Community Guidelines

Inbetween is a community for verified Western University students. These guidelines describe what's allowed, what's not, and how we moderate.

Read them. Following them is a condition of using Inbetween.

The vibe

Inbetween is meant to feel like a real conversation between Western students — anonymous when it matters, honest when it counts. We want this to be a place where you can talk about what's actually happening on campus, what you're struggling with, what's exciting, what's stupid.

We don't want it to be a place where people get hurt.

These guidelines exist to protect both. Some things are off-limits because they're harmful. Most things are allowed — even uncomfortable opinions, debates, criticism, and hot takes.

What's not allowed

We remove content and ban users for the following:

Harassment and targeted abuse

  • Repeated targeting of a specific person with hostile content
  • Coordinated attacks on individuals
  • Sexual harassment of any kind
  • Comments aimed at making another user feel unsafe

Hate speech

  • Content attacking people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics
  • Slurs and language designed to demean groups

Threats of violence

  • Direct threats against any individual or group
  • Promotion of violence against any person, group, or institution
  • Content that could reasonably be interpreted as planning harm

Doxxing

  • Sharing personal information about other users without consent — names, addresses, phone numbers, photos, social media accounts
  • Sharing personal information about Western students, staff, or community members in a way that could enable harassment
  • Posts that combine name + location + identifying detail to expose someone

Sexual content

  • Explicit sexual content
  • Discussions of sex acts in detail
  • Sexual content involving anyone who can't or hasn't consented
  • Any content sexualizing minors (this is always banned and always reported to authorities)

Self-harm and suicide

  • Content encouraging or instructing self-harm or suicide
  • Detailed discussions of methods
  • Content that glorifies suicide

If you're struggling, please reach out:

  • Western Health & Wellness: 519-661-3030
  • Good2Talk: 1-866-925-5454
  • Crisis: 988

Illegal content

  • Content that violates Canadian or Ontario law
  • Promotion of illegal drugs, weapons, or other illegal goods
  • Pirated content, stolen credentials, hacking instructions

Academic integrity

We don't allow content that directly facilitates cheating on Western coursework. Specifically:

  • Sharing exam questions, answer keys, or completed graded work
  • Soliciting someone to write an assignment or exam for you
  • Selling or buying completed assignments, papers, or exams
  • Coordinating real-time cheating during an exam

What's totally fine:

  • Talking about courses, professors, workloads, and difficulty
  • Asking for study advice, frameworks, or how to approach a topic
  • Forming study groups or discussing concepts together
  • Sharing your own past notes or lecture summaries (your own work, freely shared)
  • Complaining about an assignment or course

Impersonation

  • Pretending to be another Western student, staff member, or community figure
  • Creating accounts to mimic or mock specific individuals

Spam and manipulation

  • Repeated posts of the same content
  • Promotional content for products, businesses, or services (without permission)
  • Coordinated upvote manipulation
  • Multiple accounts used to amplify a single voice

Bots and automation

  • Automated posting or interaction
  • Scripts designed to inflate engagement

What's allowed (even if uncomfortable)

A lot of things are allowed. Including things that some users won't like:

  • Honest opinions about courses, professors, classes, or programs
  • Criticism of Western policies, decisions, or culture
  • Anonymous venting about stress, friends, dating, family
  • Debates on politically and socially charged topics, conducted respectfully
  • Humor, satire, sarcasm, including at the expense of campus culture
  • Anonymous confessions, embarrassing stories, vulnerable posts
  • Difficult conversations about mental health, identity, faith, recruiting, future plans

Disagreement is welcome. Disrespect of individuals is not.

Anonymity

Inbetween allows anonymous posting. When you post anonymously, your handle isn't shown to other users.

What anonymity does:

  • Hides your identity from other users
  • Lets you share things you wouldn't share with your name attached

What anonymity does NOT do:

  • Protect you from moderation. We can see who posted what.
  • Allow you to violate these guidelines without consequence.
  • Shield you from legal accountability for serious violations (harassment, threats, defamation, illegal content).

Anonymity is a feature for honest community. It's not a shield for abuse.

Moderation

Our moderation process:

  1. Users report content via the in-app report button
  2. Auto-flagging catches content matching known patterns (slurs, threats, doxxing patterns)
  3. Moderators review reports
  4. Action is taken based on severity

Possible actions:

  • Content removal: the post or comment is deleted
  • Warning: notification to the user
  • Suspension: temporary loss of access (7 days, typically)
  • Permanent ban: account closed, IP blocked from re-registration

For serious violations (CSAM, credible threats of violence, doxxing that enables harm), we may also report to law enforcement.

Appeals

If you believe a moderation decision was made in error, you can appeal by emailing safety@inbtween.app. Include:

  • Your handle
  • The content or action you're appealing
  • Why you think the decision was wrong

We review appeals within 7 days. Decisions are final.

Crisis content and safety

If you see content suggesting that someone is in immediate danger of harming themselves or others:

  1. Use the report button to flag it as "self-harm" or "threat"
  2. If you believe the danger is imminent, contact emergency services (911) or campus security
  3. Don't engage directly with the post in ways that escalate

Posts mentioning self-harm or suicide will automatically display crisis resources to viewers.

Reporting in good faith

The report button is for genuine violations, not personal disputes. Submitting false reports to silence opinions you disagree with is itself a violation of these guidelines.

Reports are confidential. The reported user does not see who reported them. We don't disclose reporter identity except where legally required.

Updates

We may update these guidelines as the community evolves. Material changes will be announced and may require renewed acceptance.

Questions

Reach out at support@inbtween.app for general questions, or safety@inbtween.app to report a safety issue or appeal a moderation decision.