Games Lantern Community Guidelines

1. Who these guidelines apply to

Games Lantern publishes gaming news, guides and databases. Alongside our own editorial content, registered users can contribute:

  • Community builds created in our build editor, including build names and descriptions
  • Profile information, including usernames and avatars
  • Wiki edits and user-submitted guides

Everything in this document applies to all of the above. It forms part of our Terms of Service and is binding on every registered account, and on anyone submitting a build without an account. Unlisted builds are held to the same standards as public ones and are reviewed on the same basis.

By submitting content to Games Lantern you confirm that it is yours to submit, that it complies with these guidelines, and that you accept our right to review, edit, reject or remove it.

2. The basic rule

Games Lantern is a resource for players. Contribute things that help other players. Everything else is off-topic at best.

We are a general-audience site accessible to minors, and we carry advertising from third-party brands. Content that would be inappropriate in either of those contexts is not permitted here, even where it would be acceptable elsewhere on the internet.

3. Prohibited content

The following will be rejected at review or removed on discovery. This list is not exhaustive; we apply the spirit of these rules as well as the letter.

3.1 Sexual and adult content

No sexually explicit or sexually suggestive text, imagery or usernames. No nudity. No content sexualising any real or fictional person depicted as a minor — this results in immediate permanent ban and, where applicable, referral to law enforcement. No links to adult sites or services.

3.2 Hate and harassment

No content attacking, demeaning or dehumanising people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, disability or serious disease. No slurs, in any language, including in usernames and build names. No targeted harassment, threats, doxxing or coordinated pile-ons against any individual, whether or not they use our site.

3.3 Violence

Discussion of combat, weapons, damage and tactics within the context of a video game is the core purpose of this site and is entirely permitted. What is not permitted: glorification or endorsement of real-world violence, threats of violence against real people, graphic real-world gore or injury imagery, and content promoting or celebrating terrorism, violent extremism or mass-casualty events.

3.4 Self-harm

No content encouraging, instructing in or glorifying suicide, self-harm or disordered eating. If you are struggling, please reach out to a local support service rather than posting here.

3.5 Illegal and regulated activity

No content promoting illegal drugs, illicit weapons sales, human trafficking, fraud, or the sale of stolen goods or account credentials. No content promoting real-money gambling, sports betting, loot-box resale sites, skin-gambling or similar services — including affiliate or referral links to them.

3.6 Profanity and offensive language

Strong profanity is not permitted in usernames, build names, wiki page titles or any other short display field. In longer body text we ask that you keep it mild. Deliberate obfuscation to evade our filters is treated as a violation in itself.

3.7 Political and social controversy

Games Lantern is not a venue for political campaigning. No electoral advocacy, no political fundraising, no content on contested political or social issues unrelated to gaming. Reporting on politics within a game world, or on documented industry and community events, is permitted where it is factual and neutrally presented.

3.8 Spam, deception and technical abuse

No advertising, affiliate links, referral codes, SEO link injection or promotional content of any kind without prior written agreement. No malware, phishing, or links to either. No script or HTML injection in any submission field. No impersonation of Games Lantern staff, game developers, publishers or other users.

3.9 Intellectual property

Do not upload material you do not have the right to use. This includes copyrighted art used as avatars, datamined material under embargo, and text copied from other sites or wikis without permission and attribution.

3.10 Privacy

Do not post personal information about anyone — including yourself. Real names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, workplaces and account credentials do not belong in public submissions.

4. Avatars and images

Avatars must be your own work or licensed for your use. They must contain no people identifiable as real individuals without their consent, and nothing falling under section 3 — this applies to imagery as strictly as it applies to text.

Uploaded avatars are reviewed by our moderation team and are removed on discovery or report where they breach these guidelines. Because your avatar appears alongside every build and page you contribute, avatar breaches are treated as account-level matters rather than single-item ones.

5. How we enforce this

Submissions are screened automatically when you submit them, and all new user content is reviewed by our moderation team on a recurring schedule. Publication is not approval: content that has gone live remains subject to review and removal.

Where content breaches these guidelines we may, at our discretion:

  • Edit it to remove the offending element
  • Remove it after publication
  • Restrict the account's ability to submit
  • Suspend or permanently ban the account
  • Report the matter to law enforcement

We operate a three-strike model for minor and inadvertent breaches: a warning, a submission restriction, then a ban. Serious breaches — sexual content involving minors, credible threats, terrorist content, malware, or deliberate repeated evasion of our filters — bypass the strike system and result in immediate permanent removal.

6. Reporting something

If you find content on Games Lantern that breaches these guidelines, tell us. Email moderation@gameslantern.com or raise it in our Discord community. Include a link to the content and a brief description of the problem.

Reports go to the same team that handles scheduled review and are actioned on the same standards.

We do not disclose the identity of reporters to the accounts they report.

7. Appeals

If your content was removed or your account restricted and you believe we got it wrong, email moderation@gameslantern.com within 30 days, including the content in question and why you think the decision was incorrect. Appeals are reviewed by someone other than the person who made the original decision, and we aim to respond within five business days.

8. Changes

We update these guidelines as the site and the wider landscape change. Material changes are announced on-site and in our Discord. Continued use of the site after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised guidelines.

Questions about these guidelines: moderation@gameslantern.com