Community Guidelines

1. Why these rules exist

Eskişehir Sosyal Şehir is a place where the residents of Eskişehir come together as neighbours who live in the same city. The person you meet here is the person you will meet tomorrow at the market, the bus stop or the school gate. These rules are the online counterpart of that reality: do not do here what you would not do in real life. They form part of the Terms of Use of the App operated by […] and apply in every module — the feed, comments, listings, communities, confessions, messages, GALA, SAHNE, ARENA and business content included.

2. Basic rules

Rules that apply to every post, comment and message:

• Be real. Take part as yourself. Do not impersonate anyone, open a fake account or speak in the name of a business or institution that does not exist.
• Be respectful. Insults, humiliation, profanity, mockery and attacks on personal rights are forbidden. You may oppose an idea; you may not target the person.
• No hate speech. Content that demeans, excludes or threatens anyone because of ethnicity, religion, sect, language, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age or the neighbourhood they live in is forbidden.
• No violence. Posts that glorify violence, threaten, encourage self-harm or contain graphic imagery are forbidden.
• No obscenity. Sexual content, nudity and disturbing sexual innuendo are forbidden everywhere, GALA and SAHNE photographs included. Any sexual content involving children leads to immediate closure and a report to the competent authorities.
• Do not share personal data. You may not share another person's phone number, address, licence plate, location, photograph, message screenshot or private information without their consent. In notices such as missing-person or blood-donation appeals only information given by the person concerned or their relative is published.
• No fraud. Fake listings, fake campaigns, misleading prices, deposit scams, chain messages, fake donation appeals and every other kind of deception are forbidden.
• No spam. Sharing the same content repeatedly, advertising under unrelated topics, flooding comments with ads, sending bulk messages and producing content with automated tools are forbidden.
• Obey the law. Copyright infringement, listings of illegal goods and services (weapons, drugs, prescription medicines, forged documents, gambling), unauthorised draws and incitement to crime are forbidden.
• Do not spread misinformation. Especially on disasters, health, safety and elections, do not present unverified claims as fact. The city administration's official announcements are the source on these matters.

3. Module-specific rules

• Listings (marketplace, jobs, housing, dormitories): a listing describes only a good or service that is really offered, at its real price and in the right category. Use your own photograph of the item sold. A listing is placed once; multiple listings of the same thing count as spam.
• Comments and reviews: you can review a business only after a delivered order, and one review per order. A review describes your own experience; reviews written on behalf of a competitor, bought, or demanded to be removed under threat are forbidden.
• Write to the City (confessions): what you write is published under your own profile name; this section is not anonymous. Texts and the comments under them are read by a moderator before publication. A text that makes another person identifiable, singles them out or exposes their personal data is not published. Texts published anonymously before this rule stay anonymous.
• Communities: community managers may set their own additional rules; these add to, and do not replace, the rules here.
• Polls: do not manipulate a poll with misleading options or multiple accounts.
• Blood donation, lost and found, obituaries: these notices are opened only for a real and current need; close the notice when the situation is resolved. No advertising or argument under these notices.
• Business content: posts made in the name of a business are also subject to these rules. A business is visible to everyone only as an approved profile with a running package or an exemption granted by the city administration; a business without a package cannot use follow, messaging, comments, posts, check-ins, GALA or SAHNE.

4. Direct messages

• Messaging is a space between two people; message contents are not visible in the administration panel at any permission level and are reviewed only when you report a message, together with that report.
• Unwanted persistent messages, sexual messages, threats and advertising messages are forbidden. "No" is an answer; do not keep writing to someone who does not reply.
• The first message from someone you do not follow lands in "Message requests"; the conversation does not open until you accept it (conversations with businesses excepted). You choose who may message you in your privacy settings.
• You can block a person: a blocked person cannot message you or see your profile and content; the block works both ways. You can block a person from inside a conversation and report a single message.
• Do not share information received in a message elsewhere without the other party's consent.
• Business messages can be seen by the business's owner and staff; know this when writing to a business.

5. GALA live map

• GALA is a live map of who is out in the city right now. You share your location only when you say "I am here", only for the duration you choose and only as an area of about 500 metres; your exact address is never stored. You can end your share at any moment with "Take me off the map".
• A share consists of a photograph and a short caption. The photograph must be yours and current; another person's photograph, a child's photograph, nudity or disturbing content leads to the removal of the share and permanent removal from GALA. The caption passes the list of forbidden terms; a caption containing a term the list blocks or holds for approval is not published.
• GALA has no hearts, likes, matches or messaging of its own. Tapping a face opens that person's card; following and messaging are on the person's ordinary profile and are subject to these rules.
• Every person card and the list of people on GALA carry "Report" and "Block"; both work without opening the person and without using one of your daily opens. A share that passes the report threshold is hidden from the map and goes to the moderators; a report about someone under eighteen or about child safety takes the share off the map on the first report. The block works both ways: you and the person you block do not see each other on the map, in the list or on a card.
• GALA may not be used for harassment, persistence, stalking or taking photographs without consent. Sharing the location of someone you see on the map with others, taking screenshots or physically following the person is strictly forbidden.
• GALA is open only to users who are eighteen or older; accounts under eighteen or without a date of birth on file do not appear on the map. A muted or banned account can neither share on GALA nor see the map.
• A free member opens a limited number of person cards per day; trying to exceed that limit with multiple accounts is forbidden.

