Community guidelines
Hallmates works when neighbors can trust what they read. These are the rules for every community, and how we deal with anything that breaks them.
How we treat each other
- Stick to facts, especially about money and the board. Say what you saw and when.
- Disagree with ideas, not people. No insults, name-calling or pile-ons.
- Keep private things private. Do not share another person's phone number, email, health, money matters or anything from a private message without their permission.
- The market is neighbor to neighbor. No selling for a business, no advertising, no chain messages.
- Report a post instead of arguing with it.
Never allowed
- Threats, harassment, stalking or intimidation.
- Hate or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, family status or any other protected trait.
- Sexual content, and anything that sexualizes or endangers a child.
- Content that is illegal, or that encourages violence, self-harm or dangerous acts.
- Pretending to be someone else, including a board member or the management company.
- Spam, scams, or links meant to trick people.
- Selling anything illegal, weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, medicine or animals in the market.
Check the market list with Muhammad: some communities may want to allow items this list forbids. Admins can already add their own market rules in the app.
Reporting, blocking and removal
| What you can do | What happens |
|---|---|
| Report a post, issue, listing, conversation or person (the ⋯ menu on each one) | Your community admin sees the report and reviews it within 2 days. The person you report is not told who reported them. |
| Block a person (in a conversation or on their profile) | They can no longer message you, and the conversation is hidden. They are not told. Blocking also tells your admin. You can unblock in Settings, Privacy and safety. |
| Decline a message request | The sender is not told. A neighbor you have not talked with must send a request first, and you choose who may send requests at all. |
| Ask for a review of a removal | Email admin@gethallmates.com. Someone at Fouta App LLC reviews it. |
Report is on posts, replies, issues, listings, events, conversations and profiles. Polls and shared documents come from the board and have no Report button; members can raise those with the admin through Help.
How content is moderated
- Your community admin reviews reports for your community within 2 days. Admins can delete any post, reply, issue, listing, event, poll or shared document that breaks these rules, and can pause or remove a member.
- Fouta App LLC backs up every admin. We look at reports of threats, child safety, illegal content or admin misconduct ourselves, can remove content or accounts in any community, and report illegal content to the authorities where the law requires it.
- Serious cases involving a child are handled as described on our child safety page.
Two parts are not built yet. (1) Reports reach only the community admin; nothing alerts Fouta App LLC to a report, and an admin cannot pass a report up. (2) Pausing or removing a member has no server route yet (I am adding it with the admin website). Apple's guideline 1.2 asks for timely responses to reports, so decide who watches reports across all communities and how quickly.
Hallmates has no automatic filter for offensive words or images. Apple's guideline 1.2 asks for "a method for filtering objectionable material". Invite-only membership, reporting, blocking and admin removal usually satisfy reviewers for small private communities, but a basic word filter would remove the risk.
What happens if someone breaks the rules
Depending on how serious it is: the content is removed, the person gets a warning from the admin, their membership is paused, or they are removed from the community. Threats and anything involving a child lead to immediate removal and may be reported to the police.