VodPod Community & Collection Guidelines

We strongly encourage you to take a look at our Member Agreement and our Privacy Policy, as those each represent the definitive set of guidelines that govern your use of the VodPod service.

These Community & Collection Guidelines repeat many of the things we say in those two documents, but we've tried to make sure they say it in language we can all understand.

VodPod is of, for and by people. Show respect others, their contributions to the service, and be polite in your interactions. If can't help yourself and you're feeling the urge to be a jerk, go elsewhere.

We want VodPod to be a place that anybody can enjoy. Your Collection is a place for you to amuse, inspire and educate your friends, family and community. Please be sure to follow these guidelines as you build out your collection:

  • Use your judgment and moderate your collection as appropriate (you can mark Collection as "Mature" or "Private"). If you would hesitate to show the videos in your Collection to your mom, your elderly neighbor, or your 13 year-old niece, please mark your Collection as "Private" so that only the people you invite see it.
  • You may NOT include videos that show full frontal nudity, sexual activity or "intimate moments" between consenting partners in any Collection. Period. If you're interested in building a collection of pornographic videos, you've come to the wrong place.
  • You may NOT include videos that contain gore, blood, injuries, or gratuitous or graphic violence.
  • You may NOT include videos that promote hate or discrimination against other people.
  • You may NOT include any videos that are illegal. If you do, your account will be deleted and we'll take appropriate action that may include reporting you to the authorities.
  • Watch your language - don't use obscenities in your username, your Collection title, your video captions, your discussions and reviews, etc.
  • Don't SPAM or harass other members. That includes:
    • Repeated requests to people you don't know to visit your Collection.
    • Marketing messages for your non-VodPod websites and businesses.

Respect the creative works of other people, and their intellectual property.

  • Don't upload video to VodPod for which you do not have the rights, or where you do not have permission of the rights' owner(s). It's disrespectful and potentially illegal.
  • If you download video for your iPod or PSP or computer or television, remember that you're getting a copy for your personal use only.
  • Don't put content you've downloaded up on a file sharing network or send it to all your friends. It isn't stealing from the Man, and it isn't cool. You're taking money out of the pocket of a fellow member who depends on your support and trust to earn a living.
  • Don't abuse the VodPod system. The limits and rules of the VodPod functionality are there for a reason -- mainly, to provide a way for members who upload their videos to earn a living from their craft, if they choose to do so. When you cheat on your membership limits or create multiple VodPod accounts you're cheating your fellow members who have contributed their video programming. And,you're making it harder for VodPod to continue to offer free VodPod accounts to everyone.
  • We've made it easy to add videos from other Collections, or from sites like YouTube and Google Video that permit embedding of their videos. But please don't fill up your Collection with videos that don't even relate to the theme or topic of your Collection.

Guidelines for Great Collections

  • VodPod allows you to build your Collection with your own video, or you can add video from other Collections, or even videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video (that support embeddable players). Have fun and be creative, build interesting and great Collections.
  • Collections are meant to be about a specific topic or theme. Be creative about what the theme or topic is, but then stick to it. Your Collection will be better.
  • Spread the word about your collection. Let other online communities with interests related to your collection know about it, and invite them to participate.
  • Collections are usually public. But if you want to limit the audience for your collection, or prevent people from seeing your collection of videos, make it private. This option might be especially useful if you're building a collection of personal or family videos. If you make a private collection, only people you invite will be able to access it.
  • VodPod's an Internet service, and trolls may visit your collection. Trolls are those unfortunate souls who think a keyboard, monitor and Internet access give them the right to share their lack of grace with the rest of us. If you're having a problem with trolls on your collection, let us know. We'll be adding more automatic and direct ways to deal with this in the coming months.
  • Visit our forums, where we'll share what we're learning about how to build and maintain great collections.

Most of all, have fun and enjoy the service and your interactions with other members.

If you come across someone who is violating these guidelines, please inform the VodPod team and we will look into it as soon as possible.