Community Guidelines

Crosschatter is a platform for meaningful human connection — across text, voice, video, communities, feeds, and forums. These guidelines apply to every feature on the platform and help ensure that every user has a safe, respectful, and genuine experience. By using Crosschatter, you agree to follow these guidelines at all times.

1. Be Respectful

Respect is foundational to everything we do here. This applies to all interactions: chat, DMs, communities, the feed, forums, video calls, and public watch mode.

• Treat all users with dignity regardless of background, beliefs, or identity.
• Engage in good faith — listen, share your perspective, and allow others to do the same.
• Accept that people hold different opinions, especially in political and debate contexts.
• Use appropriate language and maintain a civil tone, even during heated debates.
• Respect others' boundaries, including if they decline to discuss a topic or end a conversation.

2. No Harassment or Bullying

Harassment of any kind is strictly prohibited across all features — including chat, DMs, communities, the feed, and forums:

• Personal attacks: Targeting someone with insults, threats, or intimidation.
• Stalking: Repeatedly contacting someone who has asked to be left alone, including across multiple features or after a block.
• Doxxing: Sharing, threatening to share, or soliciting someone's personal information.
• Brigading: Coordinating with others to mass-report, spam, or target a specific user or community.
• Sexual harassment: Unwanted sexual comments, requests, advances, or solicitation.
• Cyberbullying: Repeated negative behavior intended to harm or humiliate.

If someone asks you to stop contacting them or ends a conversation, you must respect that immediately. Circumventing a block by creating new accounts is a bannable offense.

3. No Hate Speech or Discrimination

Crosschatter is a global, diverse community. Content that promotes hatred or discrimination based on any of the following is not permitted on any part of the platform:

• Race, ethnicity, or national origin
• Religion or lack thereof
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Age
• Disability or health conditions
• Socioeconomic status
• Veteran status
• Immigration status

This includes slurs, dehumanizing language, stereotypes used to demean, calls for violence against groups, and promotion of hateful ideologies or organizations.

Note on political discussion: Debate features and political matching are designed for good-faith discussion of ideas. Criticizing political positions, governments, or policies is allowed. Targeting people for who they are — not what they believe — is not.

4. Keep It Appropriate

Maintain appropriate content standards across all chat modes, communities, the feed, forums, profiles, and public sessions:

5. Protect Privacy

Respect the privacy of everyone on the platform, including your own:

• Don't share personal information: Avoid sharing your full name, address, phone number, school, workplace, or other identifying details with strangers.
• Don't pressure others for personal information: Respect it if someone doesn't want to share details about themselves.
• Don't share others' information (doxxing): Never post or share another person's private information — this includes their real name, location, contact info, photos, or anything they haven't chosen to make public.
• Keep private conversations private: Do not share screenshots or content of private chats or DMs without the consent of all participants, unless reporting a safety concern.
• Watch Mode consent: Do not take, share, or use screenshots or recordings of public chat sessions without the knowledge of participants. Participants in Watch Mode have chosen to be visible, but this does not grant permission for external distribution of their content.

6. Be Authentic

Crosschatter is built for genuine human connection. Deceptive behavior undermines that:

• No impersonation: Do not pretend to be another person, celebrity, public figure, or Crosschatter staff.
• No catfishing: Do not use fake photos or systematically misrepresent your identity to deceive others.
• No bots or automation: Automated accounts, AI chat bots, and scripted accounts are prohibited. All accounts must be operated by a real human.
• No multiple accounts to evade bans: Creating new accounts after being suspended or banned is a violation and will result in permanent removal.
• Be honest about your intentions: Anonymous chatting is allowed, but anonymity does not mean deception.

7. Community Standards

Communities, group chats, and public posts extend your reach. With that comes additional responsibility:

8. Political & Debate Features

Crosschatter includes political matching and debate features designed to facilitate genuine dialogue. These features come with specific expectations:

• Debate and political discussions must remain good-faith exchanges of ideas. Debate is not a license to harass.
• Do not use hotbed questions or debate matching to recruit for extremist organizations, radicalize users, or coordinate real-world harm.
• Do not submit false or deliberately misleading hotbed questions designed to skew matching or troll other users.
• Crosschatter does not endorse any political position. We provide a platform for discussion — the responsibility for what is said lies entirely with users.

9. Endorsements & Reputation

The endorsement and reputation system is designed to surface trustworthy contributors. Abusing it undermines the community:

• Do not coordinate with others to exchange endorsements for the purpose of artificially inflating scores.
• Do not withhold or grant endorsements as a form of harassment, coercion, or bribery.
• Reputation scores are a community signal — gaming them is a violation of the community's trust.

10. Message Citations

The citation system allows users to add sources to support claims in conversations. Use it honestly:

• Do not add deliberately misleading, irrelevant, or harmful URLs as citations.
• Do not mark messages as "citation needed" repeatedly or in bad faith as a harassment tactic.
• Do not use citations to direct users to phishing sites, malware, or prohibited content.

