House rules

Who can post what

Shops post to the people who follow them. Community organisers post to the people who joined their group. Members of a group can reply to its posts. That is the whole of it.

There are no private messages on Here in the City, and that is deliberate. Everything written here is visible to the group it was written in, which is what makes it possible for anyone to report it and for us to look at it.

What isn't allowed

• Anything illegal, or that encourages something illegal
• Abuse, harassment, or going after someone personally
• Anything that puts a child at risk, or that isn't suitable for one to come across
• Hateful content aimed at people for who they are
• Untrue claims about a person or a business — including reviews written by the business itself
• Spam, scams, and advertising dressed up as something else
• Someone else's personal details, including photographs of people who have not agreed to it

Reporting something

Every post and reply has a Report link. Choose the closest reason and send it. You need to be signed in, so that reports come from real accounts.

Reports come to us, never to the person you reported. They are not told who reported them.

If you think something is a crime in progress or someone is in danger, contact the police first. We are not an emergency service.

What happens then

• We look at every report. We aim to do it within one working day.
• Anything that looks illegal comes down straight away, and we keep a record of what it was and what we did. We report it to the police where the law requires.
• Anything against these rules comes down, and we tell the person why.
• A group's organisers can also hide or delete replies in their own group without waiting for us.
• Posting repeatedly against these rules means losing the ability to post. Serious cases mean losing the account, and we may refuse a new one.

If we got it wrong

Reply to the email telling you something was removed and say why you think it should not have been. A person will read it. We would rather fix a mistake than defend one.

What we keep

A record of reports and what was done about them, because we have to be able to show that the system works. We keep the reporter's identity to ourselves. See the privacy notice for how long we keep things and what rights you have.

Organisers and shops

If you run a group or a shop here, you are responsible for what you post, and for dealing with replies in your own group. That is part of the agreement. If you cannot keep up with it, tell us and we will help rather than leave it.

If you can see who signed up

Running an event means seeing people's names, and sometimes their answers to questions you asked — an allergy, an access need, a shirt size. That list is given to you for one job: running that event.

• Keep it on the event page. Don't copy it into a spreadsheet, a group chat or your own records.
• Don't use it to contact people about anything else, and never for marketing.
• Ask only what you actually need. Every question is a thing somebody has to hand over to come along.
• Tick sensitive on anything about health, diet, beliefs or access needs. It means people are asked to agree before they answer, which is both the right thing and the law.
• Running something with another group means they see the same list. Only ask a group you would be comfortable handing that list to — because that is exactly what you are doing.

If someone drops out, their answers are deleted automatically. Anything you copied elsewhere isn't, which is the best reason not to copy it.

These rules can change as the site grows. The version you are reading is the one that applies now.