GatherThat Community Rules

Version 0.1 for review | Last updated September 23, 2026 | Effective date [DATE]

GatherThat is a community for people who enjoy collecting. You are welcome to share your interests, ask questions, compare collections, disagree respectfully, and learn from other collectors. Everyone must be able to participate without threats, harassment, discrimination, exploitation, or fraud.

These Rules apply to profiles, usernames, avatars, collection titles and descriptions, photographs, public and private collections, shared links, comments, messages, groups, invitations, offers, and interactions with our support team. They also cover off-platform conduct directly connected to GatherThat when reliable evidence shows a threat to community safety, fraud, retaliation, or evasion of enforcement. We do not police unrelated private beliefs or lawful activity.

1 Our zero tolerance policy

If reliable evidence establishes that you have violated these Rules, GatherThat will immediately terminate your account and subscription and stop future renewals. There is no standard warning, strike system, or entitlement to a second chance. You will not receive a refund of prepaid fees, except where applicable law requires one. We will export your eligible data and provide it through a secure, private location as described below.

Zero tolerance applies to confirmed conduct. A report, disagreement, or unpopular opinion by itself is not proof. A human reviewer assesses the evidence, context, authenticity, and the particular rule before making a final violation finding. We preserve mandatory consumer rights and apply legally required fairness and proportionality standards. You may challenge an incorrect finding.

2 Treat people with dignity

Disagree with an idea, attribution, valuation, or collecting practice without attacking the person. Respect different backgrounds, interests, experience levels, and budgets. Constructive criticism, good-faith questions, and courteous disagreement are welcome.

Do not bully, repeatedly insult, humiliate, sexually harass, stalk, threaten, intimidate, or coordinate harassment of anyone. Do not use slurs or dehumanizing attacks, promote hatred, or discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, caste, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or another protected characteristic. Jokes, quotations, coded language, and images are not excuses for targeted abuse.

3 Respect boundaries in messages and groups

Contact people for a legitimate purpose connected to the community. Respect a refusal, an unanswered invitation, and a request to stop. One courteous relevant message is not automatically harassment; repeated unwanted contact, pressure, sexual solicitation, or intimidation is prohibited.

Do not bypass a block through another account, a group invitation, a friend, or another channel. Do not flood inboxes, mass-invite members, send unsolicited bulk promotions, post deceptive links, or recruit members into scams. Promotions are permitted only where the feature and group rules expressly allow them, with any material commercial relationship disclosed.

Group owners and moderators must apply these Rules fairly. Local group rules may be stricter but cannot authorize prohibited conduct. Do not misuse moderation privileges to extort, discriminate, retaliate, or suppress legitimate safety reports. Group owners are not automatically responsible for an unknown member violation, but must not knowingly facilitate it.

4 Protect privacy and consent

Do not disclose or threaten to disclose someone’s home address, precise location, private contact details, financial information, identity documents, or other sensitive information without a lawful basis and any required permission. Do not publish private messages or private collection details to shame, pressure, or expose someone.

Private means private: do not obtain access deceptively, defeat sharing restrictions, or redistribute private material without permission. You may provide relevant evidence confidentially to GatherThat, legal advisers, regulators, or law enforcement, or make other legally protected disclosures. This rule must not be used to silence a good-faith report of misconduct.

5 Keep content safe and lawful

Do not post or distribute child sexual abuse material, sexual exploitation, nonconsensual intimate images, sexual deepfakes of real people without consent, or content soliciting or facilitating abuse. Do not groom minors, glorify or recruit for violent extremist activity, make credible threats of violence, or encourage someone to harm themselves or another person.

Do not use GatherThat to distribute pornography, offer sexual services, or display gratuitous graphic injury or cruelty. Lawful artistic, literary, historical, or educational depictions associated with a collectible may be shared in an appropriate context if they do not exploit anyone, target a person, or otherwise violate these Rules. Use a content warning and available audience restrictions for sensitive material. Do not use explicit imagery as a profile image or send it unsolicited.

The fact that a collection contains a controversial book, historical object, or fictional depiction does not by itself establish a violation. We distinguish documentation and critical discussion from praise of violence, recruitment, targeted abuse, and exploitation. Historical context never excuses material that is unlawful to possess or distribute.

6 Be honest about items and transactions

Describe ownership, condition, provenance, authenticity, signatures, edition, pricing, and availability honestly to the best of your knowledge. Disclose uncertainty and label reproductions, replicas, and altered items accurately. A valuation disagreement or an honest mistake corrected in good faith is not fraud.

