Founded in 2002, Daily Kos is independent, reader-funded progressive media rooted in a partisan community. We focus on building power through the Democratic Party by explaining American politics clearly and honestly, sparking effective, collective action.
This is a site and community for progressives. That premise underlies all expectations about posting, commenting, and interacting at Daily Kos. As progressives, we believe that the best way to build our coalition is through the Democratic Party—and we are committed to making it stronger, more effective, more just, and more forward-thinking. We are here to connect, find community, share and refine ideas, discuss and debate strategy, and work toward a common goal of electing more and better Democrats. That commitment does not preclude constructive criticism of Democrats; insisting on accountability is a core democratic principle. Advocacy and criticism alike must aim to strengthen the Democratic coalition, not weaken it. Given our mission, then, these are our only ideological prohibitions:
- Do not advocate for voting against Democrats or not voting at all
- Do not deploy misleading, deceptive, or malicious attacks against Democrats
- Do not promote the right-wing agenda
But of course, participating in our community requires more than ideological alignment. Social media being what it is, we must have and enforce norms for participation here, which comprise our Rules of the Road. These are not the Terms and Conditions required to create a user account. The expectations outlined here are enforced by our system of community moderation (replies, ratings, reports) backstopped by administrative moderation (warnings, suspensions, bans). A more detailed description of this system appears at the bottom of this page.
We expect you to be a good citizen of our community. That means treating other community members with respect, valuing our community’s diversity, committing to factual accuracy, and being generous in both encouragement and disagreement. Participation is expected to be in good faith and with an intent to contribute constructively to discussion.
Debate is central to the site’s identity, yet bear in mind our dictum “fight hard, but fight fair.” Learn from those with whom you disagree, argue issues rather than impugn character, and accept that reasonable people may in the end still disagree, and that’s okay!
Taking all this together, site participation comes down to this simple edict:
Strengthen the Democratic coalition, and don’t be an asshole doing it.
EXAMPLES:
Don’t be an asshole in general:
- Advocating violence or fantasizing harm
- Using dehumanizing rhetoric
- Advocating harmful or dangerous illegal acts
- Using racist, bigoted, or prejudiced speech
- Posting or linking to spam
- Embedding or linking to pornographic content
- Embedding or linking to images graphically depicting violence or death
- Plagiarizing content or violating copyright (text or image)
- Posting or linking to debunked or unverifiable conspiracy theories
- Posting or linking to misinformation or disinformation
- Engaging in coordinated or manipulative behavior intended to distort discussion, ratings, or community norms, whether organized on-site or off-site
Don’t be an asshole to others:
- Attacking, threatening, harassing, or threadstalking any site user
- “Calling out” a site user in a post (naming or targeting a specific user in a way that invites pile-ons, shaming, or retaliation); the single exception to the rule is the site’s founder, Kos.
- Revealing the real-life identity (outing, doxxing) of a site user posting anonymously
- Posting private communications between site users
- Threadjacking
- Ignoring the specific guidelines for participation in thematic non-political community series
- Abusing the mute button
- Publicly accusing a site user of being a dishonest participant (a troll, or sockpuppet, or zombie, or shill, et cetera); the proper forum for all such accusations and evidence is a private message to the Help Desk
- Dismissing, denying, or trivializing the lived experience or identity of other community members, including through bad-faith skepticism, tone-policing, or repeated “just asking questions” framing
Don’t be an asshole to us:
- Creating more than one active account (“sockpuppet”) or creating a new account if banned or suspended (“zombie”)
- Pretending to be someone you’re not, most especially pretending to be an ordinary person if you are in a paid campaign or organizational position
- Using profanity in the title of a post, which can trigger internet filtering software on networks and search engine suppression or delisting, resulting in our site being blocked (this is a technical constraint, not a moral judgment)
- Repeatedly publishing, unpublishing, and republishing a post to game the recommendation system
- Recommending posts or comments violating any of the above
- Abusing the Report buttons for posts or comments
- Abusing the Help Desk
- Posting a dramatic Goodbye Cruel World story proclaiming your aggrieved exit from the site
The above lists are not exhaustive. Site administrators know deleterious behavior when they see it, so fair warning: Do not test the limits.
