Community Guidelines

DRAFT — pending legal review, not yet in force. This document is a working draft prepared for the founder's review and eventual sign-off. It is not legal advice. Once finalised, breaking these Guidelines is treated as a breach of our Terms of Service — see that document's §4 and §10 for how enforcement ties in.

Service: Rillo Document version: 2026-07-24 Last updated: 2026-07-24 Audience: members and partner businesses of Rillo.

These are our house rules. They're written for people, not lawyers — the legal version of "don't be a jerk" lives in the Terms of Service; this document is the readable one. If you want the data-handling and privacy detail, that's in PRIVACY.md.

1. Why this app exists

Rillo is for making real, platonic friends — not for dating. Every part of the app is built around that: you tell us what kind of friendship you're looking for (new friends, activity partners, casual meetups), you discover people nearby who share your interests, you can form small friend groups called Circles, and you can find local events hosted by partner businesses to actually go and do something with people. It only works if people show up as themselves and treat each other with respect. That's what the rest of this document is about.

2. Be real

  • Use your own name and your own photos. Your profile should be a genuine, current representation of you — not a stock photo, a photo of someone else, an old photo that no longer looks like you, or a fictional persona.
  • Your age matters. You must be 18 or older to use the service, and your date of birth must be accurate. We check this at sign-up and it's enforced in the app itself — there's no way to create an account claiming to be under 18 or to fudge your real age.
  • Get verified if you want to. You can add a verified badge to your profile with a quick selfie. A real person on our team compares it to your existing profile photos to confirm it's genuinely you — there's no automated face-matching or biometric scanning, and your verification selfie is never shown to anyone else. It's optional, but it helps everyone trust that the people they're meeting are who they say they are.
  • One account, one you. Creating multiple accounts, or a new account to get around a restriction we've placed on an old one, isn't allowed.

3. No dating or sexual solicitation

This is not a dating app, and we mean that as a hard rule, not a vibe. Don't use your profile, your bio, your messages, Circles, or events to:

  • solicit dates, romantic relationships, or sexual contact;
  • send unsolicited sexual content or comments;
  • frame yourself or your intentions in a way that's clearly about dating/hookups rather than friendship.

If what you're looking for is romance, this genuinely isn't the right app, and profiles or messages that make it clear that's the intent will be moderated.

4. Respect and anti-harassment

Treat other members and partner businesses the way you'd want to be treated meeting a new friend in person.

Not okay, ever:

  • harassment, bullying, or repeated unwanted contact after someone has asked you to stop or has declined to match/connect with you;
  • hate speech or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic;
  • threats of violence or self-harm content;
  • deliberately making someone feel unsafe, including in a Circle group chat or at an event.

We take safety concerns raised by other members seriously, and they're one of the specific reasons you can report someone (§7).

5. Meeting people in person

Circles and events exist to get you offline and actually hanging out with people — that's the point. It's also a moment where a screen stops being between you and a stranger, so use good judgement:

  • Meet in public for a first hangout, especially one-on-one.
  • Tell someone where you're going and who you're meeting.
  • Arrange your own transport rather than relying on someone you just met.
  • Trust your instincts. If something feels off, you don't owe anyone an explanation for leaving.
  • We run identity checks like age verification and optional photo verification, and we moderate content — but we cannot vet every member's real-world intentions or conduct, and we don't attend events with you. Meeting someone from the app, whether 1:1, in a Circle, or at a partner event, is at your own risk. See the Terms of Service §8 for the formal version of this.

6. Prohibited content and conduct

In addition to §3 and §4 above, you may not post, send, or otherwise use the service for:

  • Illegal activity of any kind, or content promoting it.
  • Impersonation — pretending to be another real person, a business, or a Rillo staff member.
  • Spam and scams — unsolicited promotion, phishing attempts, "get rich" schemes, or trying to move people off-platform to run a scam.
  • Unsolicited commercial solicitation — selling goods or services to other members outside the events marketplace that partner businesses use.
  • Content involving minors in any sexual or exploitative context — this results in an immediate, permanent ban, and, where required by law, a report to the relevant authorities.
  • Threats, hate, and content that endangers others, as covered in §4.
  • Circumventing moderation — creating new accounts to evade a ban, coordinating with others to mass-report someone falsely, or trying to get around the reporting or verification systems.

