CEO.CA House Rules

Updated: January 1, 2023

CEO.CA is an online community platform for investors to share knowledge and track stocks in real-time. Our mission is to promote information symmetry in various global investing markets in order to help users make more informed investment decisions. We seek to provide a safe and open space for users to share their research, ask questions, and network with their peers as they would at a quality investment conference. To achieve these goals and maintain a positive culture, we must uphold a certain standard for civil discourse.

The House Rules, Privacy Policy and Terms of Service collectively make up the « CEO.CA User Agreement » that governs a user's access to and use of CEO.CA .

CEO.CA provides a moderated investment community platform which means that ‘free speech’ is not an absolute and while we do our best to not interfere with the discussion, community users who fail to respect the House Rules may result in CEO.CA moderators taking one or more of the following enforcement actions:

• Removal of the offending post;
  
• Handing out a penalty, being a temporary restriction on posting privileges;
  
• Handing out a channel ban, either temporary or permanent, being a restriction on a user’s ability to post in a specific channel;
  
• Handing out a site ban, either temporary or permanent, being a restriction on a user’s ability to access the platform in its entirety through his or her account; or
  
• Silencing a user, either temporarily or permanently, being a total restriction on a users ability to post on the platform whatsoever.

While the moderation team will attempt to give verbal warnings to users before suspensions, they are not obligated to do so, especially in context of the actual offending messages. To report abuse including harassment or defamation, please email moderator@ceo.ca with links to offending posts and a description of how the posts are abusive or defamatory.

House Rules are a constant work in progress and moderators/site owners have the ability to evaluate and make rulings on specific situations even if they are not yet specifically covered in these rules. Let us know what you think on the #modpolicies channel.

THESE ARE THE CEO.CA HOUSE RULES:

Participation of Insiders, Issuers and Promoters

We encourage representatives of public companies to leverage CEO.CA and it is routine they do so. However, we require all users who are in a business relationship with any public company, be it consulting, employment, affiliate or otherwise, to disclose their conflicts openly on their profile or in their posts pertaining to the company they are in a business relationship with. Any insiders who are found to be participating in a company’s channel while not disclosing their identity and connection to the company may be silenced and outed publicly so other users can put previous posts in context.

No Posting (or Linking) of Level 2 Information

Lvl2 information is a proprietary product offered by the exchanges, whether CSE, TSXV or TSX, and is to be used only by the person who holds a license to access such information. CEO.CA is also supported by its paying subscribers of #CEOPro, and it is thanks to their support this site is here for all to use. As such, we ask that Lvl2 information not be posted in any public channels.

Buyer Beware and Do Your Own Due Diligence

CEO.CA members discuss high-risk stocks which can lose their entire value. The opinions shared on CEO.CA by users may contain major bias and or factual inaccuracies. Stay skeptical of everything you read here and everyone posting on the site. Verify information, get help from a qualified financial professional and do your own thorough due diligence before making investment decisions.

Defamatory Statements

Defamation is not a matter of civil discourse. It is a legal matter, no matter where in the world you live. Every user on CEO.CA needs to be acutely self-aware that their comments about a company, a person, or a third-party can be held against them if those comments are perceived to injure or damage their reputation. While CEO.CA does everything possible to protect our user's private information, CEO.CA can not protect anyone from litigation, even behind their username and will comply with government authorities when required by law. Please choose your words wisely to avoid legal entanglement. CEO.CA may be required to provide records such as email accounts, IP addresses and deleted messages among other metadata if directed by the courts.

Guidance to Avoid Defamatory Statements:

• DO NOT make false or misleading claims including claims of criminal behaviour against a company or any person associated with a company.
• ENSURE any claims made against a company or any person associated with a company can be verified with independent and public information which should be included in your post.
• ENSURE you are aware of the legal liability of your drafted comment before posting it to the public.

User Decorum

We understand that you may not like another user or something someone else says. That's normal. Instead of sending an abusive message however, you can do the following:​

• Ignore: If you don't like another user, you can use the Ignore feature and never have to see their messages again;
• Block: Blocking another user means you never have to see their messages again and they will not see your messages either;
• Flag: If someone is engaging in behaviour that is against site rules (or generally questionable behaviour), instead of harassing them, simply flag the post so the CEO.CA moderators can evaluate it;
• Respectfully Disagree: If someone is sharing a point of view that you disagree with, it's ok to disagree constructively with what they are saying. In fact we encourage this but DON'T attack the user personally. This will result in you receiving a penalty no matter how wrong or right you believe the initial post is.

Rules & Penalties

The below categories of messages/representation constitute unacceptable behaviour on CEO.CA. Note that all of these rules apply across all public channels, private channels, direct messages, and in some instances even outside of CEO.CA. Since employees of CEO.CA do not have access to messages communicated in private channels, any reported behaviour violating any of the policies below must be accompanied by screenshots within the provided channel. Any attempt to photoshop or otherwise fabricate evidence for another user’s ban will result in a lifetime ban for the reporting user. The site may impose penalties beyond the scope of the actions below, depending on the discretion of administrators and compliance with legal authorities.

