algorithm as potentially unacceptable, it will be automatically queued for moderators review. The reviewing process can take from several minutes to 48 hours, depending on the total number of uploaded shots, day of the week, and other factors.

If your shot falls into the moderation queue, you will be informed about it. While your shot remains in moderation mode, you have an option to save it to your camera roll or delete it.

If your shot somehow ended up in the moderation queue while it doesn’t offer any prohibited content, there’s no reason to worry. As soon as the shot passes moderation by our team, it will appear in your profile and in the general shots feed. While we understand it may cause inconvenience at times, this algorithm prevents millions of users from seeing NSFW content in shots. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Non-musical content in shots
UG and shots in particular is a place for expressing yourself. But unlike other platforms it focuses on musicians and music. This is why most of your content has to be music related with you playing instruments, singing, or reviewing gear or music albums. Note that the UG moderators reserve the right to remove non-musical shots if they receive reports from the UG community.

Prohibited non-musical videos include the following:

Nudity or sexual activity
Advertisement of any product
Spam
Discrimination, hate speech, harassment or cyberbullying
Impersonation, spam, scams, or other misleading content
Non musical memes and jokes (especially created by someone else)
Videos that contain other people’s intellectual property (music, video, images)