Code of conduct

Verno is a place where people build history together — some of it real, some of it invented, and the whole point is that you can tell which is which. This page is about how that stays true, and how people treat each other while doing it.

Like the terms, it is written to be read. If something here is unclear, that is a fault in the text and worth telling us about.

Argue freely. That is the material.

History is disagreement. You can argue that a war was justified or that it was a crime, that a revolution freed people or ruined them, that a state you live in did terrible things. You can be scathing about religions, ideologies, empires, institutions and the dead. None of that needs our permission, and a timeline that only says comfortable things is not worth reading.

The line here is not "controversial". It is the law, and it runs between ideas and people: attack the idea as hard as you like, and leave the human being out of it.

Where the law draws it

Verno is run from the Netherlands and follows EU law, which is stricter than most about what may stand online. That standard applies to everyone here, wherever you are. None of the following is a matter of opinion:

• Sexual material involving minors, in any form, drawn, written, generated or photographed.
• Terrorist content: inciting, glorifying, instructing or recruiting for terrorism. Under EU rules this has to come down within an hour of an order, so it comes down first and is discussed after.
• Incitement to violence or hatred against a group, or a person because of their membership of it — race, colour, descent, religion or belief, national or ethnic origin, and equally sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.
• Denying, grossly trivialising, condoning or glorifying genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, the Holocaust included. On a site where you may invent history this needs saying plainly: "what if it never happened" is not a thought experiment here. It is the thing the law names, and it is a criminal offence in much of the EU.
• Sexual images of a real person made or shared without their consent, generated ones included.
• Someone else's personal data without a reason to publish it: home address, phone number, identity or medical or financial documents. Assembling a portrait of a private person out of scattered public pieces counts too.
• Threats, stalking and harassment, or organising other people to do it.
• Fraud, malware, and trade in things that may not be traded.
• Anything that is a criminal offence in the country it is published from or read in.

The grey area is not a place to work

Some things are not clearly illegal and still have no business here: material that edges toward the list above while claiming to comment on it, "just asking questions" about whether a documented atrocity happened, a timeline built to make a living person look like something they are not.

The rule we use is short: if you have to argue that it is technically allowed, it is not. We would rather lose a borderline timeline than host the first one that turns out to matter. If we take something down and you think we read it wrong, say so — you get a reply from a person.

Invented history is welcome. Passing it off is not.

Half of what Verno is for is the timeline that never happened. Build it, and build it well.

What you may not do is blur the line on purpose. Verno marks per moment whether it belongs to world history or to a parallel timeline, and that marking is what makes the rest trustworthy. Presenting an invented moment as established fact breaks the one thing every reader here depends on.

Images are a separate matter: every image here is generated, and Verno does not yet show that on the image itself. Until it does, do not present a generated image as a photograph or a contemporary record — see the disclaimer.

The same goes the other way: if you are describing real events, describe them as they are understood, and say where it comes from. A source is not a formality — it is what separates a timeline from an opinion.

Real people

You can put living people in a timeline; history is full of them. What you cannot do is show them saying or doing things they did not, in a way that reads as real. A generated image of a public figure at an event they never attended is not satire, it is a claim — and Verno is a site where claims look like history.

People who are not public figures deserve more room, not less. Do not build a timeline about a private person without their say-so.

Other people's work

Do not upload or generate material meant to reproduce someone else's protected work, and do not imitate a living artist by name. If you hold rights to something on Verno, there is a form at verno.foundation/report — no account needed, and a person reads every notice.

What happens when someone crosses a line

We would rather explain than punish, so the usual order is:

1. We tell you what is wrong and what would fix it.
2. We hide the work while that gets sorted out.
3. We block the account, for a period or for good.
4. We take a timeline over — it stays online under Verno's care, so other people's work that links to it does not break.

The list under Where the law draws it skips straight to step three, and where the law requires it we report the account.

Whatever we do, you get told why — unless saying why would put someone at risk. You can reply to that message, and a person will read it.

Reporting something

If you see something here that breaks this code, use the form at verno.foundation/report. Tell us what and where; the more precise, the faster it moves. Reports are read by a person, not sorted by a machine, and we do not pass your name to the person you reported.

Reporting something in bad faith — to bury a rival timeline, or in bulk — is itself a breach of this code.