Inauthentic usage policy

The success of this thriving community is due to the tireless efforts of its users and their contributions. Malicious or inauthentic acts that interfere with the normal daily operation of the network are not allowed.

To ensure the integrity of the platform, we do not allow any use of the system that violates our Acceptable Use policy, Security guidance, or directly causes unnecessary and unwanted network load, disruption, and/or harm to users, content, and/or the network.

Furthermore, we do not allow what we define as inauthentic usage of our systems, such as:

• Artificially boosting the popularity/score of content and/or users.
• Artificially inflating one’s reputation through targeted voting.
• Patterns of voting that appear to be solely based on rewarding or punishing specific users in a targeted manner or that appear to be cast with disregard to the content being voted on.
• Using multiple accounts and/or profiles to circumvent or evade system, or moderator, imposed restrictions or limitations that one account/profile would have. One individual may use multiple accounts/profiles, provided that none are used to avoid system, or moderator, imposed restrictions or disciplinary limitations, or otherwise violate the rules for using multiple accounts.
• Sharing accounts/profiles between different individuals, even if these individuals work for or represent the same corporation or organization. Each account/profile may represent and be used by only one individual person throughout the lifetime of the profile/account. Stack Exchange may expressly grant written permission that an account/profile is not subject to this restriction.
• Coordinating inauthentic behavior, including, but not limited to, through the use of fake accounts.
• Plagiarizing or copying content from websites, books, or other online and offline tools without proper attribution in a manner that violates our referencing standards.