Community Guidelines
Spotty Community Guidelines
Discover is for helpful, anonymous kite spot sharing. These guidelines are part of the Terms: they say what may be published in Discover, how reports work, and what moderation does.
Spotty has no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. Content that breaks these guidelines is taken off Discover, and accounts that post it or abuse others can be turned off.
Allowed
- Real kite spots with useful names.
- Public locations that are appropriate to share.
- Honest spot settings that help other riders understand conditions.
Not Allowed
Each of these rules is a ground on which moderation takes a spot off Discover. A spot that moderation takes off Discover names the rule it breaks.
- Private homes, private yards, or other private or sensitive places.
- Unsafe, misleading, fake, or deliberately inaccurate spots.
- Names with harassment, hate, threats, sexual content, profanity, or slurs.
- Spam, advertising, or repeated low-quality content.
- Places where sharing creates safety, access, or privacy problems, such as protected areas or land closed to the public.
- Anything illegal, or anything that infringes the rights of others.
The Name Filter
Spotty checks every spot name automatically, with a list of restricted words and character patterns, when a spot is created, renamed, or published. A name the filter refuses cannot be saved or published, and the app says why. Spotty's operator also checks the names already in Discover with the filter, and takes a spot whose name it refuses off Discover. A filter can be wrong both ways: report a name it let through, and write to support if it refused a fair name.
Reporting
In the app, use Report spot on a public spot, with the reason and, if you like, details. Reporting hides that spot from your Discover feed right away and sends it to moderation. Anyone, also without a Spotty account, can report a spot by email, as the support page describes.
A person reviews every report, normally within 24 hours. Moderation then takes the spot off Discover, or leaves it when it follows these guidelines. You see what moderation decided on your reports in the app, under Profile, Hidden Discover content; a report sent by email gets the answer by email. Spotty never tells the spot's owner who reported it.
Hiding
Use Hide this contributor to hide the current and future public spots of the same anonymous contributor, for you only. No report is sent. Profile, Hidden Discover content lets you undo it. Spotty never shows contributor identities in the app.
What Moderation Does
- Takes a spot off Discover. Its owner keeps it as a private spot, but cannot publish it again until moderation releases it. It is off Discover for everyone, everywhere, until then.
- Turns off an account. For serious or repeated breaches, or abuse of other users, Spotty can turn off the account's sign-in, for a time or for good.
- Tells the authorities where the law requires it, such as the police when content suggests a threat to someone's life or safety.
Spotty decides diligently, objectively, and proportionately, with regard to the rights of everyone involved, including the freedom of expression. The name filter only finds names; every decision on a report and every hold is made by a person.
Why, And How To Contest It
When moderation takes your spot off Discover, the app shows it on the spot: when it happened, what it means, the rule it breaks, why it breaks it (for a spot that is illegal, which law), how moderation came to it (a report, the name filter, or Spotty's own review), and how to contest it. When Spotty turns off an account, it tells the account's email address the same.
To contest a decision, tap Ask for a review on the spot, or write to support@spotty.murri.me within six months, with the reference the app shows and why you disagree. The same applies if you reported a spot and disagree with what moderation decided. Spotty looks at the decision again, with what you wrote, reverses it if it was wrong, and answers by email. You can also take a decision to court.