Moderation and Reporting Policy for Rate My Ditch

Effective date: 4 October 2026

Rate My Ditch is operated by Alexander Ottolangui, operating under the app studio name Rate My Fav Apps ("we", "us", or "our").

This Moderation and Reporting Policy explains how users can report content or behaviour, how blocking works, what information may be considered during a review, and what moderation action Rate My Ditch may take.

Rate My Ditch is a humorous entertainment app built around user-generated ditch locations, ratings, reviews, images, profiles, and social features. Humour is welcome, but it must not create real-world safety, privacy, legal, harassment, or abuse risks.

This policy should be read alongside the Terms of Use, Community Guidelines, Safety Disclaimer, and Privacy Policy.

For content reports, safety concerns, appeals, privacy questions, account-deletion questions, or support, contact ratemyditch@gmail.com.

1. Purpose of This Policy

Rate My Ditch includes user-generated content and social features. Content submitted by users may be inaccurate, inappropriate, unsafe, misleading, illegal, abusive, or harmful.

This policy explains:

·       what users can report;

·       how in-app and email reporting work;

·       the difference between reporting and blocking;

·       how reports may be reviewed;

·       the types of moderation action we may take;

·       how Public and Friends-only content is treated during moderation;

·       what information may be retained for moderation and safety; and

·       how to contact us about a moderation decision.

Moderation is currently carried out manually. We do not review every item before it appears in the app.

2. What Can Be Reported

The in-app reporting system currently supports reports about:

·       ditch locations;

·       reviews; and

·       users.

You may report content or behaviour that appears to be:

·       offensive or abusive;

·       unsafe or likely to create a real-world safety risk;

·       spam, fake, misleading, or malicious;

·       an inappropriate image;

·       sharing personal or private information without permission;

·       harassing, threatening, hateful, or bullying;

·       sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate for the app;

·       encouraging trespassing, dangerous activity, or illegal behaviour;

·       infringing copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights;

·       attempting to manipulate ratings, reviews, rankings, or other app features;

·       attempting to evade a block, privacy setting, moderation action, or access control; or

·       otherwise inconsistent with the Terms of Use, Community Guidelines, Safety Disclaimer, or this policy.

Reports may concern ditch names, descriptions, images, coordinates, reviews, review images, usernames, display names, profile information, or behaviour connected with use of the app.

If the in-app report flow does not cover your concern, or you cannot access it, you may contact ratemyditch@gmail.com.

3. How to Report Content in the App

Where the reporting option is available, you can report a ditch, review, or user from the relevant in-app menu.

The current report form asks you to select a reason. Available reasons may include:

·       Offensive or abusive content;

·       Unsafe location;

·       Spam or fake content;

·       Inappropriate image;

·       Personal information; and

·       Other.

You may also add optional details that could help us understand the concern.

When an in-app report is submitted, the app may record information needed to identify and assess the report, including:

·       the type of item reported;

·       identifiers for the reported ditch, review, or user;

·       the reported user's identifier where relevant;

·       the ditch or review associated with the report where relevant;

·       a name or title used to help identify the reported item;

·       the reporting user's account identifier and available account details;

·       whether the reporting account is an anonymous or guest session;

·       the selected reason;

·       any optional details provided; and

·       timestamps and internal moderation fields used to manage the report.

Report records are protected from ordinary client access and are intended for moderation rather than public display.

More information about how report data is processed is available in the Privacy Policy.

4. Reporting by Email

You can also report content or behaviour by emailing:

ratemyditch@gmail.com

Email reporting is useful if:

·       the in-app report option is unavailable;

·       the issue concerns something not covered by the in-app report types;

·       you need to provide additional context or evidence;

·       you need to follow up on a previous report; or

·       you are contacting us about an appeal or safety concern.

Please include enough information for us to identify the issue. Helpful details may include:

·       ditch name;

·       review title;

·       username or display name;

·       approximate location or other identifying details;

·       screenshot, where appropriate;

·       date or time you saw the content;

·       the reason for your concern; and

·       any other relevant context.

