Community Guidelines
Welcome to the KoboToolbox Community Forum. This is a shared space for users worldwide to collaborate, troubleshoot issues, share knowledge, and support data-driven impact for social good.
To ensure our community remains welcoming, secure, and constructive, all participants are expected to follow these guidelines.
Before You Post
To resolve issues quickly and keep discussions organized, please complete these three steps BEFORE posting a new topic:
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Check your form with the XLSForm Online Validator: Run your web forms and XLSForms through the XLSForm Online Validator to catch and fix syntax errors before asking for troubleshooting help.
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Read the documentation and tutorials: Search the KoboToolbox Help Center for existing step-by-step guides, user documentation, and tutorials.
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Search the forum: Search previous discussions using key terms to check if your question or issue has already been resolved.
Avoid Over-Promoting and Paid Applications
The KoboToolbox Community Forum is a collaborative space dedicated to peer support and open source knowledge sharing.
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No commercial promotion: Do not over-promote external tools, commercial platforms, or private websites.
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No paid applications or services: Advertising paid applications, paid consulting services, or commercial offers is strictly prohibited.
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Keep contributions authentic: Focus on open source practices, practical advice, and technical support without sales pitches or self-promotion.
Improve the Discussion
Help us build a high-quality resource by contributing thoughtfully to every conversation:
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Add value: Ensure your contributions advance the conversation. If you are unsure whether a post adds value, take time to refine your thoughts before publishing.
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Engage with existing topics: Browse active topics before starting a new one to connect with users discussing similar interests.
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Use community features: Use the Like button to acknowledge helpful answers instead of posting short, one-word replies.
Be respectfull and Civil
Maintaining mutual respect and professionalism across all interactions is essential:
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Criticize ideas, not people: Disagree respectfully by presenting reasoned counter-arguments rather than personal attacks, name-calling, or reacting solely to tone.
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Keep content clean and civil: Do not post offensive, abusive, sexually explicit, or hateful content.
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Respect community members: Refrain from harassment, griefing, impersonation, or publishing private details of others.
Protect Sensitive Data
Data security and privacy are critical, especially for nonprofit, humanitarian, and research organizations working in challenging environments:
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Never share credentials: Do not share account passwords, API keys, or access tokens anywhere on the forum, including in private messages.
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Remove personal data: Exclude names, phone numbers, identity numbers, and sensitive location data from attachments, screenshots, and posted code.
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Use dummy data: When asking for assistance with form troubleshooting or data analysis, replace actual datasets with anonymized or mock values.
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For more clarity, here is a working definition of sensitive data from OCHA and the Centre for Humanitarian Data [OCHA Data Responsibility Guidelines 2025]
Sensitive data: Data that, if disclosed or accessed without proper authorization, is likely to cause:
- harm (such as sanctions, discrimination) to any person, including the source of the information or other identifiable persons or groups, or;
- a negative impact on an organizationās capacity to carry out its activities or on public perceptions of that organization.
Sensitive data includes personal data as well as nonāpersonal data in a sensitive context. Nonāpersonal data in a sensitive context is information, in any form, that, while not relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, may, by reason of its sensitive context, put certain individuals and groups at risk of harm, including vulnerable or marginalized individuals and groups of individuals, such as children. The same types of data may have different levels of sensitivity in different contexts and sensitivity may change over time.
Some types of data are categorically considered sensitive include:
ā¢ Personal data (e.g. name, phone number, national identity number, date of birth)
ā¢ Disaggregated (householdālevel) assessment data
ā¢ Unprocessed individual survey results (microdata)
Keep Content Organized
Help maintain an orderly forum so community members can easily find answers:
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Post in the correct category: Choose the most relevant category for your topic.
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Avoid cross-posting: Do not duplicate posts across multiple categories or existing topics.
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Stay on topic: Avoid altering the topic direction midstream. Use a linked topic if you wish to start a different discussion.
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Omit signatures: Do not attach manual signatures, as user profile information is automatically attached to each post.
Intellectual Property and Moderation
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Share authorized content only: Only upload digital content, software, images, or media that you have explicit permission to share.
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Flag issues: If you encounter inappropriate behavior, spam, or privacy risks, use the flag tool to notify community moderators rather than replying.
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Terms of Service: All forum participation is governed by the KoboToolbox Terms of Service.
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AI-generated content: Do not share resources that have been generated using AI without comprehensive human review. If AI tools were used, this should be clearly disclosed (e.g., āThe examples in this resource were generated using ChatGPT and fully human-verifiedā).
Powered by You
This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and letās discuss! If thereās a critical or urgent issue that canāt be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.
Terms of Service
Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves ā and by extension, you and your data ā against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.
Summary
| Category | Key Standard | Required Action |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Validate forms & search existing resources | Run XLSForm Online Validator and search Help Center/Forum before posting. |
| Promotion | No overāpromotion or paid applications | Keep content nonācommercial and focused on openāsource peer support. |
| Civility | Respectful interaction | Criticize ideas, not people; avoid personal attacks or hate speech. |
| Moderation | AIāgenerated content | Do not share AIāgenerated resources without comprehensive human review. |
| Privacy | Protect sensitive data | Never share passwords or personal details; use dummy datasets when requesting help. |
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