11. No Illegal Activity

Do not use any feature of Crosschatter for illegal purposes, including:

• Drug dealing or solicitation of controlled substances
• Selling, distributing, or soliciting illegal goods or services
• Financial fraud, scams, phishing, or money laundering
• Hacking, credential theft, or distributing malware
• Human trafficking, exploitation, or coercion
• Copyright infringement, piracy, or unauthorized distribution of protected content
• Any content involving minors in a sexual or exploitative context (zero-tolerance)
• Threats of physical harm against any person

We cooperate fully with law enforcement when required and will proactively report suspected illegal activity — including CSAM — to appropriate authorities.

12. No Spam or Manipulation

Keep the platform genuine and useful for everyone, across all features:

• No spam: Don't send repetitive, mass, or unsolicited messages in chats, DMs, communities, or the feed.
• No advertising: Don't promote products, services, or external websites without prior permission.
• No solicitation: Don't request money, donations, or financial transactions from other users.
• No self-promotion abuse: Sharing your own work occasionally is fine; using every conversation or community to promote yourself is not.
• No manipulation of platform systems: Don't exploit the matching algorithm, citation system, endorsement system, or any other feature through automation, multiple accounts, or coordinated schemes.
• No filter fraud: Don't misrepresent your location, age, or interests in matching filters.

13. Age Requirement & Child Safety

Crosschatter is strictly for users 18 years of age or older:

• You must be at least 18 years old to use Crosschatter in any capacity, including as an anonymous user.
• Users under 18 are not permitted on this platform. Accounts found to belong to minors will be immediately terminated.
• Any attempt to misrepresent your age to gain access is a violation of these guidelines and our Terms of Service.
• Any sexual content involving minors — in text, images, video, or any other form — results in an immediate permanent ban and report to authorities. There are no exceptions and no appeals.
• Grooming behavior — attempting to build a relationship with a minor for exploitative purposes — is strictly prohibited and will be reported to law enforcement.
• Do not seek out, solicit contact from, or attempt to connect with minors through any feature of this platform.

14. Mental Health and Crisis Support

We care deeply about the wellbeing of everyone in our community:

• If someone expresses suicidal thoughts or intention to self-harm, please take it seriously and respond with care.
• Encourage them to contact a crisis service and share resources if you can.
• Do not encourage, romanticize, provide instructions for, or make light of self-harm or suicide.
• Do not use mental health struggles as a weapon in arguments or to mock others.
• Report conversations involving crisis situations so our team can provide appropriate follow-up.

15. Reporting Violations

Help us keep Crosschatter safe by reporting violations when you see them:

• In-chat reporting: Use the report button during or after any conversation, on messages, or on user profiles.
• Community reporting: Use the report option on community posts, comments, or members.
• Feed & forum reporting: Use the report option on any post, reply, or thread.
• Email: Send detailed reports to safety@crosschatter.com.
• Emergencies: Always contact local law enforcement for immediate threats to safety.

Include as much detail as possible — usernames, timestamps, and descriptions of the behavior. Screenshots are helpful but not required.

All reports are reviewed by our moderation team. False reports made in bad faith to harass other users may result in action against the reporter.

16. Consequences of Violations

We take violations seriously. Consequences depend on severity, intent, impact on others, and prior history:

• Warning: Minor first-time violations may result in a formal warning.
• Content removal: Prohibited content will be removed immediately.
• Feature restriction: Specific features (e.g., community posting, public chat) may be restricted.
• Temporary suspension: Repeated or moderate violations may result in temporary account suspension.
• Permanent ban: Severe violations or repeated offenses result in permanent account termination.
• IP ban: Users who create new accounts to evade bans may receive IP-level bans.
• Legal action: Illegal activity will be reported to law enforcement. We will cooperate fully with investigations.

Certain violations (such as any content involving minors sexually, credible threats of violence, or severe harassment) result in immediate permanent bans with no warning and no appeal.

17. Appeals

If you believe a moderation action was taken in error, you may appeal:

• Email appeals@crosschatter.com with your username, a description of the action, and your explanation.
• Appeals are reviewed by a moderator different from the one who made the original decision.
• You will receive a response within 5–7 business days.
• Decisions involving child safety content, illegal activity, or severe violations are not eligible for appeal.
• Repeat appeals without new information will not be reviewed.

18. Updates to Guidelines

These guidelines may be updated to address new features, situations, or community needs. We will notify users of significant changes via in-app notice or email. Continued use of Crosschatter after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated guidelines.

19. Contact Us

For questions about these guidelines or to report a concern:

General inquiries: support@crosschatter.com
Safety concerns: safety@crosschatter.com
Appeals: appeals@crosschatter.com