somehowfunctional.com ("we," "us," "the site") Last updated: July 12, 2026
This applies to blog comments (once enabled), any community or discussion features we add later, and any other space on this site where people can talk to each other or to us — including the contact form.
Why this exists
This site is for people who are carrying more than it looks like from the outside. That only works if it's actually safe to be honest here. Safe doesn't mean sanitized — you can say the hard, ugly, specific thing about your own experience. It means nobody gets to use this space to hurt someone else, talk down to them, or turn their struggle into content for someone else's judgment.
Read this first: nobody is watching
This site is not monitored for emergencies. Moderation is not staffed continuously, the contact form may take days to reach a human, and neither is a crisis service. We cannot provide emergency intervention. If you or someone else is in danger, contact emergency services and see the Resources page — please don't rely on a comment or a message to us to get help in time.
Before you post: it's public
Anything you post in a public feature is public — readable, quotable, screenshottable, and potentially indexed by search engines. Posting also grants us the limited content license in the Terms of Service (Section 4). Pseudonyms are welcome and, given the subject matter, encouraged. We can remove a post from the site; nobody can remove it from the internet once it's been seen. Share what you're ready to have exist.
The rules
1. Be honest about your own experience; don't diagnose someone else's. Share what's true for you. Don't tell someone else what their use or mental health "really means," what they're "in denial about," or what they should do about it, unless they asked.
2. No judgment, no recovery-arc pressure. Nobody here owes anyone a redemption story. If someone isn't trying to quit, cut back, or "get better" on any particular timeline — or at all — that's their call. This is not the place for interventions nobody asked for.
3. No glorifying harm, no how-to for causing it. Talking plainly about use, dosage, and risk in a harm-reduction context is welcome. Content designed to encourage escalation, dangerous combinations, or self-harm — or that provides methods for harming yourself or others — will be removed.
4. No sourcing, selling, or arranging. Do not use this site to buy, sell, trade, solicit, or arrange the supply of controlled substances or prescription medication, or to connect people who want to. This includes coded language and "DM me" posts. This one is not negotiable and does not get a warning.
5. No hate speech, harassment, threats, or targeting. No attacks based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected characteristic. No threats of violence. No pile-ons. No impersonation. No sexual content involving minors, and no sexual harassment or exploitation of anyone.
6. Don't out people. Do not publish another person's private information — real name, address, workplace, health status, substance use, or anything else identifying — without their clear consent. Given what people share here, this is one of the most serious rules on the list.
7. No medical, legal, or crisis misinformation stated as fact. Personal experience ("this is what helped me") is welcome. Confidently telling someone a dangerous combination is safe, or that a legal risk doesn't apply to them, is not. If you're not sure, say so.
8. Respect the quiet parts. Some people are here in crisis, mid-relapse, or right after one. The answer is not a lecture. Point gently to the Resources page, or simply offer support. If something reads like an active emergency, don't just reply — the resources page has direct lines. We may remove or restrict content that appears to describe an emergency, but we cannot intervene, and removing a post is not help arriving.
9. No spam or self-promotion dressed up as participation. Including affiliate links, unsolicited pitches, and drive-by promotion — especially "recovery" products sold on fear.
What happens if these are broken
Our general preference is to redirect before we punish: a heads-up first, removal of the content if it continues, then restriction. That's how we'd like it to go, not a guarantee of process you're owed. We may remove, edit, restrict, or decline to publish anything at any time — without warning — where safety, legality, or the wellbeing of others requires it. Rules 3, 4, 5, 6, and the emergency clause of rule 8 will not get a warning first.
Moderation calls are made by us, sometimes quickly, and are not litigated in the comments. If you think we got one wrong, use the contact form and tell us — that's an appeal, and we'll actually read it.
What this code of conduct is not
It is not a promise that this space is moderated around the clock, that harmful content will never slip through before it's caught, or that anyone's safety here is guaranteed. We're building this in good faith, iteratively, same as everything else on this site.
Contact
Report something, appeal a decision, or tell us we got a rule wrong: contact form. Not for emergencies — see the top of this page.