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Community policy

Community policy

These are the rules for the social parts of Drink Watch — corroborations, reactions, comments, and witness reports. They exist to keep this a space survivors can come to without being re-harmed.

Comments

  • No links. Comments cannot contain URLs or domains.
  • No @-mentions. Don’t direct comments at specific accounts or handles.
  • Don’t name individuals. Two capitalised words that look like a person’s name will be rejected automatically. This is best-effort, not perfect — but the principle is firm: describe what happened, not who. Local place names are allowlisted.
  • No profanity, no shouting. Comments with profanity or excessive caps are blocked.
  • 280 characters max. Keep it concise.
  • Comments can’t be edited. If you regret a comment, the original reporter can lock the thread (if they have their manage code), or three community flags will auto-hide the comment.

Reactions and corroborations

  • The three reactions are Helpful, Be careful, and Similar experience. There is no downvote button by design — disagreement is handled with the flag button, not by visibility games.
  • Corroboration means "I was there and what they described is real or plausible." It’s one tap per pin per person (best effort — we go by IP-hash, which isn’t perfect).

Witness reports

A witness report is a full report linked to an existing pin — "I saw something similar at this venue around that time." They go through the same anti-spam pipeline as the original report. They are not a shortcut for piling on.

Naming venues

You may include a venue name on a report. We display it with a permanent disclaimer underneath: "Venue name added by community user, not verified. This is not an accusation against the venue." Naming a specific person is not allowed anywhere on the site. If you suspect a venue is unsafe, consider also contacting the venue’s management and your local police non-emergency line.

Limitations of the moderation

We rely on automated filters and community flagging. We are not a verification service and we do not have a 24/7 moderation team. The name-pattern filter on comments will sometimes incorrectly reject a comment that mentions a landmark with two capitalised words — when that happens, please rephrase.

What gets removed

  • Comments naming individuals.
  • Comments threatening violence or retaliation.
  • Reports that fail the geographic check (not within the city, or in open water).
  • Anything that 3+ different community members flag.
  • Anything the original reporter withdraws using their manage code.