Community Guidelines

1What to post

CiviciReport is for genuine local civic issues — things in shared, public life that a community or an authority could improve. For example: bad roads and potholes, broken streetlights, blocked drains and flooding, uncollected refuse and illegal dumping, broken public toilets or water points, damaged public buildings, and similar.

A good report has:

• A clear photo of the actual issue, taken at the spot.
• An accurate location so others can find and confirm it.
• A short, factual description — what is wrong, and why it matters.

2What not to post

Please do not post:

• Anything targeting a person. No naming, shaming, accusing or attacking individuals, and no private people in photos as the subject of a complaint.
• Other people's personal information. No phone numbers, home addresses, ID or vehicle numbers, faces used to identify someone, or anything that exposes a private individual.
• Adverts, sales or promotions. CiviciReport is not a marketplace. No selling, soliciting, prices, contact details or links to buy.
• False or misleading reports. No made-up issues, staged photos, or old/unrelated pictures passed off as current.
• Hate, harassment or threats against any person or group, and nothing that incites violence.
• Illegal content, or anything that would put a person in danger.

Keep it to the issue and the solution. If a specific office is responsible, name the office or role — not the individual who holds it.

3Privacy & other people

Protect the people around you as you'd want to be protected:

• Don't post someone's identity or private location without a genuine civic reason.
• Avoid capturing bystanders, children, or number plates where you can. Photograph the problem, not the people near it.
• CiviciReport coarsens sensitive locations and keeps reporters' exact details private — don't undo that by adding them in text.

4Photos & honesty

Trust depends on honest evidence.

• Upload a photo of the real issue, taken on your device at the location. Reports are made from a phone or tablet so the picture and its location come from the spot.
• CiviciReport records the time a photo is uploaded as the reliable timestamp. Any date or place read from the photo itself is treated as claimed, not confirmed.
• Don't present edited, old, or someone else's photo as your own current evidence.

5Confirming & verifying

Confirmations are how the community vouches for a report.

• Only confirm what you have genuinely seen at the location. An on-site confirmation — made with your location on, at the spot — carries the most weight and helps a report become verified.
• Don't confirm your own report, and don't arrange fake confirmations. Gaming verification undermines every real report.
• "Fixed / still a problem" votes are residents' observations, not an official status. Report what you actually saw.

6Petitions

A petition is how you call on the people in charge to act.

• Address the issue and the responsible office — never a named private person.
• One signature per verified account. Don't create duplicate accounts to inflate support.
• A petition is a public show of support, not a legally binding instrument. Signing adds your voice; it does not compel any outcome by itself.

7Community action

Community action is how neighbours team up to fix or improve something themselves, without waiting on an authority.

• Keep it lawful and peaceful, and focused on the issue and the solution — never on confronting a person or group.
• CiviciReport only helps neighbours coordinate. Organisers and participants take part at their own responsibility — plan for everyone's safety, and don't ask anyone to do anything unsafe or unlawful.
• Be honest about what an action is, and about when and where it happens.

8Respect & conduct

Disagree about the issue, not the person. Be civil in comments and updates. No insults, harassment, or pile-ons. Everyone here is a neighbour trying to improve the same place.

9Moderation & flagging

Moderation is shared.

• Anyone can flag a report, comment, petition or community action that breaks these guidelines. Use flags honestly — not to silence views you disagree with.
• Moderators review flagged content and may hide or remove it. Decisions aim to be consistent and in line with these guidelines.
• Content that names a person, advertises, or is false, unsafe or abusive will be removed.

10If rules are broken

Depending on what happened, we may hide or remove content, limit an account's ability to post, or — for serious or repeated breaches — remove access. We aim to be fair and proportionate, and to act on the content, not the person.

11Changes

CiviciReport is growing, and these guidelines will evolve with it. We'll update this page when they change and refresh the date at the top. A full Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will be published separately.