How reports and removals work

Nothing on this site is checked before it is published; a queue that one person has to empty would stop the site. Instead there are limits on how much a new account can post, a report link on everything, and moderators who act on reports. This page says exactly what they can do and what you can expect.

Reporting something

Every listing, event, trip, exchange post, forum post, comment, review, reference, circle and member profile has a Report link. Listings can be reported without an account, because the person harmed by a scam or a stolen photo is rarely a member. A report asks for a reason from a fixed list and an optional note. The reasons are:

Listings: Prohibited item or service · Counterfeit or replica · Scam or fraud · Uses my work or brand without permission · Publishes someone else’s personal details · Discriminates against people · Puts a child at risk · Already sold or no longer available · Event was not held as described · In the wrong category · Something else
Forum posts and comments: Spam or advertising · Abusive or hateful · Off topic · Wrong information · Something else
Messages: Threatens me or someone else · Puts a child at risk · Asks for money, payment details or a code · Pretends to be EduFabTech or someone else · Pushes me to another app or payment method · Harassment or hate · Sexual content I did not ask for · Shares someone’s private details · Spam or advertising · Something else
Trips: Puts someone at risk · Involves someone under 18 · Asks for money or offers to pay for hosting · Not a real travel plan · Advertising or selling something · Publishes contact details or an address · Uses a trip to look for dates · Abusive, hateful or discriminating · Pretends to be someone else · Something else
Members: Fake or misleading profile · Abusive, hateful or threatening · Seems to be under 18 · Asked for money or tried to move me off the site · Spam or advertising · Something else
Circles: Advertising or selling something · Abusive, hateful or discriminatory · Publishes contact details or an address · Used to look for dates · Puts someone at risk · Something else
Stay reviews: The stay never happened or the review is fake · Abusive, hateful or threatening · Discriminates against people · Shares someone’s private details · Not about the stay · Spam or advertising · Something else
References: The plan did not happen as described · Abusive, hateful or threatening · Discriminates against people · Shares my private details · Not about the stay, meeting or event · Something else

The person you report is not told who reported them. A report is read by a moderator, usually within a day. If you have no account and the content has no report link, use the contact form; for anything you believe is unlawful, you can also write to hello@edufabtech.com (see the legal notice).

What moderators can and cannot see

Moderators see what is public, plus what is reported. They cannot open private conversations: when you report a message, the reported message and up to ten before it are copied to the report, and that copy is all a moderator sees. Offers, exchange replies, calendars, home-card photos, friend-matching details, who sits at which table and who blocked whom are never shown to staff. The privacy notice lists these one by one.

What happens to reported content

A moderator either leaves the content up, or removes it. Removal is never silent: the author is told which rule the content broke — one from a fixed list per section — and how to appeal. The reporter's name is not passed on. The rule lists are:

Trips: It is not a real travel plan. · It advertises or sells something. · It asks for money or offers to pay for hosting. · It publishes contact details or an address. · It puts someone at risk. · It harasses, insults or discriminates. · It uses a trip to look for dates. · Trips are for people aged 18 or over. · It broke the rules for trips.

Exchange posts: It is not a real request or offer. · It advertises or sells something. · It publishes contact details or an address. · It puts someone at risk. · It harasses, insults or discriminates. · It uses the exchange to look for dates. · The exchange is for people aged 18 or over. · It broke the rules of the exchange.

Circles: Its description publishes contact details or an address. · It advertises or sells something. · It harasses, insults or discriminates. · It uses a circle to look for dates. · It puts someone at risk. · It broke the rules for circles.

Comments: The comment was not about the article. · The comment attacked a person rather than an argument. · The comment advertised or linked for its own sake. · The comment published someone’s personal details. · The comment broke the community rules.

Stay reviews: Abusive, hateful or threatening · Discriminates against people · Shares someone’s private details · Not about the stay · Spam or advertising · Other (see note)

A removed listing stays on record for 30 days and is then emptied; its page stops working. A removed forum post or comment is hidden, not deleted, so that a reply to it still makes sense. A circle is closed rather than deleted. A stay review that cannot be trusted — for example when the stay does not seem to have happened — is set aside with both sides told why (The stay does not appear to have taken place; The two accounts appear to belong to the same person; Reviews were traded or paid for; Other (see note)).

Restrictions and bans

Posting rights are withdrawn one part at a time. A member can be stopped from posting listings, from sending messages, from announcing trips and making offers, from organising events, or from posting in the forum — and keep every other part of the site. Each restriction is tied to a report, is visible to the member in their account, and can be appealed. A member whose messages are reported by 3 different members within 30 days (2 for an account less than 7 days old; only reports from accounts at least 3 days old count, and trusted long-standing members are not paused this way) is paused from starting new conversations until the reports are decided or 30 days pass; that pause is automatic, is lifted automatically, and does not stop replies in conversations that already exist. An account that exists only to spam, impersonate or harm is closed outright.

Blocking is yours, not ours: any member can block any other, in both directions, and the blocked member is never told — they see the same message as anyone whose message was not accepted.

Appealing

Every removal notice and every restriction carries a link to the contact form with the right topic already chosen. The topics are:

An appeal is read by a moderator who did not make the original decision wherever that is possible. You get an answer by email and in your notifications, normally within a week. If an appeal succeeds the content is restored or the restriction lifted; if it fails you are told why. You can take the matter further with the operator at hello@edufabtech.com, and nothing on this page limits your rights under the law of the place you live.

Moderators cannot judge their own cases

A moderator who made a report, is named in it, wrote the reviewed content or is the other party to a stay cannot see that report in the queue, cannot decide it and cannot lift a restriction on themselves. This is enforced by the site, not by policy alone. Every moderation action is written to an audit log that the operator can read.

Transparency

Reports and removals are counted. On request, and in any case once a year, the operator publishes how many reports were received, how many led to removal, how many were appealed and how many appeals succeeded — numbers only, never names. The first such summary will cover the site's first year of operation.