Do not send passwords or unnecessary sensitive personal information in a report.

If there is not enough information to identify the content or account, we may not be able to investigate fully.

5. Reporting and Blocking Are Different

Reporting and blocking serve different purposes.

A report asks Rate My Ditch to review content or behaviour against the app's rules.

A block is a user-level safety and privacy control. Blocking another user may reduce or prevent that person's content from being shown to you where supported. It may also remove or disable an existing friendship or active friend-request relationship between the two accounts.

Blocking does not automatically remove the blocked user's content from Rate My Ditch for everyone, and it does not automatically create a moderation report.

If you believe content or behaviour should be reviewed by Rate My Ditch, use the report function as well as blocking where appropriate.

Do not attempt to evade another user's block by using another account, another person's account, or another method to regain unwanted access.

6. Safety and Emergency Reports

Rate My Ditch is not an emergency service and should not be used to request urgent help.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact the appropriate emergency services. In the United Kingdom, call 999 in an emergency.

You can report ditch content that appears to encourage or create unsafe behaviour, including content involving hazardous locations, roadsides, waterways, drains, construction sites, railway areas, restricted land, private property, dangerous terrain, or similar risks.

Where a report appears to raise a serious safety concern, we may prioritise review and may remove or restrict content where appropriate. We do not guarantee a particular response time.

7. How We Review Reports

Moderation is currently manual.

When we receive a report, we may review information such as:

·       the reported content;

·       related user-generated content;

·       the context in which the content appears;

·       relevant account or app activity available to us;

·       related ditch, review, friendship, blocking, or profile information where relevant;

·       information provided by the reporting user;

·       previous reports or moderation history where relevant; and

·       whether the content or behaviour appears to violate the Terms of Use, Community Guidelines, Safety Disclaimer, this policy, or applicable law.

We may also consider whether the content creates a material safety, privacy, harassment, legal, security, fraud, abuse-prevention, or app-integrity risk.

A report does not automatically mean that the reported content or account has violated the rules. We may decide that no action is necessary after reviewing the available information.

We do not guarantee that every report will receive an individual response or result in removal, restriction, or account action.

8. Public and Friends-Only Content

Moderation rules apply to both Public and Friends-only content.

A Friends-only visibility setting limits who should be able to discover or view the ditch through the app. It does not exempt the content from the Terms of Use, Community Guidelines, Safety Disclaimer, or this policy.

Where a Friends-only ditch is reported by someone who is authorised to view it, we may review the content and related information needed to investigate the report.

Sharing or forwarding a Friends-only ditch link does not make the ditch Public and does not grant access to an unauthorised recipient. Attempts to bypass Friends-only access controls may themselves be treated as misuse of the app.

Changing a ditch's visibility does not prevent us from reviewing information already available to us where necessary for moderation, safety, security, legal, or app-integrity purposes.

9. Profiles, Friendships, and Social Features

Reports and moderation may also relate to misuse of profile and social features, including:

·       abusive, hateful, explicit, misleading, or impersonating usernames, display names, or profile images;

·       repeated unwanted friend requests;

·       harassment through friendship features;

·       attempts to bypass profile visibility settings;

·       attempts to evade blocking;

·       using friendships or Friends-only access to target, harass, expose, or endanger another user; or

·       other misuse of social features that creates a safety, privacy, harassment, or abuse risk.

Users can control profile visibility and whether they accept friend requests through supported privacy settings. These choices should be respected.

10. Possible Moderation Actions

If content or behaviour appears to violate app rules or creates a material risk, we may take action including:

·       removing or hiding content;

·       deleting reviews;

·       deleting ditch locations;

·       removing images;

·       restricting access to app features;

·       restricting, suspending, or removing accounts;

·       restricting content visibility;

·       taking action to protect the integrity or security of the service; and

·       preserving limited information where needed for safety, legal, security, fraud-prevention, abuse-prevention, moderation, dispute-resolution, or app-integrity reasons.