Users that receive 5 or more penalty actions in the course of the past year of activity can be subject to harsher account control restrictions such as blocking/limiting of posting abilities, channel-specific banning, silencing, or a full site ban.

SPAM (Leading to Escalation)

Penalty: 3 Days

Spam is the action of saying the same widely known piece of information over and over again. Spam can be seen in many contexts, ranging from someone trying to attract viewers to another product/stock/site, to attempting to “dominate” a conversation. If someone says something egregiously used out of the natural flow of a conversation, that’s spam. If someone repeatedly makes the same comment or point without providing new context or details which disrupts the channel discussion, that’s spam.

Examples:

• “Hey $KASH investors, have you heard about $TSLA? EVs are the future!”
  • While Tesla is a legitimate company, it’s in a completely different industry and was brought up pro-actively by the user, not in the flow of any conversation.
• “Hey $KASH investors, have you heard about $COIN? It’s a much better company!”
  • While $COIN is another company in the same industry, this was a completely un-prompted message that has nothing to do with the stock.
• “Here’s a weekly reminder that the president’s previous company was a scam and went
  • Repeating the same information regularly on a board without introducing new information makes a statement a viable candidate for being spam, even if the statement is true itself.
• “With all my $KASH gains I’m gonna buy a Tesla. EVs are inevitable and crypto will have a rough next two years.”
  • In this context, $TSLA, even though completely off topic, fits within the natural flow of a conversation. Acceptable.
• Spam also extends to DMs as well in sending a similar message to multiple members in an unsolicited fashion.
  • Note: Spam type messaging may be left by moderators if it is considered to be general banter and does not lead to escalation.

Brigading

Penalty: 3 Days

Brigading is defined as the act of several members entering a community in order to push an agenda / affect sentiment in a transient manner. Oftentimes this behaviour is associated with buy/sell activity in a coordinated fashion. This is difficult to stop with warning, so any identifiable instances of brigading will be met with immediate suspensions without warning. Brigading can also include a coordinated group of people who simply “like/react” to certain posts as well.

Examples:

• A group of 7 members enters a chatroom with little post history and rapidly talks up the stock for a brief period (under a month), then leaves.
  • While buy/sell behaviour cannot be explicitly linked, it can be implied if this action occurs on multiple boards.

Competitive Self-Promotion

Penalty: 3 Days - Permanent

Users who promote their personal services to another site outside of CEO.CA if it has an offering that competes with CEO.CA, whether it’s a level 2 service or community forum, can be grounds for suspension based on the context of those messages. Users who wish to promote themselves should email hello@ceo.ca to evaluate the collection of sponsorship and partnership options available.

Examples:

• “Recycling community here is pretty dead. You should head over to my group chat to have a real discussion on resource upcycling. www.bit.ly/abc”
  • This is directing valid, on-topic community discussion away from CEO.CA to an alternative site.
• “You should join the HotStocks group on Telegram for real tips before they happen. PM me for an invite.”
  • This is also directing valid, on-topic community discussion away from CEO.CA to an alternative site.
• “I have an email list and a Telegram for stock alerts and my newsletter, join the link here – www.bit.ly/xyz”
  • This is acceptable as an email newsletter and notification twitter are one way information streams that do not compete with community discussion that could happen on CEO.CA.

Cross-Tagging Spam

Penalty: 3 Days

Promoting another stock: “spamming another ticker” by using the $TICKER #TICKER function or simply referencing another stock (without the $TAG function) lowers the quality of site content and is not allowed. If discussion of another stock fits within the flow of a conversation, that is okay (as long as it is not constant, which is subject to the discretion of the moderator to determine).

Example:

• “Hey $ABML group, check out $LICY $AMY”
  • While these are relevant stocks, there’s no effort to make a meaningful connection with the $ABML community and interrupts the flow of conversation (unless someone was actively asking about other recycling stocks).

Off-Topic Discussion

Penalty: 3 Days

While CEO.CA is a friendly community and some level of casual discussion is understandable and expected, users should make every attempt to maintain the discussion on company specific or sector channels to matters related to the stock or sector in focus. Users that habitually contribute content that strays too far in this respect will be subject to moderator actions.

Insult/Personal Attack

Penalty: 7 Days

Personal attacks occur when members display overtly aggressive behaviour towards a specific user. “Overtly aggressive” can include: name calling, belittling of intelligence/personality, shouting/annoying text formats directed toward the user (i.e. all caps). No discussion should be directed at a user, only at what a user is saying. “Discredit the investment thesis, not the investor.”

