Community Guidelines

Last updated: May 12, 2026

IRL is built around people who are already sharing a physical space. These guidelines explain the culture we expect. They add detail to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Violations may result in warnings, feature restrictions, or permanent bans.

1. Consent matters

Discovery features exist so two people can each choose—not so pressure can substitute for enthusiasm. Respect clear “no,” silence, avoidance, blocking, withdrawal of discoverability, or staff direction at venues. Mutual opt-in pathways inside the product are prerequisites for richer disclosure; circumventing anonymity or consent breaks trust.

2. No harassment, stalking, or intimidation

Do not follow, stare down, persistently approach, message off-platform strangers derived from guesses about identity, retaliate against reports, swarm someone with collaborators, threaten, degrade, discriminate based on protected categories, fetishize protected traits in targeting, or escalate conflict when someone disengages. Venues deserve calm patrons—IRL reinforces that ethic.

3. Be truthful

Use authentic photos reasonably recent, accurate prompts, truthful verification materials. Do not impersonate another person, a venue employee, moderator, celebrity, fictional persona presented as factual, nor misrepresent unavailable relationship status materially when such fields exist.

4. Respect venues and norms

Follow establishment rules—quiet desks, minors restrictions, reservations, coworking etiquette. Discovery toggles augment presence; they do not supersede lawful venue policies or norms of courteous shared space.

5. Offline behavior

Coordinating politely when permitted in-product is encouraged; escalating arguments, unsolicited sexual conduct, coercion, covert recording intending harm, intoxication interfering with coherent consent—all violate baseline expectations regardless of ambiguous app states.

6. Safety tooling

Use blocking, reporting (in-app flows when present), exiting discoverability modes, notifying staff/security or emergency services proportional to seriousness. Silence from us during triage doesn't mean disbelief—review may take investigative time balanced against confidentiality.

7. Commercial solicitation & spam

Do not use IRL to harvest contacts for bulk unrelated marketing or recruit into schemes not disclosed reciprocally upfront when law requires disclosures. Waves and similar signals convey social intent—not guaranteed attention slots for solicitation.

8. Integrity of the discovery layer

Bypassing geographic or venue safeguards, spoofing location, scripted automation farms, artificially inflating interest or rank, coordinated manipulation of reporting systems, evading bans through alternate accounts degrade everyone's baseline safety.

9. Appeals

Automated or human moderation errors happen. Write admin@irlapp.org with timelines, rationale, corroborating context—keep tone factual. Repeated abusive appeals worsen outcomes.

10. Enforcement ladder

Context matters—not every misstep earns the maximal penalty—but severe or repeated harm may escalate immediately without prior warning especially where safety dictates. Factors include intent, repetition, retaliation, deception, coercion, minors risk, unlawful activity. We cooperate with lawful requests.

Questions

Interpretation edge cases via admin@irlapp.org.