Photos specifically

  • Photos must be of you, and must be a genuine likeness — no photos of other people, celebrities, cartoons/avatars as your primary photo, or heavily altered images that misrepresent your appearance.
  • Photos are subject to moderation: any member can report a photo, which queues it for our moderation team to review and either approve or remove. Photos found to breach these Guidelines are removed, and repeated violations affect your account standing.
  • If you're verified and you change your photos afterwards, your verification is automatically re-checked — you keep your badge while the re-check is pending, and it's only removed if the re-check doesn't pass.

7. Circles and event conduct

Circles are small friend groups formed around shared interests and availability, with a group chat once everyone accepts. The same respect rules apply in a group setting as one-on-one — a Circle isn't a place to be a different, ruder version of yourself because more people are watching. If someone in your Circle isn't observing these Guidelines, you can leave, and you can report them the same way you would report a 1:1 conversation.

Events, hosted by partner businesses:

  • As a member: register honestly (don't register for spots you don't intend to use, especially when an event has a waitlist and someone else could take your place), show up if you've registered, and treat the venue, staff, and other attendees with the same respect as anywhere else on the platform. If you can't make it, cancel your registration so your spot can go to someone on the waitlist.
  • As a partner business: list events accurately (real date, time, location, price, capacity), honour registrations you've accepted, and if you must cancel or change an event, do it with as much notice as you can and make sure affected members are notified. Your own conduct and your staff's conduct at your events is held to the same standard as members' conduct under these Guidelines.

8. Reporting

If someone breaks these Guidelines, report them rather than confronting them or letting it go. You can report a profile directly, and you'll be asked for a reason:

  • Inappropriate content
  • Fake profile
  • Harassment
  • Spam
  • Safety concern
  • Other

What happens after you report: the report goes to our moderation team's review queue, tagged with the reason you selected. We don't share who reported whom. Depending on what we find, the outcome ranges from no action (if the report doesn't hold up) to content removal, a warning, or a ban on the reported account — see §9 below for the range of consequences. We don't promise a specific review timeline or that you'll be told the exact outcome of someone else's moderation case.

You can also block another member directly from your side at any time, independently of reporting them — a block is immediate and you can undo it later if you change your mind. Blocking and reporting are separate tools: block someone you just don't want to see or hear from again; report someone whose behaviour we should know about.

If you're ever in a situation that feels like an emergency, contact local emergency services first — reporting to us is not a substitute for that.

9. Consequences

Enforcement is proportionate where practical:

  • Warning / content removal — for a first, less serious issue (for example, a photo that doesn't meet the photo rules, or a bio that needs editing), we may just remove the content or warn you rather than restrict your account.
  • Temporary deactivation while we look into something — an account under active review can be paused (the same reversible mechanism as the self-service "pause my account" option) while we investigate, without it being a final decision.
  • Ban — a profile found in serious or repeated breach is banned. This immediately deactivates the account and removes it from discovery; a banned account can't just sign back in.
  • Immediate ban, no warning — for the most serious breaches (harassment, threats, safety concerns, illegal content, or anything involving a minor), we act immediately without a prior warning step.
  • Partner accounts can be suspended (temporarily, reversible) or closed (permanently) for the same kinds of reasons, scaled to a business relationship rather than an individual one — see Terms of Service §5.2.

If you think a moderation decision affecting you was made in error, you can contact us — see Terms of Service §15.

10. Relationship to other documents

  • TERMS.md — the formal contract. These Guidelines are incorporated into it by reference; breaking them is a breach of the Terms.
  • PRIVACY.md — what data we collect (including what happens to your data if your account is banned or you delete it) and your rights over it.

This document is a draft. It has not been reviewed by a lawyer and does not take effect until it is formally published.