There is now a zero tolerance policy for personal attacks. In the past, there has been some leniency towards this behaviour (whether it’s in tonality like in a sarcastic/dismissive tone or in situations where the targeted user truly does say something without valid reasoning or thought, which created a grey area of subjectivity. This grey area of subjectivity has created confusion for members, which is why CEO.CA will be placing further emphasis in moderating posts that violate this rule.

Examples:

• “You’re such an idiot for believing in the CEO.”
• “You have to be so naïve to think that plant can be built in 2 quarters, I have a bridge to sell you.”
• “YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT LITERALLY EVERYTHING!!!.”
• “Don't listen to what @USER is saying, he still lives in his mom's basement.”
• “Oh look, it's captain pumper here again.”
• “You’re a paid shill of this company.”
• “Everything you say is a lie. Get outta here.”
  • This is a grey area and dependent on community reaction. The user in question might actually have a history of giving misleading/misconstruing statements. In this scenario, the user in question might get suspended. The user making the accusation might also get suspended. Or neither. This will be up to the moderator’s discretion.

Profanity and Vulgarity

Penalty: 7 Days

While we are not prudes at CEO.ca, excessive profanity and/or vulgarity does not make for a welcoming environment for the vast majority of users. Users are required to refrain from excessive swearing, profanity or sexualized speech in their posts, especially if it is directed at or towards other users. In the case of direct messages, users are expected not to engage in this kind of speech unless both parties are comfortable.

Blaming

Penalty: 7 Days

Blaming is defined as a scenario whereby a user is aggressively blaming another user for their own actions such as getting them into a stock that has fallen in stock price. Trying to shift blame to another user instead of taking responsibility for your actions is not acceptable on CEO.CA. That being said, if it is proven factual that any user was distributing false or misleading information then CEO.CA will use its best efforts to remove those posts and penalize/ban the individual spreading false information.

Examples:

• "I lost all my money listening to your lies!"
  • This is grounds for a 7 day suspension without warning. It is ultimately up to each user to do their own due diligence to assess the veracity and validity of each statement from every member, especially for investment decisions.

Misinformation

Penalty: 7 Days - Permanent

Misinformation is spreading of false information deliberately, even when known that this information is false. The range of this violation will depend on the severity of this misinformation.

For example, one person pointing to Tesla’s gross margins as 30%, and another person saying they’re at 25% can be acceptable (it depends on whether regulatory credits are counted towards gross margin calculation). In this scenario, the more acceptable solution is to go with what the local accounting standards are of the country the stock is traded in (in the United States, regulatory credits can be factored into gross margin so the correct official number Tesla reports is 30%. If a short wants to keep pointing out that it’s 25% without regulatory credits every time that is fine). If someone says gross margin is 0% without regulatory credits, that person will probably be corrected by the community as blatantly false. If a user keeps saying it’s 0%, there’s grounds for a minimum 7 day suspension for spreading misinformation. If a newly registered user (or previously inactive user) goes and posts that Tesla has 0% gross margin on multiple boards as focused posting activity, that is grounds for instant permanent suspension.

Pattern of Instigation

Penalty: 30 Days

Pattern of instigation is defined as a situation whereby a user regularly attempts to upset a group of users through their words or actions. It does not matter how sophisticated or articulate a member’s messages are, through subtext. If a moderator determines that a user is instigating/baiting others to react in a manner that creates escalation, that user will receive a lengthy suspension.

Multi-Account

Penalty: Account Deletion & Potential Lifetime Ban

Please use a single account on CEO.CA and do not share your account with anyone. Using multiple accounts, or multiple persons sharing a single account, is prohibited and may result in permanent suspension from CEO.CA.

Examples:

• A user could be banned on one account and create a new one to continue the conversation.

Threats and Bullying Policy

Penalty: Mod Review - Permanent

Threats and bullying that could affect a user’s physical, mental, or emotional state are not allowed on CEO.CA. This can include:

• Doxxing someone’s account by publishing private or identifying information; or typically with malicious intent; or
• Causing physical harm; or
• Sharing information to a certain party in/outside CEO.CA; or
• Targeting particular users to one or more channels for the purpose of ridicule or harassment.

Examples:

• “I know where you work, you’re just a lame high school teacher at Santa Vista high school.”
• “Just so everyone knows this guy works at Shopify in Toronto.”
• “You better watch out. I’m an ex-Marine. I know how to find you.”
  • This is an explicit threat with enough relevant context that it goes beyond general rage to something that might be actionable upon.

Hate Speech

Penalty: Mod Review - Permanent

This is defined as attacking someone (or making derogatory comments about various 'groups of people') on the basis of their personal identity (i.e. gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, family status, marital status, culture). Even if the statements are not directed at specific CEO.CA users, any form of hate speech is not tolerated.

Using hate speech in derogatory terms also falls under this category.