Community rules

Why these exist

Table42 puts two people who have never met at a table in a real place. That only works if both of them can assume the other will behave like an ordinary adult in public. These rules are the shortest version of that assumption we could write down.

They are not a code of conduct for a workplace. They are the handful of things that would make somebody else's evening bad.

What we expect of you

• Be the person in your profile. Same name, same face, same age.
• Turn up, or cancel in time so the other person can do something else with their evening.
• Treat the venue as a guest. Follow its house rules, order something, and leave the table as you found it.
• Take a no the first time. That applies to a second meeting, to contact details, and to anything else.
• Keep what somebody tells you at the table to yourself.

What is not allowed

Any of these can end an account, and the more serious ones end it immediately and permanently.

• Harassment, intimidation, stalking or threats, at a table, in the app or afterwards.
• Treating Table42 as a dating app: sexual advances, sexual content, or pressure of that kind. It is not what this is, and repeating it after being told is not a misunderstanding.
• Hate, slurs or discrimination on any ground, including race, origin, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.
• Violence, or anything that puts another person in danger.
• Photographing or recording somebody without their agreement, or sharing what you took.
• Sharing another member's name, photo, address, phone number or anything else they told you privately.
• Selling, recruiting, promoting a business or campaigning at a meetup.
• Pretending to be somebody else, using another person's identity, or being under 18.
• Anything unlawful, and anything involving a minor.

What happens when a rule is broken

A person decides, not a system. Today that person is Tim Gelhard. There is no automatic ban, and no account is closed by a score.

Depending on what happened, we may talk to you about it, suspend the account while we look into it, or close it permanently. Something that puts another member at risk goes straight to the last one.

We tell you what the account status is and, where it is fair and safe to do so, what it was about. We will not always be able to tell you who reported you, because that is how somebody gets reported twice.

How to report somebody

Report it in the app, or write to [email protected] with what happened and when. A report is read by a person, and reporting somebody does not tell them you did it.

If you are in immediate danger, or something criminal has happened, call 112 first. Table42 is not an emergency service and cannot act at that speed. Tell us afterwards and we will act on our side.

Do not use a report to settle a disagreement about who paid or who was more interesting. It costs us the attention we owe to a real one.

What we tell you when we act

Whenever we remove something, suspend an account or close one, you get that in writing, in your own language, at the same time as it happens. It says what we did, which rule it was under, what it was based on — a member's report, a venue's report, something we saw ourselves, or a legal requirement — how long it lasts, and how to challenge it.

We will not name the person who reported you. What happened can be described; who said so cannot, because that is how somebody gets targeted a second time.

The one exception is where telling you immediately would put somebody at risk or defeat a legal order. Then you are told as soon as it is safe to, and we record why it was late.

How long it lasts

A suspension always has an end or a next step, stated when it starts: either a number of days, or that it lasts while we check something specific. An account is never left suspended indefinitely with nobody looking at it — that is a closure nobody had to justify, and it is not how we work.

A first breach that put nobody at risk is usually a warning and nothing else. Warnings are recorded, so a second one is not treated as a first.

Some things end an account immediately and permanently, with no warning: violence or the threat of it, sexual coercion or sexual content directed at a member, anything involving a minor, using another person's identity, and anything criminal.

How long we take

These are what we work to. Table42 is one person, so they are honest targets rather than a service level, and we would rather write down the real ones than promise you a number we miss.

• We confirm we have your report within two working days.
• Where nobody is at immediate risk, we decide within seven working days.
• Where somebody is at immediate risk, we act the same day, suspend first and check afterwards.
• We answer a challenge within fourteen days.

If we get it wrong

If your account is suspended or closed and you think that is a mistake, reply and say so. A person reads it and can reverse it.

You keep your data rights whatever happens to your account: you can ask for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. A suspension does not take those away.

These rules will grow

The list above is short because Table42 is small and nothing complicated has happened yet. It will get longer as we learn what actually goes wrong, and it needs a lawyer's eye as much as the terms do.

A change is a new version with a new date, published on this page, and shown to you before it applies.