1.1Violence, suicide & serious crimes

1. Encouraging, glorifying, or calling for violence against any individual or group (including animals) is prohibited. Inciting violence based on identity or vulnerability, threatening any user, or justifying rape, death, or similar crimes against any person - offline or online - is treated as a severe violation.
2. Promotion of suicide or self-harm, or jokes around such matters, is not permitted.
3. Jokes involving serious crimes (assault, death, etc.), or inappropriate comments on minors, are not permitted.
4. Content that mocks or makes light of pedophilia, CSA, or similarly heinous criminal acts - directly or indirectly, including memes referencing public figures accused of such acts where the joke is unrelated to their professional work - falls under this rule.

1.2Inclusivity & hateful conduct

Diversity and inclusion are core community standards. Harassment, exclusion, microaggressions, or invalidating someone’s identity (including gender identity and sexual orientation) are treated as severe violations.

1. Hate speech, hate mongering, and hateful imagery are prohibited.
2. Negative stereotyping, bigotry, slurs, or prejudiced comments based on race, ethnicity, place of birth, language, state, country, gender, sexual orientation, religion, caste, or physical appearance are prohibited.
3. Coded language or dog-whistling targeting anyone is prohibited.
4. Disparaging jokes about sexual orientation, gender, or sex are held to a stricter standard than other jokes: content that is even mildly offensive on these grounds can result in a lengthy timeout or a ban, regardless of intent. Not understanding why a joke landed badly is not a defense - see Rule 9 for how to raise a disagreement with a moderation call.
5. Do not mock any religious figure, particularly to troll. This does not extend to modern-day public figures who claim godhood.

1.3Remember the human. Be polite.

Read the Reddiquette and try to keep your content positive - the same standard of courtesy applies on Discord.

1. Respect fellow users and treat them with dignity and empathy. Don't be unnecessarily rude, hostile, or impolite.
2. Do not abuse other users - harmful tropes, personal attacks, name-calling, shill allegations, and ad-hominem attacks are all prohibited regardless of context. Do not dehumanise or degrade anyone.
3. You don't need to retaliate when people abuse you. Report rule-violating content instead of engaging with it - "they started it" is not a valid excuse.

1.4Harassment & bullying

Harassment and bullying are strictly prohibited. Do not behave in a creepy or predatory manner towards other users. Overtly predatory or creepy DMs require no prior warning and are met with an immediate ban; other unsolicited contact constitutes harassment once it persists after being asked to stop.

2.1Respect the community environment

Maintain a healthy environment. Content that seems detrimental to the health of r/CBSE may be removed at moderator discretion (severity determines whether this is a removal-only action or escalates further, per the enforcement section above).

1. Do not submit anything that discourages people from expressing themselves or diminishes the value of conversation.
2. Do not submit propaganda.
3. Stick to the discussion at hand - do not derail conversations with off-topic comments.
4. Do not attempt to farm karma.

2.2Content manipulation

1. Vote manipulation and ban evasion are prohibited. Submissions from an account found to be evading a ban will be removed and the account may be banned again; to request reinstatement of the original account instead, contact the moderators with your original username.
2. Impersonation, or use of any deceptive identity, is prohibited. This does not cover parody accounts or impersonation of fictional identities.
3. Calls for brigading or witch-hunting are prohibited. This cuts both ways: if a group of r/CBSE users is found to have raided or caused disruption in another subreddit or Discord server, everyone involved is susceptible to a ban here too, regardless of where the raid took place.
4. Circumventing AutoModerator is prohibited - this includes posting modified versions of words that violate the filter, and sending screenshots of deleted messages. Screenshots are allowed only when the message was harmless and the removal was a false flag.

2.3Spam & trolling

1. Inflammatory, baiting, or provocative content may be removed depending on intensity.
2. Do not flood the community by link-dumping or posting in rapid succession. r/CBSE may place time limits on posting; low-effort or low-quality posts may also be removed regardless of frequency. Excessive emoji or GIF posting on Discord may fall under this rule.
3. Malicious links (especially bot-posted ones) or attempts to create fake engagement are prohibited and will be removed.
4. Trolling is prohibited.

