Community rules

01Who can use Friends

Friends is for people 13 and older. You confirm your age and accept these rules when you set up your profile, before you can add anyone.

You connect with people by finding their @handle and sending a request they accept, through an invite link, or by joining a league through a link, which also makes you friends with whoever made it. Search only matches the start of a handle, shows at most ten people, and never shows anyone who switched off Let people find me by @handle. There is no list of strangers or people you might know.

02What other people see

Other people see your name, your @handle, the messages you send them, the names of leagues you’re in, the name of any habit you count in a league or let a friend watch, and the reason you write when you change a day after noon the next day. None of it may:

• harass, insult or threaten anyone, or target them for who they are;
• contain slurs, hate symbols, sexual or violent content;
• pretend to be someone else, or contain someone’s private information;
• advertise anything or link anywhere.

When you change a day after noon the next day, everyone in the leagues that habit is in sees the change, the day it’s for and your reason in League updates, and anyone who sees it can report it from there.

A filter blocks some words in names, handles, league names, messages, quick messages and reasons, and in habit names others can see, but it can’t catch everything. Names and messages that break these rules are dealt with as section 5 describes.

03Messages, respect and watchers

Every message between people is sent by hand: a message someone types, up to 140 characters, or a one-tap respect. Each person can send up to 3 messages to one person and 20 messages and respect in all each day, and one respect per person a day.

Messages, respect, leagues and watchers are for cheering each other on. Don’t use them to pressure, shame or keep tabs on someone who doesn’t want it. League links can be passed on, so share them only where you’d welcome whoever joins.

If someone makes you uncomfortable, you can mute or unfriend them if they’re a friend, or block them, and they aren’t told.

04Reporting, blocking and muting

• Report: from the person’s profile, a message they sent (Report this message), their row in a league, a League update, a search result, or an invite they sent you. Choose what’s wrong: their name, a habit name, harassment or something else. You can also email the address above.
• Block: from the same places, or as part of a report. Blocking ends the friendship and any watching in either direction, takes one of you out of each league you share (you, unless you’ve been in that league longest), and stops them finding you, messaging you or inviting you. Unblock from Account › Blocked people; unblocking doesn’t make you friends again.
• Mute: from a friend’s profile. Their messages and respect stop arriving as notifications. You can also mute the alerts for a habit of theirs you watch.
• Nobody is told when you report, block or mute them.

05What happens after a report

• The report goes straight to the developer, with a copy of the person’s name, the habit or league name involved, and, if you reported a message they sent you, that message. It’s reviewed within a day.
• Depending on what happened, the developer removes the name, suspends the person from Friends (they can no longer search, message, join leagues or invite anyone, and they disappear from search and invite links), or deletes their Twentyfold account.
• Serious threats may be reported to the authorities.
• There’s no appeal process beyond emailing the address above.

06Privacy

What friends and league mates can and can’t see, and how long reports are kept, is set out in the privacy policy.