Community guidelines

Be honest

Only post deeds you actually did. Inventing or exaggerating deeds to win an award is the fastest way to lose your account, and it devalues everyone else's.

Protect other people's privacy

Never post someone else's name, photo, address, health details or circumstances without their clear agreement. If you helped a neighbour, write "a neighbour". If your deed involved a child or a vulnerable adult, keep them unidentifiable.

Be kind in the comments

No harassment, bullying, hate speech, threats or discrimination on any grounds protected by the Equality Act 2010. Disagree with an idea, never demean a person.

Don't make it about money

No advertising, no affiliate links, no fundraising appeals or requests for donations from other members, and no offers to pay for votes.

Vote fairly

One account per person. No extra accounts, vote-swapping arrangements or organised off-site campaigns. Manipulated deeds are removed from the awards.

Stay safe when you meet up

Projects are planned on the public board for a reason. Meet in public places, tell someone where you're going, don't share your address, and if a project involves working with children or vulnerable adults, go through a proper organisation with the right safeguarding checks.

Posting rules for uploads

These rules apply to every deed, photo, video, comment and project post. They form part of our terms of use, and our automatic safety check enforces them before anything appears publicly.

Consent and other people

1. If a photo, video or audio clip includes anyone other than you, you must have asked them and got their clear agreement before uploading. If they say no, blur them out or post without media.
2. Never upload media of a child (under 18) unless you are their parent or guardian, or you have written permission from one. Never include a child's name, school or location.
3. Don't identify the people you helped. Write "a neighbour" or "a colleague" — no names, addresses, car number plates, house numbers, health details or benefit and immigration circumstances without explicit permission.
4. No filming inside someone's home, a hospital, care home, school, shelter or place of worship without the operator's permission.
5. Anyone featured in your upload can ask us to remove it, and we will honour that request without argument.

Suitable for 13 and over

6. Everything must be suitable for a 13-year-old: no nudity or sexual content, no graphic injury, gore or death, no glamorising drugs or alcohol, no swearing in titles and only mild language in stories.
7. No content showing or encouraging dangerous stunts, self-harm, eating disorders or suicide.
8. No hate, harassment, bullying, threats or discrimination on any ground protected by the Equality Act 2010.

Honesty and what counts as a deed

9. Post only deeds you genuinely did, in your own words, and reasonably recently.
10. A deed must be a real act that helped a person, an animal, a community or the environment. Jokes, tests, memes, self-promotion, "I existed today" entries and staged content are removed.
11. Don't post the same deed twice, or split one deed into several entries to farm votes.
12. No AI-generated or stock media presented as your own deed.

Money, safety and the law

13. No fundraising, donation requests, adverts, affiliate links, selling or paid promotion. Awards are recognition only, never money or prizes.
14. One account per person. No vote-swapping, extra accounts or organised campaigns.
15. Nothing illegal: no content that infringes copyright, defames someone, breaches a court order or a confidentiality or employer duty, or reveals another person's data unlawfully.
16. Don't post medical, legal or financial advice as fact.

What happens if you break them

17. Every upload is screened before it appears, and flagged items wait for a moderator. Breaches lead to removal, loss of award eligibility, suspension, and then a permanent ban. Illegal content is removed on discovery and may be reported to the police.
18. You can appeal any decision by email and we will explain the reason.

Evidence and award eligibility

Anyone can write a story, so awards are not decided on words alone. A deed can only win Deed of the Week, Deed of the Month or a place in the annual top ten if it carries at least one photo or video that has passed our checks. A matched Before and After pair is the strongest evidence and is labelled as such on the deed.

Some genuinely good deeds cannot be photographed — caring for someone, helping in an emergency, or protecting a person's privacy. When you log a deed with no media you can mark it as a Quiet deed and add one line explaining why. Quiet deeds are published, can be voted for and commented on, and are recognised on their own Quiet deeds list. They are not ranked against deeds with photo or video evidence, and no moderator decides who qualifies — you choose it yourself when you post.

Deeds with no media and no Quiet deed marking are still welcome in your diary and the feed; they simply do not appear in either award list.

How moderation works

Anyone can flag content with the Report button. Reports go to a moderator, and we aim to review them within 48 hours. We may hide content, remove it, or suspend an account. We will tell you what happened and why, and you can appeal by emailing admin@thegoodretreat.app. Illegal content is removed as soon as we become aware of it and may be reported to the police.

These guidelines form part of our terms of use.