2.4Real-life disruption

What is online should remain online. Do not submit content that may cause actual disruption (e.g. organising a protest or inviting people to an event through the community). Users engaging in such activity face immediate bans.

2.5No CFBR

"Commenting for better reach" threads will be purged, with a strike issued to the poster.

3.1Relevance

1. Restrictions on topic are loose, but all submissions should be relevant to academia or schooling. This is a guideline more than a hard rule, and may only be occasionally enforced depending on content.
2. On Discord, use the appropriate channel for the topic. This is loosely enforced, but users are expected to cooperate when a moderator asks them to move to a specific channel.

3.2Quality - don't shitpost

1. Self-posts and media must be descriptive enough, and not of poor quality. Random videos with little to no explanation, or text posts of only two or three words, are examples of unacceptable posts and will be removed.
2. All posts should make a meaningful contribution to r/CBSE.

3.3Reposts

Search or sort by new before posting to check whether your topic is already being discussed.

1. Reposts of already-posted links, or another link containing the same information, will be removed - between the original and the repost, moderators keep whichever has the most engagement, defaulting to the older post in a tie.
2. Reddit or network glitches sometimes create duplicate posts and comments; only one will be kept.
3. If there are multiple posts on the same topic and one has new information, use the comments of the original post instead of a new one - though new links may or may not be removed depending on how much new information is added. Contact moderators to request a megathread for a constantly updating topic. Exceptions may be granted for major topics affecting a large number of people.

3.4Old content

Do not mislead people with old notices or outdated information.

3.5Trends

r/CBSE occasionally allows "trends" - posts unrelated to CBSE that multiple people make - because they keep the community engaging, but they become redundant after a few days. Trends are inherently limited and expire: once one has run its course, or starts crowding out real CBSE discussion, it's no longer welcome, whether or not a moderator has formally called it out.

4.1PII, intimate & illegal media

1. Doxxing is strictly prohibited. PII (personally identifiable or confidential information) includes unique/full name, location, email/phone, passwords, social media handles, or any data that can identify a specific person, and requires their consent to share. Public figures are an exception for information related to their public role or conduct. Private identifiers (home address, phone, family details, government or exam IDs, account credentials) still require consent.
2. Posting intimate media (pictures, videos, etc.) without consent is strictly prohibited. This is enforced especially strictly where minors are involved, and anyone submitting such content will be banned and reported immediately.
3. Posting or participating in transactions related to illegal content, such as drugs, is not allowed and may be removed. This does not cover discussion of topics involving illegal content.
4. Pirated content is not allowed. This includes links to pirated books, courses or other material, and to Telegram or WhatsApp groups and drives that share it.

4.2Explicit or discomfiting media

This rule covers all adult content, as well as graphically disturbing media such as hard violence.

1. No pornographic submissions, or any other arousing or fictional NSFW content such as erotica, regardless of medium. This is strictly prohibited, and users may be temporarily banned or warned depending on intensity.
2. Sharing sexual fantasies or fetishes, in any form, is not permitted - this applies even where everyone participating in a conversation is comfortable with it. The purpose of this community is academic and social support, not a space for that kind of content.
3. Content involving extreme gore must be blurred, and may be removed in some cases. Mark all other NSFW or NSFL content. This is handled at moderator discretion, with the community's general age group kept in mind.
4. Casual discussion of adult topics is allowed at moderator discretion; content that's extremely inappropriate is more likely to be removed.
5. Accounts that participate in NSFW subreddits (posting, commenting, or subscribing) are not allowed on r/CBSE, to keep this a safe space for students. Such accounts are permanently banned; use a separate account for NSFW communities.

4.3Self-promotion & selling

All promotion - advertisements, surveys, self-promotion of paid or free products/services, etc. - must be verified beforehand through ModMail. Unverified promotional content will be removed immediately; posting it again after a decline results in stricter action.

