Rules
FTC Endorsement Guides: What US Influencers Must Disclose
What the FTC Endorsement Guides and its influencer guidance say US creators must disclose about paid posts, gifted products and other brand ties, and where the disclosure has to appear.
Contributor
Liam A. Turner
Liam A. Turner is the editorial byline assigned to this area. Subject: Digital Culture and Online Life: ever, scroll. Practical guides, comparisons and the questions behind a choice form this editorial remit. This is an editorial pen name used by the publication, not a claim of an independently verified personal identity.
Rules
New York Freelance Isn't Free Act: What Creator Contracts Must Include
New York City and New York State both require written freelance contracts at $800 or more. Here is what a creator agreement must state, when payment is due and what remedies exist.
Rules
PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25: Which Privacy Rules Apply to Online Communities
How federal PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25 differ for people who run online communities or audiences in Canada, and what each asks of a community operator.
Guides
Private vs Public Social Profile Safety: The Tradeoffs
Private vs public social profile safety comes down to reach, search visibility, copying, and exposure. See when public, private, or mixed settings fit.
Features
Family digital boundary case: a two-week household experiment
Family digital boundary case showing how a fictional household defines problems, writes exceptions, tests two rules, measures effects, and revises its agreement.
Guides
How to set digital boundaries that survive real life
Set digital boundaries by naming one problem, watching your phone use for a week, changing the environment, and testing one rule for fourteen days.
Guides
Digital wellbeing and boundaries: a practical guide
A workable digital boundary names a trigger, an action, an exception and a review date, then gets tested against sleep, missed calls and conflict.
Rules
Online trend problems: false origins, bad metrics, and missing context
Online trend problems: false origins, metric errors, platform bias, copied content, missing context, coordinated activity, fast decay, and amplification risk.
Reviews
Online trend signals compared: volume, velocity, reach, and diffusion
Online trend signals compared across volume, velocity, reach, engagement, search interest, unique participation, diffusion depth, persistence, and platform scope.
Maintenance
Viral claim verification checklist for posts, images, audio, and video
Viral claim verification checklist for preserving posts, finding origins, checking dates, inspecting media, confirming sources, and recording uncertainty.
Rules
Creator economy problems: a framework for symptoms, evidence, and controls
A framework for creators to diagnose unstable reach, income concentration, hidden labor, rights, enforcement, harassment, burnout, and measurement problems.
Guides
Online trends and virality: a guide to signals, spread, and context
Online trends and virality differ: one is rising attention, the other is spread. Read the signals, the paths, and the context before you amplify.
Maintenance
Creator business checklist: contracts, disclosures, rights, and records
Creator business checklist for offers, contracts, sponsor disclosures, claims, copyright, permissions, invoices, security, records, backups, and review dates.
Reviews
Creator revenue models compared: ads, sponsors, members, and sales
Creator revenue models compared by control, predictability, margin, workload, audience fit, disclosure needs, platform dependence, and payment timing.
Guides
Creator economy guide: work, revenue, and business risk
Creator economy guide covering creative work, platforms, audiences, revenue streams, costs, contracts, taxes, measurement, burnout, and business risk.
Features
A fictional moderation policy case: testing a harassment rule change against the evidence
A fictional forum tests a harassment rule change: reviewer agreement, notices, appeals, metrics, a language-specific rollback, and the limits of what the case shows.
Rules
Platform moderation problems: a map
Platform moderation problems arise across rules, detection, review, notices, appeals, worker support, and measurement, sometimes in opposite directions.
Reviews
Platform moderation models compared by control and review
Platform moderation models compared: assess automated, employee, contractor, volunteer, community, user-control, and external-review systems by role and remedy.
Features
How US internet access gaps differ by rural, tribal, and urban county type
Compares FCC availability data with NTIA and Pew adoption surveys to explain rural, tribal, and urban internet gaps and how federal programs fund buildouts.
Features
Testing a scrolling habit change in a fictional experiment over two weeks
A fictional editor tests notification batching, direct feed entry, stop cues, and bedtime rules over two weeks, with invented results and a reusable template.
Guides
Scrolling habits and attention: a practical guide
Scrolling habits and attention: how feed cues, autoplay and ranking shape a session, and how to test one change against a result you can check.
Features
A fictional parasocial boundary plan case: time, money, contact, and four weeks of results
Parasocial boundary plan example: follow a fictional podcast listener who tracks time, spending, contact, social ties, source checks, and invented four week results.
Rules
What goes wrong with parasocial relationships
Parasocial relationship problems explained: identify spending pressure, misplaced trust, isolation, boundary crossing, fan aggression, impersonation, and distress.
Features
Testing an online identity decision against the evidence
Online identity example: review a fictional illustrator's stage name, portfolio, audience boundary, credential claim, payment request, and impersonation risk.
Features
A Fictional Meme Literacy Workshop Example
Meme literacy workshop example: a fictional 75-minute library plan for reading, tracing, describing, creating, and assessing memes, with invented results.
Rules
What goes wrong with digital communities
Digital community problems: diagnose unclear purpose, hostile norms, uneven moderation, volunteer burnout, raids, privacy leaks, lost archives, and failed appeals.
Guides
Opt Out of People Search Sites: DIY Steps and Checks
Opt out of people search sites with a site-by-site DIY sequence for Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, Intelius and FastPeopleSearch, plus California's DROP, Google's Results about you tool, and checks for paid services.
Guides
How to Spot AI Generated Images Social Media Users Share
To spot AI generated images social media users share, inspect visual clues, search with Google Lens or TinEye, and check available metadata and provenance.
Maintenance
A practical digital communities checklist
Digital communities checklist: review purpose, membership, rules, governance, moderator authority, privacy, security, archives, accessibility, appeals, and closure.
Reviews
Digital community models compared by purpose and governance
Digital community comparison: weigh open forums, private groups, chat servers, wikis, creator spaces, professional networks, and federated communities.
Guides
Digital communities: purpose, norms and governance
Digital communities run on shared purpose, visible rules and real moderation work, so judge one by its conduct and decisions rather than its member count.
Reviews
Meme formats compared by production load, context, and communication need
A comparison of image macros, reaction images, GIFs, short video patterns, text patterns, and remixes, with guidance on choosing by context and communication need.
Guides
Online identity and self-presentation: a practical guide
Online identity and self-presentation explained through how accounts, personas, credentials and audiences shape what a profile really proves about you.
Reviews
Parasocial, social, fan, and paid connections compared
Parasocial and social connections compared: distinguish one-sided familiarity, mutual friendship, fan community, creator replies, memberships, and client work.
Guides
How to set boundaries around creators and online personalities
Set parasocial boundaries by reviewing time, spending, notifications, expectations, advice, private contact, fan activity, social ties, and exit options.
Maintenance
A pass-or-review checklist for social media feeds
Social media feed checklist: identify the surface, source, date, recommendation path, evidence, ad status, context, controls, privacy risk, and next action.
Guides
Social media feeds: a practical guide to reading them well
A feed is a ranked selection, not a record of what everyone posted. Here is how posts enter, why order shifts, and how to read one deliberately.