Community Guidelines

iFixit is a global community of fixers. This site is designed to help people—from first-time fixers to pros—fix more stuff. Our online community is the core of iFixit. We’re all here to be helpful. So, ask a question. Answer a question. And hang out with us for a while!

If you’ve got a repair problem, the iFixit community is here to lend a hand. But in order for this community to function smoothly, we’ve got a few rules. By posting on iFixit, you’re agreeing to abide by the following community guidelines:

• Be kind.
  • Remember when you were working on that really hard thing that had you stumped? Imagine the person you're helping out when you post on iFixit is you back then. Give them the kind of advice you would have wanted when you were new to repair.
  • We’re all here because we want to talk about repair and help each other. So, rule #1 on iFixit is to be kind. Everyone is welcome here, and everyone should feel welcome. To that end, iFixit will not tolerate inappropriate or inflammatory posts, comments, or links.
  • What’s inappropriate? Ask yourself this question: Would you want someone that you care about reading or being on the receiving end of that post? If the answer is no—you probably shouldn’t post it. No name-calling, no rants, no picking fights, no harassment, and absolutely no abusive language.
  • Don’t discriminate against race, age, gender, political affiliation, etc. iFixit is an international community. People from all over the world come here for help, so it’s essential to refrain from insensitive or marginalizing comments. Even if you didn’t intend for your comments to be offensive, your submission could still be removed at our Moderators’ discretion.
  • If our Community Moderators become aware of any material on our site that is offensive in a sexual, racial, or cultural context—they will remove it from the site.
  • Encourage each other! Repair is hard, so let's make it fun and rewarding.
• Be constructive.
  • All posts on iFixit.com should be productive and constructive to helping people fix things. Our moderators may make edits to your post to facilitate the flow of helpful information.
  • Posting multiple guides for the same repair is not permitted. There should be one guide on iFixit for each repair, with the best and most current procedure, so that users aren’t confused about what to do.
  • Guides for pro-level repairs (that are too difficult/expensive for a typical DIY) should be listed as “technique”-type guides so they appear farther down the device page, not up at the top. They should also include a warning that they are written for professional use in the introduction, so that readers don’t get too invested before realizing this is probably not the answer they’re looking for.
• Keep on topic.
  • There are lots of places on the internet to talk about sports and politics. Do that over there. Talk about repair here. So-called “unboxing” videos may have something to do with a device we have a page for, but don’t include information on how to repair it.
    • Meta is is our special forum to discuss the use of iFixit including product discussion, community moderation, reputation points, and software bugs.
    • If you have a question about an order, our friendly customer service team would love to talk to you.
• Don’t cheat.
  • We award points in the form of reputation to community members who participate on the site. The more helpful other members find your submissions, the more reputation you get. People work hard for those points, so please don’t boost your reputation points through irreputable means. Don’t create multiple accounts to upvote your own posts. Don’t organize an upvoting ring. Don’t downvote someone else’s posts as a form of retaliation.

• If you see content that violates the community guidelines, start by downvoting it. If you have enough reputation, flag it as offensive.
• You can also report it on Meta and our Lead Community Moderators will take action as soon as we can. Most iFixit moderators are in the office during business hours in California, so if it takes a little while to get a response—just know that we’re not ignoring you.

We asked the AI to explain to us why using AI could be dangerous for repair advice.

ChatGPT’s response:

Caution is essential when using AI for repairs. AI lacks hands-on experience, real-time assessment, and may provide inaccurate advice, risking worsening issues. Its static knowledge may not address evolving technologies or unique circumstances, potentially leading to unsafe situations. Balancing AI with human expertise is crucial for accurate and safe repairs.

THAT SAID. AI can help you put together a pretty solid answer MUCH faster than you can type it out, it can also improve your grammar, or put bullet points into a thoughtful paragraph. Then you need to double check that the answer actually makes sense.

When AI doesn't know the answer, it tends to "hallucinate" and make up the answers—it will never say "I don't know." If a community member uses AI to write content for iFixit, they must check for accuracy and safety 100% of the time. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your AI use:

• Is it accurate?
• Is it safe?
• Is it helpful, or too generic?
• Does it pass the Turing test?

TLDR; As the author, you are responsible for conveying factually correct information.

• If a submission violates these guidelines, the post may be edited or deleted—depending on in the severity of the violation.
• Posts that break iFixit’s guidelines could result in the loss of a reputation points or the temporary suspension of the poster’s account.
• Repeated offenses will result in a site-wide participation ban.

• You must be 13 or over to participate on iFixit.
• We're all trying to make a living. You are welcome to use your profile page to promote your services, but do not promote your own commercial offerings in repair guides or Answers. As you build your reputation in the community, people will come to trust you and will seek out your services.
• Please keep your repair journey on the site. This means not posting personal contact information and asking your fellow fixers to call or email you for extra assistance or sending them elsewhere on the Internet. Our main goal is for everyone to be able to fix all of their own things. In order to do that effectively, and for iFixit to continue being the primary source for repair information for everyone, we are asking that all repair conversations be kept on the site. We want you to get the answers you need now, but we also want future fixers to benefit from that knowledge!
• Posting images with watermarks makes for a poor user experience and is not permitted. All content on iFixit is protected under the creative commons, please visit the previous link for more information. If you prefer that your image contains your personal label, the text must be at the edge of the photo and not obscure any main parts of the photo.
• If you’re not sure if it’s spam, check out our spam policy and commercial linking policies when linking to non-iFixit websites and web stores.
• If the content you add to iFixit does not follow the Community Guidelines, it could be deleted.

If you believe your content has been marked as spam or offensive by mistake, feel free to email us at community@ifixit.com with your questions or comments.

Remember: It might be easier to fix things when you've gone through five years of service training. But it's not necessary. Amateurs have changed the world!