LLM-generated or boilerplate-templated sites, tools, and apps are not allowed, whether posted directly or framed as a helpful resource. This covers AI-written content, AI-generated answers served through a wrapper UI, and generic SaaS-template landing pages built around an AI product, disclosed or not. ModMail approval does not override this.

Buying, selling and trading books, study materials, courses and similar products is not allowed.

4.4Fundraisers & surveys

Send a ModMail and get approval before posting either of the following:

1. Fundraisers, especially those involving third-party payment methods or crowdfunding apps. All fundraisers need approval through ModMail; those for health conditions get a lighter check, but must still provide clear, verifiable information.
2. Surveys, or any links requesting user data, must be verified in advance or will be removed.

4.5Political or religious discussion

1. Discussion of mainstream politics, religious politics, gender politics, or other inflammatory political topics that are detrimental to community health is closely monitored, since these tend to spark unhealthy conflict, and will mostly be removed. It's approved only in exceptional cases, where the discussion stays healthy.
2. Discussion of politics as it relates to syllabus content is handled at moderator discretion, depending on the value it adds to r/CBSE.
3. Casual references to organised religion (e.g. "May [X] bless you for this exam") are allowed, but a thread will be locked if it turns into a religious debate. Casual comments about festivals are fine.
4. Reservation-related posts are not allowed.

5.1Language policy

All languages spoken in India are allowed on r/CBSE. Users are asked to cooperate with anyone who doesn't understand their language by offering translations - this is mandatory if a moderator asks for one.

6.1Titling rules

Your title must accurately and completely describe what your post is about. This applies to all post types - for a help post, "Help Needed" is not an acceptable title; mention the subject, the chapter, and basic details of the question instead.

6.2Flair & roles

Users are encouraged to use Reddit's user flairs. On Discord, users must not larp in identity roles - for class and pronoun roles, select only the ones that genuinely fit you.

7.1Meta content

A meta post is a self-referential post about the community, its users, or its operation. Meta-drama includes posts about being banned, or discussion of moderators or moderation policy.

1. Slight meta references to r/CBSE are allowed.
2. Feedback for r/CBSE should be sent only via ModMail or monthly meta threads; posts or messages raising it elsewhere may be removed.
3. Discussion of, or self-referential posts about, past incidents or happenings that are likely to reopen a conflict - because they're opinionated or otherwise inflammatory - is prohibited. Users may face consequences for starting or engaging in this kind of discussion, depending on the severity of the topic.
4. Anti-brigading: when linking to a post from another subreddit for any reason, use NP or non-participation links; replace www.reddit.com with np.reddit.com.
5. Personal attacks or grudge-driven callouts aimed at moderators or community executives are prohibited, at moderator discretion - even where the user has a genuine personal grievance. Disagree with a moderation call through the appeal process (Rule 9); going after the person who made it, rather than the decision, is treated as harassment under this rule regardless of how justified the grudge feels.
6. Community branding & announcements: Community iconography, server icons, profile pictures, banners, and announcements represent the core values and editorial discretion of r/CBSE. Bad-faith questioning, complaining, trolling, or instigating debates regarding server themes, branding, or awareness and solidarity announcements is prohibited and will be removed immediately without discussion.

7.2Other social media content

Content from other social media - Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Quora, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, etc. - is handled at moderator discretion.

8.1Fact-check claims before submitting

Before posting news, circulars, exam dates, syllabus changes, or official updates, verify them via official CBSE portals (cbse.gov.in) or accredited news publications. Do not share unsubstantiated rumors or unverified hearsay that create confusion or academic panic.

8.2Back up claims with valid data, and cite a source for all media

Submissions claiming changes to grading criteria, paper leaks, datesheet releases, or exam cancellations must include direct links to verifiable official sources. Screenshots of circulars or notices must clearly display official signatures, circular numbers, and dates. Unverified or doctored media will be removed promptly.