House rules

The essentials in five rules

1. Talk about korfball, not about people. Criticising a performance is allowed. Tearing someone down is not.
2. No swearing, discrimination, threats or bullying.
3. No personal details, yours or anyone else's.
4. Be extra careful with anything about children and youth players.
5. See something that isn't right? Press "Report".

1. Who can comment?

• You need an account to comment. You can have an account from the age of 16.
• You comment under your username. Other readers never see your email address.
• Comments are open until 48 hours after a piece was published.
• Under pieces about youth, and about sensitive subjects such as a suspension, a disciplinary case, a sexual misconduct case or a death, comments are switched off by default. Sometimes the editors deliberately switch them on there.
• You can post at most 30 comments per day, and one per 20 seconds.

2. What is not allowed

1. Swearing, insulting and hurting. Not with asterisks or in a roundabout way either.
2. Personal attacks on players, coaches, referees, officials, clubs, the editors or other readers. Say what you think of a match or a decision, not what you think of someone as a person.
3. Discrimination, for example based on origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation or a disability.
4. Threatening, intimidating or bullying.
5. Personal details: phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, school, work, or photos of someone who does not want that. Not your own either.
6. Children and youth players: do not name youth players who are not already in the piece, and write nothing about their private lives.
7. Presenting rumours as fact about injuries, suspensions, disciplinary cases, illness or someone's private life.
8. Advertising and spam: no selling, no links to make money, no chain messages.
9. Copying other people's work: no complete articles or photos by others. A short quote with the source is allowed.
10. Anything that is prohibited, such as defamation, libel, incitement to violence, or sexual content.
11. Impersonating someone else, such as a player, a club or the editors.
12. Off-topic: stick to the piece you are commenting under.

3. How we moderate

• Your first comment is approved by the editors first. After that, your comments go online immediately.
• Between 23:00 and 07:00 every comment waits for approval, because nobody is moderating then.
• A filter checks every comment. It runs on our own server and looks for swear words, phone numbers, email addresses, addresses and more than one link (that may be advertising). If the filter holds back a comment, it waits until a human looks at it. We do not use AI for this.
• A human decides. The filter never removes a comment itself and never blocks an account itself. Only the editors do that.
• Many reports: if three different readers report the same comment, we hide it until the editors have looked at it.
• Urgent: if you report a threat, personal details, sexual content or something about a child, we hide the comment immediately until the editors have looked at it.
• Hidden after reports? Then the author immediately gets an email: the comment has been temporarily hidden after reports, the editors will decide within 3 days at the latest, and he will hear the outcome.
• We do not edit comments. A comment stays as you wrote it, or we remove it.
• Everything closed for a while: if necessary, the editors can temporarily pause all comments.

4. If you do not follow the rules

We look at what fits each case. Usually it goes like this:

Do we restrict something of yours? Then you always get an email with an explanation: what we did, why, which rule or law it was, whether a computer helped, and how to object. This applies to removing, temporarily hiding, not publishing a comment, changing your username, removing you from the leaderboard or deducting points, and suspending or deleting your account.

5. Reporting something

See a comment that isn't right, or something you think is prohibited? Report it.

• For a comment: press Report, next to the comment.
• Something else on the site, such as a piece or a photo: email info@korfbalinc.nl. Is it only about a mistake, such as a wrong result? Then use "Report an error". There we do not ask for a name or an email address, so you will not get a confirmation or an outcome.
• Is it about your own photo, text or logo? Use the page "Rights complaints" (in the colophon).

What we need from you:

1. which comment or which piece it is (with the report button we fill that in ourselves);
2. why you think it is not allowed. Choose whether it goes against the house rules, or is prohibited. If you think it is prohibited, briefly explain why;
3. your name and email address, so we can send you a confirmation and the outcome. If you are logged in, we fill these in ourselves. If you report sexual content involving children without logging in, you do not need to give your name and email address; without an email address we cannot send you a confirmation or an outcome;
4. that you make the report honestly and truthfully: with a tick box at the report button, with a sentence in an email.

6. What happens to your report

1. Immediately: you get an email that we have received your report.
2. Assessment: the editors look at your report. Usually within 24 hours, within 3 days at the latest. In urgent cases as quickly as possible.
3. Decision: we remove the comment, or we leave it up. A human decides.
4. Outcome: you get an email with what we decided and why. If we remove a comment, the author also gets an email with an explanation. We do not tell the author who reported it.

You can make at most 10 reports per 24 hours. Anyone who keeps making reports that are clearly unfounded may not be able to make reports for a while. We will let you know if that happens.

7. Disagree with a decision?

• Do you disagree with what we decided, as author or as reporter? Then you can file an objection. You can do so up to 6 months after our decision.
• Reply to the email with our decision, or email info@korfbalinc.nl. Say why you disagree.
• We look at it again. Our editorial team is small: usually the same person assesses your objection.
• You get an answer within 14 days.
• If we were wrong, we put it back.
• If you still disagree after that, you can go to court.
• Do you think we do not comply with the European rules for online services? Then you can file a complaint with the Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM). If you live in Belgium, with the BIPT.

8. Threats and criminal offences

• Does someone threaten another person, or does someone appear to be in danger? Then we report it to the police immediately. We are also required to do so by law.
• If you are in immediate danger yourself, call 112.
• Are you being threatened or harassed? File a report with the police. In the Netherlands you can do so via politie.nl or 0900-8844. In Belgium with the local police.
• Is a nude photo or video of you being spread, are you being blackmailed with it, or does someone put your address or other personal details online? The Hulplijn of Offlimits, the Dutch centre of expertise on online abuse, offers free and anonymous help and advice: hulplijn.offlimits.nl.
• Do the police or judicial authorities ask us for data, and are they allowed to do so by law? Then we provide it.

9. Terms for your account

By creating an account you agree to these house rules.

• Age: you are 16 or older, and your year of birth is correct.
• One account per person.
• Your username:
  • not someone else's real name;
  • nothing offensive, no advertising;
  • not resembling a player, club or the editors, such as "Redactie", "Admin" or "KORFBALINC".
  • If your username does not fit these rules, we will ask you to change it, or change it ourselves.
• Your login code is personal. You log in with a 6-digit code that we email you. Do not pass that code on to anyone. You then stay logged in on that device for 90 days, and every time you visit those 90 days start again. Whatever is posted from your account is your responsibility.
• What you write remains yours. You do give us permission to show your comment on our site free of charge, as long as it is online. Outside the site, for example on Instagram, we do not use your comment without asking you first.
• Comments belong to their authors, not to the editors. We intervene if something goes against the rules or if it is reported to us.
• Predictions:
  • predicting is free and there are no prizes to win;
  • whether your username appears in the public leaderboard is your own choice at your first prediction. Joining your club's leaderboard is also something you switch on yourself. You can always change this;
  • you get points after the official result. If a result is corrected later, we adjust the points;
  • using multiple accounts or cheating in any other way: then we remove your points or you will not make the leaderboard.
• Leaving: you can always delete your account. We then also remove your comments and predictions.
• Termination by us: we can block an account in accordance with section 4. If you are inactive for 2 years, we delete your account; you get an email a month in advance. If you turn out to be younger than 16, we delete your account, with an explanation and the possibility to object. We can close comments under a piece, and we can stop commenting or predicting on the site. We will let you know in good time.

10. Contact

• Questions, reports and objections: info@korfbalinc.nl, or the report button on the site.
• You can write to us in Dutch or English.
• Governments and regulators can also reach us at this address (our point of contact for the Digital Services Act).

11. Changes

If we change these house rules, the new version will appear here with the date. If it is a major change, you will get an email if you have an account.