6. SAHNE contest

• SAHNE is a weekly photograph contest. Participation is voluntary and is confirmed anew every week; your phone number must be verified to take part.
• Applying to SAHNE and appearing on its board are open only to users who are eighteen or older with a date of birth on file; following the contest and voting are open to everyone. No candidate's age is shown anywhere.
• Every candidate can be reported with "Report" from their card and their page; reports about someone under eighteen or about child safety reach the moderators at once. Filing a groundless report to knock a rival out of the contest leads to removal from the contest.
• The contest photograph must be yours and current; you may not enter with someone else's photograph, one made unrecognisable with filters or an obscene one. The city administration approves entries before publication.
• Votes come from real people. Voting with multiple accounts, buying votes or promising something in return for votes leads to removal from the contest and an account sanction.
• You can withdraw your entry at any time; when you do, your photograph, statement and votes are deleted, and if you won a week your place in the archive is vacated.
• Comments about participants are also subject to these rules; demeaning someone over their appearance counts as hate speech and insult.

7. ARENA games

• The games in ARENA (the word of the day and others) are played with a city ranking. Automated solvers, multiple accounts or telling others the answer in advance are cheating and lead to removal from the ranking.
• Your nickname in the ranking is also subject to these rules.

8. Child safety

We have zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). The following are strictly forbidden in every module, messages included:

• Any image, video, text or link that shows the sexual abuse of a child or sexualises children (CSAM), including asking for, sharing and keeping such material.
• Trying to win a child's trust for a sexual purpose (grooming), including messages that press a child to keep secrets, send photographs or move the conversation to another app.
• Asking a child, or anyone, for sexual images, or threatening or blackmailing someone with such an image (sextortion).
• Any content or conduct that praises, normalises or facilitates the sexual abuse of children.

Such content and conduct are removed as soon as they are found, and the account is banned permanently without waiting for a warning or mute step; an attempt to return with a new account is closed as well. The case is reported to the competent authorities, in Turkey to İhbar Web (the Information and Communication Technologies Authority) and to the police (Emniyet).

If you see such content or conduct, report the content, profile or message with the "Child safety" reason, or with "Under 18" when it concerns a child's account or share; these reports about a profile, a message, a GALA share or a SAHNE entry reach the moderators at once. Do not share, download or take a screenshot of the content; only report it. You can also write to destek@eskisehircebinde.com. If a child is in immediate danger, call 112 first.

9. Reporting

Every post, comment, listing, profile, message, confession, GALA share and SAHNE entry in the App can be reported. When you report you choose a reason: insult, hate speech, harassment, fraud, impersonation, sharing of personal data, obscenity, violence, under eighteen, child safety, spam or other. You may add an explanation if you wish. Reports about someone under eighteen or about child safety on GALA shares, SAHNE entries and messages reach the moderators at once.

• Reports are reviewed by the city administration. Several reports on the same content do not speed up the review but may raise its priority.
• The reporter is not shown to the person reported.
• Reporting is not a means of pressure in a dispute; systematically filing groundless reports is itself a rule breach.
• If there is immediate danger, call 112 first; the App is not an emergency line.

10. Sanctions

When a rule is broken, the following steps are applied according to the seriousness and repetition of the breach. The city administration may go straight to the top step for a serious breach.

• Removal or hiding of content: content that breaks a rule is taken off publication. Content awaiting approval is rejected.
• Warning: a written warning is placed on your account; on repetition the next step is applied.
• Mute: for a set period you cannot post, comment or send messages; you can still read the App.
• Ban: your account is closed for a period or permanently. A permanent ban cannot be circumvented by opening a new account; an attempt leads to the closure of the new account as well.
• Feature-specific removal: you may be permanently removed from a feature such as GALA, SAHNE or ARENA while your account stays open.
• Report to the authorities: content and conduct that constitute a crime are reported to the competent authorities where legislation requires.

You can object to a sanction by writing to destek@eskisehircebinde.com; state which content or decision you are writing about. An objection does not suspend the sanction by itself. Deleted content may not be restored.

11. The city administration and moderators

The city administration (the city administrator and moderators) enforces these rules. Moderators see contact details masked, only the city administrator sees them in clear, and every such view leaves an audit record. In moderation decisions the city administration uses its own judgement; the rules cannot foresee every situation, and where they do not, their purpose governs. When these rules change the version date is updated and significant changes are announced within the App.