Community Guidelines
Last updated August 2026
Why these exist
Hearth is your campus, the same people you sit next to in lecture. These guidelines keep it a place worth showing up to, and they apply everywhere on Hearth: course chats, campus channels, communities and their feeds, clubs, events, direct messages, notes, and profiles.
Be a good classmate
The bar is simple: treat people here the way you'd treat them across a table in the dining hall. Debate ideas as hard as you like, but aim at the idea, not the person.
No harassment or bullying
Don't insult, threaten, or pile onto people, and don't keep contacting someone who's asked you to stop. If someone blocks you, respect it. Trying to reach them another way counts as harassment.
No hate
Attacking people for who they are has no place here: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or anything else about their identity. Not in channels, not in DMs, not as a joke.
No threats, ever
Never threaten anyone with violence or wish harm on them. A threat reads the same whether or not you meant it, so we treat every one the same way: the content comes down, the account goes with it, and if we believe someone is in real danger we contact campus or local authorities.
Be yourself
Use your own name or a handle your classmates know you by. Don't impersonate other students, professors, clubs, or Hearth itself, and stick to one account. If an account of yours was banned, coming back on a fresh one is not a fresh start; evading a ban just closes the new account too.
No spam or scams
Selling your old textbook in asks-and-offers is great. Blasting every channel with the same message, pushing get-rich schemes, phishing for logins, or advertising at your classmates is not.
Keep it appropriate
No sexual content on Hearth. This is a campus community and it includes students under 18. Anything sexualizing a minor is removed, the account is banned, and we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as the law requires.
Take care of each other
If someone talks about hurting themselves, take it seriously. Report it with the self-harm category so we see it quickly, and encourage them toward campus counseling or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which you can call or text at 988, any time. Raising a concern never gets anyone in trouble. The same care applies to content: posts that glorify, encourage, or make light of suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders come down.
Keep your work honest
Sharing notes, forming study groups, and walking each other through a tough problem set is exactly what Hearth is for. Uploading exam answers, doing someone's assignment for them, or organizing plagiarism is not. Your school's academic integrity policy applies to what you do here, and so do we. The same goes for other people's work: your own notes are yours to share, but a scanned textbook chapter or a professor's slide deck is theirs. Owners can ask us to take material down, and accounts that keep infringing are closed.
Respect people's privacy
Don't share anyone's personal information (address, phone number, schedule, photos) without their okay, and don't screenshot private conversations to embarrass someone. What classmates share inside Hearth stays in its room.
What happens when rules break
Some enforcement is automatic: slurs are flagged the moment they're posted and land in the review queue on their own (swearing never trips that filter; slurs always do). Beyond that, every report is read by a person. We aim to get to all of them within a day, and safety reports go to the front of the queue. Depending on what we find, we remove content, warn people, or suspend or ban accounts, and serious things like hate, threats, or sexualizing minors mean an immediate ban. Reporting is protected in both directions: filing false reports to pile onto a classmate is itself a violation. We'd rather teach than punish, but we'll always protect the community first.
Report it
See something that breaks these guidelines? Long-press any message and choose Report. Pick the closest category, add a note if you like, and we'll take it from there, usually within a day. You can also report or block someone from their profile; blocking is instant and silent, and you can manage your list any time under Settings → Blocked people.