We may take action even where a particular type of harmful conduct is not listed word-for-word in this policy if we reasonably believe it creates a significant safety, privacy, legal, harassment, abuse, security, moderation, or app-integrity risk.

Where technically necessary, removing a ditch may also affect reviews, favourites, images, ratings, or other records linked to that ditch.

11. Unsafe or Harmful Location Content

We may remove or restrict location content that appears to:

·       encourage unsafe behaviour;

·       encourage trespassing or unlawful access;

·       falsely identify private or restricted property as publicly accessible;

·       direct users towards hazardous places;

·       target a person, home, workplace, school, or private address;

·       expose precise private information in a harmful way;

·       use false or malicious coordinates to mislead users;

·       encourage dangerous activity around roads, waterways, drains, railways, construction sites, or hazardous terrain; or

·       otherwise create a material safety, privacy, legal, or harassment risk.

Humour, exaggeration, and jokes are allowed, but they must not create real-world risk.

12. False, Malicious, or Abusive Reports

Do not knowingly submit false, retaliatory, malicious, automated, or spam reports.

Do not use the reporting system to harass another person, manipulate moderation, target a user because of a personal dispute, or repeatedly report content you know does not violate the rules.

Abuse of reporting, blocking, friendship, or other safety features may itself result in moderation action.

A good-faith report will not be treated as abusive simply because we ultimately decide that no violation occurred.

13. User-Generated Content and Accuracy

Rate My Ditch contains user-generated content. We do not guarantee that user-generated content is accurate, safe, lawful, current, complete, or suitable for any purpose.

The fact that content remains visible does not mean that Rate My Ditch has reviewed, verified, endorsed, or approved it.

Users should not rely on app content to decide whether a location is safe, legal, accessible, publicly available, accurate, or appropriate to visit.

Users are responsible for their own safety and legal compliance.

14. Moderation Records, Privacy, and Retention

We may keep information related to reports and moderation where necessary to operate the reporting system, investigate concerns, prevent repeated abuse, maintain app integrity, handle disputes, comply with legal obligations, or protect users and the service.

This may include report details, identifiers for relevant content or accounts, moderation status, internal notes or actions, timestamps, and information about removed content or account action where needed.

We do not publish a fixed retention period for every type of moderation record. Where possible, information should be limited to what is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

Information may also be deleted, anonymised, or retained as described in the Privacy Policy and account-deletion process.

15. Appeals and Follow-Up

If your content or account is restricted or removed and you believe the decision was a mistake, you can contact:

ratemyditch@gmail.com

Please provide enough information to identify the affected account, ditch, review, image, or other content and explain why you believe the decision should be reconsidered.

We may review a follow-up request and may uphold, change, or reverse a moderation action where appropriate. We do not guarantee that content or account access will be restored.

If you submitted a report and need to provide further relevant information, you may also use this email address. For privacy and safety reasons, we may not be able to disclose details about action taken against another user.

16. Limitations of Moderation

Rate My Ditch currently relies on manual moderation and does not review every item before publication.

We cannot guarantee that all inappropriate, unsafe, inaccurate, unlawful, abusive, or harmful content will be identified or removed immediately.

Reports can be incomplete, mistaken, malicious, or difficult to verify. Moderation decisions may therefore depend on the information available to us at the time.

Users should continue to use their own judgement, respect privacy and access controls, avoid unsafe or unlawful situations, use blocking where appropriate, and report concerning content when needed.

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Moderation and Reporting Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the app, reporting tools, moderation practices, safety features, legal requirements, or third-party services.

If we make significant changes, we may notify users in the app or by another appropriate method. The latest version should be available through the app or the Rate My Ditch public support site.

18. Contact

For content reports, safety concerns, moderation follow-up, appeals, privacy questions, account-deletion questions, or support requests, contact:

ratemyditch@gmail.com