Community Guidelines

1. Our Community Spirit

SongShare exists to honour Caribbean and African Gospel music creators across every sphere of life. Our community is built on the values of faith, respect, creativity, and mutual encouragement. These guidelines help us maintain a welcoming and uplifting environment for everyone — songwriters, worship leaders, musicians, churches, and listeners alike.

By using SongShare's community features (comments, reviews, song requests, blog posts, and any other interactive features), you agree to follow these guidelines.

2. Be Respectful

Treat every member of the SongShare community with kindness and dignity. Remember that behind every profile is a real person — often a fellow believer sharing their creative gifts.

Constructive feedback is welcome and encouraged. If you are commenting on someone's work, focus on the music, lyrics, or performance. Be specific, be encouraging, and offer suggestions in the spirit of building up rather than tearing down.

Disagreements are natural, but personal attacks, insults, and hostile language are never acceptable. If a conversation becomes heated, step away. You can always report behaviour that crosses the line.

3. Be Honest

Authenticity matters on SongShare. Be truthful in your profile, your song credits, your performance logs, and your interactions with others.

Do not impersonate another person, artist, church, or organisation. Do not fabricate credentials, awards, memberships, or affiliations. Do not submit fake reviews, inflated performance data, or misleading information of any kind.

4. Honour Copyright

SongShare is a platform for original Gospel music. Only upload songs, lyrics, and recordings that you have the right to share. Give proper credit to collaborators, co-writers, and contributors.

If you are inspired by another artist's work, that is wonderful — but do not pass off their work as your own. If you wish to share arrangements or covers, ensure you have the necessary licences. See our Copyright & Takedown Policy for full details.

5. Keep It Appropriate

SongShare is a Christian platform serving the Gospel music community. All content and interactions should be consistent with the values and spirit of this community.

Content that is not permitted:

Sexually explicit, obscene, or pornographic material. Gratuitously violent or graphic content. Content promoting illegal activities, substance abuse, or self-harm. Content that promotes hatred, intolerance, or discrimination against any individual or group. Profanity, vulgar language, or blasphemous content.

6. No Harassment or Bullying

Harassment of any kind is not tolerated on SongShare. This includes but is not limited to:

Sending unwanted, repeated, or threatening messages to other users. Publicly humiliating, mocking, or belittling another user or their work. Targeting someone based on their race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, denominational background, or any other personal characteristic. Sharing another user's personal information without their consent (sometimes called “doxxing”). Coordinated campaigns to mass-report, downvote, or silence another user.

7. No Spam or Self-Promotion

SongShare is not a platform for unsolicited advertising. The following activities are considered spam:

Posting the same comment or message repeatedly across multiple songs, profiles, or pages. Using comments or reviews primarily to promote your own work, products, or services rather than engaging with the content. Posting links to external websites unrelated to Gospel music or the SongShare community. Creating fake accounts to artificially inflate engagement (views, comments, follows).

Naturally mentioning your own work in relevant contexts (e.g. “I wrote a similar song about this topic”) is perfectly fine — the key is genuine engagement rather than promotion.

8. Commenting & Reviews

Comments and reviews are a valuable part of the SongShare experience. They help creators improve and feel appreciated. When leaving a comment or review:

Be constructive. Even if a song is not to your personal taste, you can acknowledge the effort and craft involved. Be specific. “Great song!” is nice, but “The bridge in this song is really powerful — the way the melody lifts at ‘His mercy endures’ gives me chills” is much more meaningful. Be honest but kind. If you have suggestions for improvement, frame them positively. Avoid comparing one creator unfavourably to another. Do not use the review system to settle personal disputes.

9. Song Requests & Collaboration

SongShare allows users to request songs and seek collaborators. When using these features:

Be clear about what you are looking for and what you can offer in return. Respect other users' right to decline a request without explanation. Do not pressure or repeatedly contact someone who has not responded. Ensure any collaboration agreements regarding rights, credits, and royalty splits are discussed and documented outside of SongShare. SongShare is not responsible for the terms of private collaborations between users.

10. Safeguarding

SongShare is committed to safeguarding. As a platform for users aged 18 and over:

Do not create accounts for or on behalf of children or young people under 18. Do not share content that exploits, endangers, or harms children in any way. If you become aware of any safeguarding concern involving a SongShare user or content, please report it to us immediately and, where appropriate, contact the relevant authorities.

11. Reporting & Enforcement

If you encounter content or behaviour that violates these Community Guidelines, please report it to us at SongShare.co.uk@gmail.com.

We review all reports and take appropriate action, which may include: issuing a warning, removing content, suspending accounts temporarily, or permanently terminating accounts. We aim to handle all reports within 5 working days.

Our goal is always to be fair, proportionate, and transparent. Where possible, we will explain our decisions and give users an opportunity to respond before taking permanent action.

12. A Note on Grace

We are a community of faith, and we believe in grace. If you make a mistake — whether an accidental copyright issue, an intemperate comment, or a misunderstanding — we will work with you to resolve it. Our first instinct is always restoration, not punishment.

However, persistent or deliberate violations, especially those that harm other members of our community, will be addressed firmly. We owe it to every creator on SongShare to maintain a safe, encouraging, and honourable space.

13. Changes

We may update these Community Guidelines from time to time to reflect new features or community needs. We will notify users of material changes through the Platform.