Also, context and pattern matter. These rules are not a checklist to be gamed. Repeated behavior that undermines productive discussion may be moderated administratively even if no single action, viewed in isolation, violates a specific rule.
Note to authors of posts:
Contributing a post (also known as a story, article, or diary) is a responsibility, not a right. Support factual claims with links to original, credible, and verifiable sources and documentation. Avoid clickbait and deceptive headlines. If commenters raise reasonable questions about your facts or sources, take their concerns seriously. If you find that you made a mistake, edit and correct the post and add a note at the top explaining the correction. If the original source material changes substantially, it is your responsibility to update your post accordingly. If we are obliged to edit or retract your post ourselves, your site permissions may be suspended or revoked.
Note on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI):
AI tools may be used to assist with outlining, editing, formatting, or refining text. Not everyone has access to professional editing support, and tools that help people better express their own writing are consistent with Daily Kos’ commitment to broad participation.
However, content posted to Daily Kos must be meaningfully authored by the user and not generated solely and uncritically by AI. AI systems are prone to a range of well-documented issues, including factual errors, fabricated information, bias, and unreliable sourcing. Any use of AI to assist in drafting content requires careful human review and independent verification of all factual claims before publication.
Users remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of everything they post. The use of AI does not absolve a user’s accountability for errors, misrepresentations, or violations of site rules.
Disclosure of AI use is not required for minor assistance such as editing or proofreading. However, if AI plays a substantive role in generating content, that use should be clearly acknowledged.
AI-generated imagery is not a substitute for photojournalism and may not be used to depict real-world events in news or journalistic contexts. In all other uses—such as illustration, satire, or commentary—AI-generated images can be used but must be clearly labeled.
Community Moderation: Reporting a Post (Story, Diary)
Logged-in community users have the ability to report a community-authored post for violations of these Rules of the Road, submitting the post for administrative review. When viewing the post, the Report button is located below and to the right of the title of the post. Clicking the Report button will initiate a pop-up window of reporting reasons. The reporting user must select from one of the four listed categories for reporting a post in order to activate the Submit Report button:
- Spam (commercial spam content)
- Pornography (inappropriate pornographic content)
- Hateful or violent content (racism, bigotry, graphic depictions of violence or death in the featured title image, advocacy or fantasies of violence or self-harm)
- Community Guidelines Violation (a violation of the Rules of the Road not covered by the first three reporting categories)
Be cautious when selecting the Community Guidelines Violation category and be certain that the violation is substantive and unmistakable. If necessary, ambiguous edge cases can be reported to the Help Desk with a detailed explanation.
Please note that administrative review does not necessarily result in administrative action. Any action taken is a matter between site administrators and the reported user, and outcomes may not be visible to third parties.
Reports are reviewed by real people, and each one takes time and attention. Misusing the reporting system or repeatedly submitting non-substantive complaints pulls resources away from exigent work. Serial abuse of the Report function or Help Desk may result in administrative sanctions.
Community Moderation: Reporting a Comment
Logged-in community users also have the ability to report a comment for violations of these Rules of the Road, submitting the comment for administrative review. When viewing the comment, the Report button is located at the far right of the comment box, next to the Share button. Clicking on the Report button will initiate a confirmation pop-up window. This confirmation pop-up is designed as a brake, to reinforce the seriousness with which a user should approach the notion and process of reporting a comment. If on second consideration you are certain that the content of the comment requires reporting, then click the Start Report button. Clicking the Start Report button in the confirmation window initiates a pop-up window of reporting reasons. The reporting user must select from one of the eight listed categories before clicking the Submit button to send the comment for administrative review.
