Community Guidelines

1. Core Community Standard

We believe in celebrating culinary history, recipe creativity, and cultural food sharing in a safe, respectful, and honest environment. Any behavior that compromises the safety, integrity, or inclusivity of our platform is strictly prohibited.

2. Prohibited Conduct

• Harassment and Abuse: Do not engage in bullying, hate speech, threats, harassment, discrimination, or targeted intimidation of other members.
• Spam and Scams: Do not upload unsolicited promotional content, commercial spam, phishing links, malware, or engage in artificial view or like manipulation.
• Intellectual Property Infringement: Do not publish recipes, photos, or text that infringe the copyrights, trademarks, or proprietary rights of others.
• Deceptive Claims: Do not post misleading food safety advice, unsubstantiated health or medical claims, or fake nutritional calculations.
• Unlawful Content: Do not promote or facilitate illegal activities, unsafe chemical additions, or dangerous food preparations.
• Potentially Profane Text: Avoid profanity in messages, comments, feedback, and profile posts. The Platform may warn you before an ordinary matched submission and viewers can choose to mask that text. A warning is not approval of the content; serious abuse remains subject to our safety controls and these guidelines.

3. Recipes and Culinary Safety

• Accuracy: Submit recipe quantities, timings, and temperatures that are safe and accurate to prevent foodborne illness.
• Dietary Disclaimers: Do not represent allergen or dietary designations (e.g., "gluten-free", "nut-free") as medical guarantees. Always advise caution for severe food allergies.
• Professional Liability: Businesses and chefs promoting menus, products, or services are legally responsible for complying with the safety and health codes of their operating jurisdictions.

4. Alcohol Content Guidelines

• Underage Protection: Alcohol-themed recipes, cocktail articles, and spirit reviews must never target, appeal to, or encourage consumption by underage individuals.
• Age-Gate Compliance: Users must provide and keep accurate date of birth and country-of-residence information so the Platform can restrict alcohol-related content for under-age users and restricted jurisdictions. Country-specific thresholds are listed in the Regional Legal Annexes.
• Commercial Alcohol Ads: Bars, distilleries, and beverage brands on the Professional tier must comply with local licensing laws, advertising standards, and geographic restrictions. Dynamic filtering applied to restricted countries is detailed in the Regional Legal Annexes.

5. AI Content and Generative Media

• Source Accuracy: Submit accurate ingredients, quantities, timings, temperatures, and other Source Material. Platform moderation and generation do not replace your responsibility for the accuracy and safety of what you submit.
• Anti-Deception: Do not submit Source Material or generation requests intended to produce deceptive dishes, impersonate specific individuals or brands, or misrepresent another person's work as your own.
• Required Labelling: The Platform may label generated recipes and images as AI-generated or AI-assisted. Do not remove required labels, watermarks, or metadata when sharing or exporting content where that use is permitted.

6. Accolade Categories and Criteria

The Yum Pandemic awards digital accolades to recognize culinary contributions, engagement, and excellence. These badges appear on user profiles and published content.

• Recipe Contributor of the Month: Awarded for the highest number of approved recipes published during a calendar month.
• Rising Recipe Creator: Granted for the strongest month-over-month growth in approved recipe publishing.
• Recipe of the Month: Based on a combination of verified recipe views, comments, saves, and shares.
• People's Choice Cook: Received by the user who collects the most likes across their published recipes during the month.
• Community Commenter of the Month: Awarded for the most constructive and approved feedback left on other users' recipes.
• Yum Feedback Champion: Awarded for active and helpful community contributions across profiles.
• World Knowledge Master: Given for high engagement with food history, food news, or Yumpedia-style cultural content.
• Newsroom Contributor: Awarded for constructive discussion and comments on published food news articles.
• Social Spark: Earned by the user with the most public Social Profile posts during a completed week.
• Conversation Starter: Received by the user whose content generates the most comments during a completed week.
• Kindred Connector: Awarded for building the most new approved connections during a calendar month.
• Welcoming Host: Recognizing positive interaction and quick responses to new community members.
• Most Popular User of the Year: Based on the total number of likes received across all content in a calendar year.
• Profile Star: Given to the user with the most public Social Profile views in a calendar month.
• Gallery Curator: Awarded for uploading the most approved public food photography or media during a month.
• Video Tastemaker: Given to users who publish high-quality, high-engagement cooking videos on their profiles.
• Recipe Video Pairing Award: Awarded for linking helpful cooking demonstration videos directly to recipes.
• Share Champion: Earned for active recipe sharing and tracking meaningful off-platform share engagement.
• Global Table Explorer: Recognizing users who actively cook, comment on, and save recipes across five or more regional cuisines.
• Search Sage: Awarded for active use and setup of saved culinary search parameters.
• PDF Publisher: Awarded to users who successfully compile and publish Yum-branded recipe PDFs.
• Cookbook Curator: Recognizing the owner of the best-performing compiled cookbook or PDF collection.
• Brand Builder: Given to Professional plan users with high link engagement to external sites or portfolios.
• Verified Pro Spotlight: Recognizing outstanding culinary contributions from verified Professional accounts.
• White Label Maestro: Earned by Professional users with the highest engagement on their white-label cookbook exports.
• Consistency Streak: Awarded for maintaining active publishing or login streaks for 7, 30, or 90 consecutive days.
• First Taste: Awarded on receiving your first recipe like, comment, or share.
• First Dish Published: Awarded upon the successful publication of your first approved recipe.
• Ten Dish Table: Earned after successfully publishing 10 approved recipes.
• Hundred Hearts Club: Granted when your published recipes collect a lifetime total of 100 likes.
• Community Pillar: Awarded on publishing 100 approved comments or feedback responses.
• Global Pantry: Earned by publishing approved recipes across five or more distinct regional cuisines.
• Yumpedia Scholar: Recognizing lifetime engagement and reading of food history or Yumpedia databases.
• Trusted Voice: Granted to profiles with sustained positive community behavior, low report volumes, and verified details.

7. Accolade Integrity and Exclusions

• Administrative Exclusion: Platform administrators, moderators, and superadmins are strictly excluded from receiving community accolades.
• Eligibility Guard: Inactive, suspended, banned, or manually flagged accounts are not eligible to receive or display accolades.
• Integrity Rule: Accolades are calculated using authentic, organic engagement metrics. Any automated, fake, self-engagement, or bot-driven activity is excluded.
• Revocation: We reserve the right to correct, hide, or revoke accolades if they were awarded in error, earned through manipulation, or if the user violates these guidelines.

8. Moderation, Reporting, and Appeals

• Reporting Violations: Users can report inappropriate content, harassing comments, media issues, or guideline violations through in-platform reporting tools or via Email us.
• Enforcement Actions: Violations may result in content removal, comment deletion, feature restriction, or complete account suspension.
• Appeals Process: If you believe a moderation action was taken in error, you may submit a review request to our moderation appeal desk at Email us within 30 days of the decision.