Netiquette

Netiquette for digital content provided by the Goethe-Institut

Posts written by users enrich the content of Goethe.de and its sites on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media.

The quality of your posts is important to us. They can provoke interesting and stimulating discussions. In this Netiquette we give you some tips on how to behave in a forum, as well as how to write your own posts and comments. If everyone keeps to these communication rules, it is possible to create an environment in which all users will enjoy joining in with the discussion.

We ask you to bear a few things in mind:

  1. Stay relevant to the discussion topic or the post on which you are commenting. Ensure that your discussion and comment input is objective and respectful. If you disagree with another user’s post, criticise the post’s content rather than the author. Treat other members with respect. Insulting, discriminating against or defaming individual users or user groups because of their religion, origin, nationality, financial circumstances, sexuality, age or gender is not permitted.
  2. Ensure that anything you write or upload is free from violence and pornographic or discriminating content. Do not write or upload media that could hurt the feelings or insult the religious and political views of others.
  3. To be understood by as many users as possible, you should write in German wherever possible when posting to the “Deutsch für dich” community. When using other platforms you should endeavour to write in the language used on that site/channel.
  4. You must not publish personal and identifying data relating to others.
Only use your own content:

You may not publish any media that is legally protected. Make sure that you are not infringing copyright when you upload media or content. Do not use photos, text, files or documents belonging to others without their agreement. If the media includes photos of people, this content must not be published without their agreement. (General Personal Rights)

If you do not follow the netiquette rules, we will have to intervene:

The Goethe-Institut e. V. is entitled to check, store, process, delete or forward any content that infringes netiquette or is against the law.

It is OK to use links in your posts, for instance to show further information on a certain topic. Goethe-Institut e.V. is not responsible for linked content and does not check it. But we reserve the right to remove links if the linked content infringes the above rules. Commercial content and advertising are not permitted in the discussions.
 
Keep your user name and password safe:
 
Do not share your password to protect your profile from misuse. You are responsible for anything that happens in your name.