- Targeted Harassment (Degrading someone, repeated unwanted contact, attacking someone based on their identity such as race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation)
- Spam (Soliciting currency, encouraging interaction with content under false pretences, leading users off the site by misleading links)
- Inappropriate Username or Avatar (User’s name or avatar goes against Community Guidelines)
- Threatening Content (Threats of violence directed at one or more individuals)
- Impersonation (Representing themselves as another individual under false pretences)
- Private Information (Sharing personally-identifying information)
- Mis/Disinformation (False, inaccurate, misleading, or deceptive content)
- Partisan Misalignment (Promotion of an anti-Democratic or right-wing agenda)
When submitting a report, select the category that most closely matches a clear and substantive violation. As noted above, reports should be reserved for unmistakable rule-breaking. If necessary, ambiguous edge cases can be reported to the Help Desk with a more detailed explanation.
Administrative review does not necessarily result in action. Any action taken is a matter between site administrators and the reported user, and outcomes may not be visible to others.
Reports are reviewed by real people, and each one requires time and attention. Misuse of the reporting system, including reporting content that does not violate site rules, takes resources away from exigent work. Serial abuse of the Report function or Help Desk may result in administrative sanctions.
Community Moderation: Muting a User
Users have the option to mute other users in order to better manage their own experience on the site. When you mute a user, their comments will no longer appear in your view of comment threads, and you will not receive notifications about their activity. Muting only affects your personal experience—other users will continue to see that user’s comments as usual.
To mute a user, click their username in a comment thread to open their commenting Profile, then click the MUTE button in their Profile. This action can be reversed at any time.
Muting is a tool to step away from repetitive interactions that you find unproductive or frustrating. It is intended to give users more control over their own experience without requiring administrative involvement.
Note that muting is designed as an individual tool for managing your own experience. Using site features in a coordinated way to target or single out another user runs counter to community expectations and may be addressed under broader moderation policies.
Muting does not replace reporting. If behavior crosses into harassment or other rule violations, it should be reported so moderators can review and take appropriate action.
Administrative Moderation at Daily Kos
Administrative moderation at Daily Kos exists to make this community effective over the long term. It is designed to protect space for disagreement, not eliminate it; to keep debates focused on ideas and strategy, not personalities; and to ensure the site remains aligned with its mission. We ask members to engage in good faith, assume the same of others, and remember that moderation is about sustaining a shared space—not resolving every conflict to everyone’s satisfaction. When that balance holds, Daily Kos remains a place where challenging conversations can happen without driving good-faith participants away.
Disagreements are inevitable, and many conflicts involve more than one person contributing to a breakdown in discussion. Moderation does not exist to declare one participant right and the other wrong, or to settle personal grudges or dead-end arguments, or to reward persistence in unproductive exchanges. When discussions become circular, hostile, or personal, moderation may focus on preventing escalation by all participants rather than assigning fault. Being frustrated does not mean the other person violated the rules. Being warned does not mean the other person won.
Administrative moderation interventions are seldom based on a single, isolated comment. Interventions may take into account repeated behavior over time, prior warnings or interventions, and the context of patterns across multiple threads or posts. This is why administrative actions may sometimes appear delayed—or why an action may seem sudden based on narrow visible context. Bans are never applied heedlessly, and they require team consensus.
We are transparent about the purpose of administrative moderation, not about individual moderation interventions. We do not publicly explain why another user was warned, timed out, or banned. This is intentional and serves the community in several ways:
- Privacy: Communications between moderators and a user are private. We do not share them with third parties.
- Safety and effectiveness: Publicly detailing how moderation decisions are made in specific cases could enable bad actors to evade detection.
- Community protection: Sophisticated bad-faith actors often attempt to use third parties as wedges to advocate and exaggerate their claims to victimhood and thereby fracture the community. We will not engage those attempts at manipulation.
Revision History:
These guidelines were originally posted by kos on August 15, 2016 as The New, Updated, and Improved Daily Kos Rules of the Road. The guidelines were revised on October 12, 2021 and on June 23, 2023, and edited for clarity on September 8, 2023 and May 24, 2024. The guidelines were most recently revised on April 9, 2026.