Community & Submission Guidelines

1. Overview

ToolFlock helps people discover AI and independent tools and gives developers a place to submit tools for editorial review. Community posts may support useful discussion around tools, workflows, research, and product-building, but the Community is not an unrestricted advertising channel.

These guidelines apply to posts, articles, comments, images, links, tool submissions, updates, profile information, and other material supplied to ToolFlock. They supplement our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If these guidelines and the Terms conflict, the Terms control.

You are responsible for everything you submit, including its accuracy, legality, permissions, disclosures, and links. Passing an initial review does not make ToolFlock the author, owner, or guarantor of user-submitted material.

2. Community posts

Content we welcome

Posts should give readers useful information, a genuine question, or a concrete experience. Subject to the rules below, acceptable posts include:

• good-faith discussions and questions about tools, workflows, product development, and practical problems;
• original research, experiments, comparisons, benchmarks, and clearly explained methods or findings;
• first-hand experience, case studies, lessons learned, and postmortems that distinguish evidence from opinion;
• relevant news with an accurate source, context, and no misleading headline;
• requests for recommendations, technical help, feedback, or collaborators;
• substantive tool updates that explain what changed and why it matters, provided any relationship to the tool is disclosed; and
• reviews that describe real use, material limitations, and any commercial or personal connection to the product.

Quality and authenticity

Use a clear and accurate description. Do not fabricate testing, users, customers, results, quotations, screenshots, reviews, statistics, or credentials. Claims that could affect a reader's purchase, safety, privacy, or business decision should be supported by current evidence. AI-assisted material is permitted only when the person posting it has reviewed it and remains responsible for its accuracy, originality, and compliance.

Respect the format and limits shown in the posting interface. Keep links relevant, identify edited or updated information when it changes the meaning of a post, and do not publish the same or substantially similar material across multiple posts, accounts, or categories.

3. Prohibited content and conduct

Do not post, link to, request, sell, facilitate, encourage, or meaningfully assist any of the following:

• pornography, sexually explicit content, sexual exploitation, non-consensual intimate material, or any sexual content involving minors;
• graphic violence or gore, credible threats, instructions to harm another person, glorification of violent acts, or content intended to intimidate;
• political or election advertising, campaigning, fundraising, persuasion, targeted mobilization, voter suppression, or coordinated political influence activity;
• gambling, casinos, sports betting, lotteries, unlicensed prize schemes, or tools whose principal purpose is facilitating those activities;
• illegal drugs, controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, instructions for unlawful production or distribution, or content promoting dangerous misuse;
• illegal goods or services, stolen property, weapons offered in violation of law, counterfeit items, trafficking, or evasion of legal restrictions;
• hateful content, dehumanization, discriminatory abuse, targeted harassment, stalking, doxxing, or coordinated attacks against a person or protected group;
• fraud, scams, phishing, impersonation, fabricated endorsements, deceptive financial claims, pyramid schemes, or attempts to obtain credentials or money under false pretenses;
• malware, spyware, ransomware, credential theft, malicious scripts, exploit delivery, unauthorized access, or instructions primarily intended to compromise systems;
• instructions that facilitate dangerous or unlawful conduct where the likely harm outweighs legitimate educational, defensive, or public-interest value;
• encouragement, instruction, or romanticization of self-harm or suicide;
• personal, confidential, financial, authentication, health, or location data shared without a lawful basis and appropriate permission;
• copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, database, or other rights infringement, including reposting material without the required license or attribution;
• impersonation of a person, company, developer, reviewer, or ToolFlock representative, or false claims of affiliation or verification; and
• spam, irrelevant link drops, keyword stuffing, mass-produced low-value content, fake engagement, vote manipulation, coordinated ranking manipulation, or attempts to evade review through alternate accounts or obfuscated links.

Educational, journalistic, research, or security context does not automatically make material acceptable. We consider the purpose, detail, presentation, likely audience, and risk of real-world harm. ToolFlock may restrict material that is technically lawful but unsafe, deceptive, abusive, or inconsistent with the site's purpose.

4. Promotional content

Ordinary posts are not advertising placements

A normal discussion, research post, review, request, news post, or update must not be used for hidden or unapproved promotion. We may reject or remove content whose main purpose is to acquire customers, leads, sign-ups, downloads, sales, investment, or traffic for a product, service, newsletter, community, event, or account.

This includes undisclosed self-promotion; affiliate or referral links; lead-generation forms; coupon or tracking links; repetitive calls to action; promotional comparisons designed to disguise a sales pitch; paid, gifted, or incentivized endorsements without disclosure; and repeated posts about the same product without a substantive update.

Mentioning a tool you built, work for, advise, invested in, or received benefits from is not automatically prohibited when the relationship is plainly disclosed and the post has independent informational value. However, disclosure does not convert an advertisement into an acceptable ordinary post. ToolFlock may still require promotional review or reject it.

