Community Guidelines
Effective: July 21, 2025
Last Updated: September 18, 2026
Okidoke is built to be a kind, welcoming, social, and encouraging chess community.
These Guidelines explain how we expect people to treat one another and what is not permitted on Okidoke. They apply across profiles, messages, tables, rooms, posts, comments, Connections, and other social features.
Our Community Guidelines form part of the Okidoke Terms of Service.
1. Treat people well
You may disagree. You may compete hard. You may joke, kibitz, celebrate, complain about your own position, and have a personality.
You may not abuse other people.
Do not:
harass, threaten, intimidate, or bully another user;
direct insults, slurs, degrading language, or abusive personal attacks at another person;
target someone repeatedly after they have asked you to stop;
encourage others to harass or attack someone;
make credible threats of violence or harm;
celebrate or encourage serious harm against another person; or
use Okidoke primarily to provoke, humiliate, or distress others.
Okidoke has zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users.
Serious abuse may result in immediate suspension or a permanent ban.
2. No hate or dehumanizing conduct
Do not attack, demean, threaten, or dehumanize people based on protected characteristics such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or similar protected status.
Hate speech, hateful slurs, and advocacy of violence or exclusion against protected groups are not permitted.
3. Respect boundaries
Do not pressure people into conversations, relationships, sexual interactions, sharing personal information, or continued contact.
If someone does not want to interact with you, respect that.
Do not repeatedly contact someone from another account after they have blocked you, ended contact, or otherwise made clear that they do not want further communication.
Additional rules apply to users of Connections. See our Connections Guidelines.
4. No sexual exploitation or inappropriate sexual content
Do not use Okidoke to distribute sexual content involving minors, exploitative sexual material, non-consensual intimate imagery, or content intended to sexually harass another person.
Do not solicit sexual content from minors.
Sexual pressure, coercion, or unwanted sexual behavior toward another user is prohibited.
5. Do not impersonate people
Do not impersonate another person, falsely claim to represent another person or organization, or deliberately mislead users about your identity in a way that could cause harm or facilitate abuse or fraud.
Parody or fictional identities must not be used deceptively.
6. Protect privacy
Do not publish or distribute another person’s private information without permission.
This includes information such as:
home addresses;
private phone numbers or email addresses;
financial or identity documents;
private messages or intimate material shared in confidence;
precise location information; or
other sensitive personal information.
Do not threaten to expose private information in order to intimidate or control another person.
7. No scams, fraud, or spam
Do not use Okidoke to:
scam or defraud other users;
solicit money through deception;
distribute phishing links or malware;
send repetitive or unwanted promotional messages;
artificially manipulate follows, engagement, ratings, or other platform systems; or
coordinate fraudulent activity.
8. Keep unlawful and dangerous activity off Okidoke
Do not use Okidoke to organize, facilitate, or promote serious unlawful conduct.
Do not use the platform to make credible threats, coordinate violence, exploit people, or distribute material that is illegal to possess or share.
We may report matters to appropriate authorities where required by law or where we reasonably believe there is an immediate risk of serious harm.
9. Fair Play is separate and mandatory
Chess integrity is governed by our Fair Play Policy.
Cheating, prohibited assistance, rating manipulation, deliberate sandbagging, and other Fair Play violations are handled under that policy.
A user may violate both the Community Guidelines and Fair Play Policy at the same time.
10. Doke-AI and automated features
Doke-AI characters are part of Okidoke and are subject to the same platform rules.
Do not use AI features to harass other people, generate prohibited content, evade moderation, facilitate cheating, or otherwise break these Guidelines.
AI assistance during human-versus-human games is governed by the Fair Play Policy.
11. Reporting and blocking
If someone is behaving abusively or violating these Guidelines, you can report them using Okidoke’s reporting tools.
You may also block users where blocking is available.
Reports may include relevant recent activity and communications necessary for us to understand what happened.
Submitting a report does not guarantee a particular enforcement outcome. We review reports in context and may consider account history, severity, repetition, available evidence, and other relevant information.
Knowingly submitting false or malicious reports may itself violate these Guidelines.
12. Enforcement
Depending on the severity and circumstances of a violation, Okidoke may take one or more of the following actions:
issue a warning;
remove content;
restrict particular features;
restrict communication privileges;
suspend an account;
permanently ban an account; or
prevent a banned user from creating or accessing additional accounts.
Some violations may result in immediate suspension or banning without a prior warning.
Repeated lower-level violations may also result in stronger enforcement.
Attempts to evade enforcement through alternate accounts may lead to those accounts being restricted or banned as well.
13. Context matters
We review conduct in context.
Not every disagreement, joke, criticism, or unpleasant interaction is abuse. At the same time, language that might appear minor in isolation may become abusive when it is repeated, targeted, threatening, discriminatory, sexually coercive, or part of a broader pattern.
We may consider the full context available to us when enforcing these Guidelines.
14. Changes to these Guidelines
We may update these Guidelines as Okidoke evolves.
Material changes may be communicated through the app, website, email, or other appropriate means.
Your continued use of Okidoke after updated Guidelines become effective is subject to the Terms of Service.
15. Contact
Safety and conduct concerns may be directed to:
Moderation appeals may be directed to:
For general questions:
For information about how we handle personal information, see our Privacy Policy.
For chess integrity rules, see our Fair Play Policy.
For Connections-specific conduct rules, see our Connections Guidelines.