Moderation Policy.

Reporting is anonymous, both ways

When you report a post, comment, message or account, the person you reported is never shown who reported them. Moderators are not shown either: they see the content, the category you chose and how often the account has broken the rules in the last 90 days, but not your name. Reports from verified members are sorted ahead of others of the same severity. Reporting the same thing twice adds no weight, and deliberately false reports are themselves a violation.

AI suggests, a moderator decides

When a report arrives, an AI model suggests a severity and a short reason, so the most serious reports reach the top of the queue. A moderator reads every report, can change the severity, and decides whether it is upheld. If the AI service is unavailable, reports still queue normally.

Comments from guests are screened automatically before they are published — any the screen is unsure about, or cannot check, wait for a moderator, as does every comment from a guest whose email is not confirmed, and a confirmed guest’s comments until a few have been approved. One report from a member takes a guest’s comment down until a moderator has looked at it.

The consequence ladder

When a report is upheld, the content is removed and a consequence follows. It depends on the severity and on how many times the account has been actioned in the last 90 days, counting this one:

• Low (spam, off-topic posts, mild language) — a warning for the 1st and 2nd; a 48-hour restriction for the 3rd and 4th; a 7-day mute for the 5th to 9th; a 30-day mute from the 10th.
• Medium (harassment, bullying, misinformation) — a warning for the 1st; a 7-day mute for the 2nd and 3rd; a 30-day mute from the 4th.
• High (hate speech, slurs, threats, doxxing, sexual content) — a 7-day mute for the 1st, with no warning first; a 30-day mute for the 2nd; a ban from the 3rd.

Administrators can also set rules that escalate faster when offences pile up in a short window, so a pattern is treated more seriously than an incident. Those rules only ever make a consequence stronger.

What each consequence means

• Warning — a notice. Nothing else changes, but it counts toward the next one.
• Restriction — for its length you can still read, comment and react, but you cannot start posts or threads, edit posts, upload photos, send messages or list tickets.
• Mute — read-only until it ends: no posts, comments, reactions, messages or friend requests, and no changes to your name or bio.
• Ban — read-only for good. The most serious bans also block the internet connection the account last used.

Reporting and blocking are never taken away.

You will be told

When action is taken, you get a notification saying what was actioned, the category of the report, and when any restriction or mute ends — and a notice sits at the top of the site for as long as it lasts. You will not be told who reported it, and notices never name the moderator who acted.

Appeals

If you think a decision was wrong, write to us from the contact page with the notification you received. An administrator reviews it and can lift a restriction, mute or ban early; the offence stays on the record. Ban evasion — new accounts, borrowed accounts — is a violation of its own.

Images

Every image a member uploads — to a post, a comment or a profile — is checked before anyone else can see it. An automated scan refuses images that are very likely explicit or violent, and holds borderline ones for a moderator. A moderator also approves each image from an account that is not verified, or that has not yet earned a set number of APP Points. An image that does not pass is deleted.

Images already on the site can be reported like anything else. One that breaks the guidelines is removed on review, and repeated image violations escalate like any other offence.

Who moderates

Moderation is carried out by the site owner and by volunteer moderators with scoped permissions — a moderator can act on reports and nothing else, and lifting a penalty takes a senior moderator or an administrator. Actions are logged with the account that took them. Moderators and staff cannot be blocked.