How to request promotion

Promotional material must go through ToolFlock's designated promotional review and, if accepted, must be clearly identified as sponsored or promotional. A dedicated promotional-post route is not yet available. Until it is launched, contact ToolFlock to request review. Do not publish the proposed promotion as an ordinary post while waiting for a response.

Payment, sponsorship, affiliate participation, or any other commercial relationship does not guarantee acceptance and does not change ToolFlock's organic directory ranking or editorial assessment. ToolFlock may require specific wording, disclosures, destinations, timing, or targeting, and may decline or stop a promotion at its discretion.

5. Tool submission requirements

The tool submission pageis for AI tools and independent developer tools that fit ToolFlock's directory. The current interface may be a preview or limited workflow; follow the status and instructions shown there. A form confirmation does not guarantee that a listing has been received, approved, published, indexed, ranked, or promoted.

Eligibility

A submitted tool must:

• be lawful in the places where it is offered and not primarily designed for prohibited content or conduct described above;
• be publicly accessible at a working, safe URL that represents the actual product, not a misleading redirect or placeholder;
• provide enough functioning product information for ToolFlock to understand and review it;
• avoid malware, deceptive downloads, dark patterns, misleading buttons, credential theft, unauthorized data collection, and false urgency or scarcity;
• respect intellectual property, privacy, consumer-protection, export, sanctions, advertising, and other applicable rights and laws; and
• not duplicate an existing ToolFlock listing unless the submission is an authorized correction, ownership claim, or material update.

Accurate and complete information

Submitters must have permission to provide the material and must accurately disclose:

• the official product name, canonical website URL, developer or owner, and the submitter's relationship to the tool;
• whether the submitter is the owner, an employee, an agency, an affiliate, a user, or another authorized representative;
• the most appropriate AI-tool or indie-tool classification and genuine use-case categories;
• current pricing, free-plan or trial conditions, subscriptions, usage limits, important feature restrictions, and material requirements;
• availability, supported platforms, regions, languages, account requirements, and any material waitlist or access restriction; and
• any sponsorship, affiliate arrangement, ownership interest, or other relationship that could affect how the submission is understood.

Do not claim unverified capabilities, customers, awards, compliance, security, performance, rankings, reviews, savings, or results. Do not submit logos, screenshots, descriptions, or other assets unless you own them or have authority to let ToolFlock use them for review and listing purposes.

Editorial review, ranking, and sponsorship

ToolFlock may verify facts against official sources, test the product, edit supplied copy for accuracy and consistency, choose categories, combine duplicate records, request evidence, or decline to publish. We may prioritize complete, useful, current, and verifiable listings. Submission order does not guarantee publication order.

Sponsored or paid placement must be clearly distinguished from organic directory results. Buying promotion does not buy a favorable review, score, recommendation, or organic rank. ToolFlock may publish an editorial assessment that differs from the submitter's description.

Updates, ownership, and removal

Submitters and owners should request corrections when pricing, access, ownership, safety, or core functionality changes. ToolFlock may update, relabel, suspend, archive, or remove a listing that is unavailable, abandoned, materially inaccurate, unsafe, unlawful, duplicated, or no longer useful to readers.

An ownership claim may require verification through an official domain, business email, product account, or other reasonable evidence. Ownership of a tool does not create ownership of ToolFlock's independent editorial copy, classification, testing, or assessment.

6. Review and enforcement

ToolFlock may use automated signals and human review to assess submissions. We may ask for clarification or evidence, limit distribution, remove links, add labels, edit formatting, reject or remove material, restrict posting, suspend an account, preserve relevant records, or refer a matter to appropriate authorities when reasonably necessary.

Enforcement depends on context, severity, intent, history, likely harm, and attempts to evade review. Immediate action may be taken without prior notice for urgent safety, security, legal, fraud, or abuse concerns. ToolFlock is not required to publish every compliant submission and may decline material that does not meet its editorial scope or quality standards.

These guidelines may be updated as ToolFlock's services and review processes evolve. Material already published may be reviewed under the current guidelines when it is reported, updated, or otherwise reassessed.

7. Reports, corrections, and appeals

To report content, correct a tool listing, challenge an ownership claim, or appeal a moderation decision, use the contact page or email [email protected]. Include the relevant URL, the specific issue, your relationship to the material, and supporting evidence. Do not send passwords, authentication tokens, full payment-card numbers, or unnecessary sensitive personal information.

Appeals should explain what decision is disputed and why the material complies. Repeated submissions, threats, fabricated evidence, or attempts to bypass an enforcement decision may lead to further restrictions. We may request identity, ownership, or authorization evidence when needed to evaluate a report or claim.

For information about the legal terms governing use of ToolFlock, see the Terms of Service. For information about personal data and cookies, see the Privacy Policy.