Thank you for using Sparc, a unique social network for students and professionals to jump start their futures! Sparc offers a platform for students to find great tutors and for employers to connect with and host events for promising students and professionals. To foster a safe and supportive environment for our community, we expect our users to follow this Code of Conduct when using our services. 

Tutoring Session Etiquette

Sparc is committed to students and their learning outcomes. We believe respect and academic integrity is a fundamental part of the learning process, and we work hard to preserve it.

Be respectful: Remember to use respectful language and behavior when speaking with tutors. Profanities, offensive language, and rude behavior are not tolerated on the platform. This includes requests for contact information and sexual harassment such as flirting and inappropriate comments.

Be patient: It may take your tutor a minute or two to read through your homework questions. Be patient and give them time to read and respond.

Explain your work: Explain your homework, teacher’s instructions, and any specific questions you have as best you can. Remember, tutors don’t have access to your course material, so make sure to send them all of the information about the question you’re working on. 

Focus on schoolwork: Our tutors are very cool and interesting people, so you may want to chat about non-academic things. However, tutors need to focus on helping students, so be sure to only ask them about your school work.

Tutors don’t give answers: Tutors are here to help you be successful with your learning. This means that tutors will provide guidance to help you find the answer yourself.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is cheating! Sparc does not condone academic dishonesty in any way. If your tutor notices that you have plagiarized, your tutor may report you to Sparc and your account may be terminated.

Respect tutors’ privacy: Please do not ask tutors any personal questions. Tutors are happy to support you through your homework questions, but will not answer questions outside academic topics. Doxing and the sharing of tutors’ profile pictures is strictly prohibited.

Don’t share personal information: For privacy reasons, please do not share personal information such as your last name, location, social media accounts, or personal contact information. Tutors do not require any personal information to provide you with the help you need.

Professional Community Rules

Sparc aims to provide a trustworthy and productive professional community. To that end, we require you to use your true identity on Sparc, provide accurate information about yourself or your organization, and only share information that is real and authentic. To maintain a professional platform, members should treat each other with respect and civility.

Don’t share false or misleading content: Do not share content in a way that you know is, or think may be, misleading or inaccurate, including misinformation or disinformation. Do not share content to interfere with or improperly influence an election or other civic process. Do not share false content or information, including news stories, as though they are true or likely true. Do not post “deepfake” images or videos of others or otherwise post content that has been manipulated to deceive. We may prevent you from posting content from sites that are known to produce or contain misinformation. 

Provide accurate information about yourself: We don’t allow fake profiles or entities. Do not post misleading or deceptive information about yourself, your business, your qualifications, work experience, affiliations, or achievements. Do not use an image of someone else, or any other image that is not your likeness, for your profile photo. Do not associate yourself on Sparc with a business or organization that you are not actually professionally associated with. Do not use or attempt to use another person's account or create a member profile for anyone other than yourself. And do not share your Sparc account with anyone else.

Don’t scam, defraud, or deceive others: Do not use the platform to facilitate romance scams, promote pyramid schemes, or otherwise defraud members. Do not share malicious software that puts our members, platform, or services at risk. Phishing attempts are not tolerated.

General Community Standards

Keep it clean: Please keep discourse and interactions on Sparc clean. Avoid vulgar, sexual, obscene, profane, or offensive topics and language. Don’t talk about gambling or drugs. Keep our platform excellent.

Spread love, not hate: We don't allow content that attacks, denigrates, intimidates, dehumanizes, incites or threatens hatred, violence, prejudicial or discriminatory action against individuals or groups because of their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, age, or disability status. Do not use racial, religious, or other slurs that incite or promote hatred, or any other content intended to create division.

No spamming. We don't allow untargeted, irrelevant, obviously unwanted, unauthorized, inappropriately commercial or promotional, or gratuitously repetitive messages or similar content. Do not use our messaging feature to send promotional messages to people you don't know or to otherwise spam people.

No harassment: We don’t allow bullying or harassment. This includes targeted personal attacks, intimidation, shaming, disparagement, and abusive language directed at other members. Do not reveal others' personal or sensitive information (aka "doxing") or incite others to do the same. You may not engage in trolling or other repetitive negative content that disrupts other members or conversations on the platform.

Don’t engage in sexual innuendos or unwanted advances: We don't allow unwanted expressions of attraction, desire, sexual advances or innuendo, or lewd remarks. Do not send unwanted advances in messages, posts, or comments or send sexually explicit images to anyone on the platform.

Don’t share harmful or shocking material: We don't allow content that is excessively gruesome or shocking. We don't allow content, activities, or events that promote, organize, depict, or facilitate criminal activity. We also don't allow content depicting or promoting instructional weapon making, drug abuse, and threats of theft. Do not engage in or promote escort services, prostitution, exploitation of children, or human trafficking. Do not share content or activities that promote or encourage any type of self-injury. Do not share material depicting nudity or sexual activity.

Don’t threaten, incite, or promote violence: We don’t allow threatening or inciting violence of any kind. We don’t allow individuals or groups that engage in or promote violence, property damage, or organized criminal activity. You may not use the platform to express support for such individuals or groups or to otherwise glorify violence.

Don’t share material depicting the exploitation of children: We have zero tolerance for content that depicts the sexual exploitation of children. Do not share, post, transmit, or solicit child exploitation material through or using our platform. Do not use Sparc in any way to facilitate, encourage, or engage in the abuse or exploitation of children.

No illegal or dangerous goods or services: We don't allow content that facilitates the purchase of illegal or dangerous goods and/or services, prostitution, and escort services. We don't allow content that promotes or distributes fake educational and/or professional certifications, sale of scraped data, proxy test-taking, or instructions on creating forged official documents.

Respect intellectual property: We encourage everyone to create and share original content. Content that infringes someone else's intellectual property rights is prohibited on our platform and will be removed if we become aware of it.

We don’t tolerate abuse of our platform or services. Misuse of our services can have serious consequences, including, without limitation, being banned from our platform. If we learn that our services have been misused, we may take any action necessary to maintain the integrity of our platform and our community. This may include removing offending materials and terminating the accounts of users involved with misusing our platform.