Do not knowingly sell or promote stolen goods, pass off counterfeits as authentic, fabricate provenance, impersonate a seller, manipulate reviews, create fake demand, misrepresent payment or shipping, or deceive another member for money or access. Do not list or arrange transfers of illegal goods or use collections as a cover for prohibited commerce. Rights holders’ copyrights and trademarks must be respected; owning an item does not automatically authorize uploading a full copy of a protected work.

7 Protect the service and the reporting process

Do not steal accounts, distribute malware, phish for credentials, exploit vulnerabilities to access others’ data, evade payment, manipulate membership benefits, or intentionally disrupt GatherThat. Do not scrape private information or use automation to spam or manipulate the community. Report suspected vulnerabilities privately to [SECURITY CONTACT]; authorized testing and legally protected research are not prohibited by this rule.

Do not knowingly submit false reports, manufacture or alter evidence to mislead a reviewer, organize abusive mass reporting, threaten reporters, or retaliate against anyone for seeking help. A report made honestly is permitted even if it is not substantiated. Do not create or use another account to evade termination or restrictions.

8 Reporting a concern

Use the reporting controls where available or contact [COMMUNITY SAFETY EMAIL]. Identify the account or content, give links or message identifiers, describe what happened and when, and provide relevant evidence you already lawfully possess. Block unwanted contact where available. If someone faces immediate danger, contact local emergency services; GatherThat is not an emergency response service.

Do not redistribute illegal material to prove a report, investigate through unauthorized access, or publicly identify a suspected reporter. For suspected child sexual abuse material, provide a location or identifier without downloading or forwarding it. We limit access to reports and do not promise absolute confidentiality where disclosure is legally required.

9 How we decide and act

We may remove content or temporarily restrict access while we investigate credible concerns. A final finding relies on sufficient, reliable evidence considered in context, such as authenticated messages, original content, relevant service records, or corroborated reports. Screenshots may be evidence but are assessed for authenticity and completeness. We consider evidence of account compromise and whether conduct actually falls within a prohibited category.

Human reviewers make final violation decisions. We may use technical tools to detect spam, security threats, or content requiring review; automated flags alone do not establish a violation. We explain material use of automation in a decision where applicable. Review of private material is limited to what is necessary and lawful, consistent with our Privacy Notice.

When a violation is confirmed, termination takes effect immediately. The notice identifies the rule, the conduct and reasons sufficiently to understand the decision, the account and subscription consequences, and how to appeal and retrieve eligible data. We may withhold protected details where legally required or necessary to protect others, while supplying the explanation required by law. We preserve or report evidence when legally required.

10 If you believe a decision is wrong

Contact [APPEALS EMAIL OR FORM] with your account identifier, the decision reference, and why you believe it is incorrect. Appeals are free and may be submitted for at least six months after the decision, or longer if required by law. You can appeal without access to the terminated account. A qualified human reviewer, different from the original reviewer where practicable, considers your explanation and communicates a reasoned outcome without undue delay.

An appeal reviews whether the finding or action was mistaken; it is not a promised second chance for a proven violation. Access ordinarily remains disabled during review. If we made a mistake, we reverse the decision, restore access and eligible data where possible, and provide an appropriate refund or service credit for lost paid access, without limiting statutory remedies. Available regulator, court, and legally applicable out-of-court dispute rights remain unaffected.

11 Secure return of your data

After termination, we automatically prepare your eligible data export at no charge. We aim to provide it within 14 days and keep it available for at least 30 days after notifying you, subject to any longer access rights required by law. We explain any necessary delay. We notify your verified contact address how to access a private, authenticated download location that does not restore community access.

The export includes collection records, your uploaded media where lawful, and other eligible content in usable formats such as CSV, JSON, and original files. We protect other people’s information and exclude credentials, confidential safety reports, and content that cannot legally be supplied. We explain material exclusions where lawful. Downloads use expiring access links and identity checks; a new paid subscription is not required.

We retain only the information permitted or required for purposes described in our Privacy Notice, including legal obligations, billing, disputes, security, and backups. Termination and link expiry do not remove statutory privacy or data-access rights. The Terms and Conditions at /terms-and-conditions explain the corresponding contract provisions.

12 Changes to these Rules

Each version shows its last-updated and effective dates. We notify members of material changes before they take effect, except where an urgent legal or safety need requires earlier action, and obtain renewed acknowledgement when required. We do not retroactively treat previously permitted behavior as a violation of a newly added rule. Contact [COMMUNITY SAFETY EMAIL] if you need help understanding a rule before participating.