Rules, reports and support

This part of the site answers three questions: what rules people live by here, what to do when somebody breaks them, and where to write when something does not work. The links to the rules and to support sit in the footer of every page: «Support», «Terms of Use», «Privacy Policy» and «Community Rules». You do not need an account for any of it – both the rules and the question form open without signing in.

Where to read the rules

«Community Rules» – /en/rules. How people talk about other people's work here, what you may do with somebody else's chart, how thread brands are named, how deals are done, what is acceptable in private messages, and what measures follow a breach. The text is published in English, as one document for everybody; on the Russian and Ukrainian pages a banner above it says so. A moderator will explain a decision in your language on request.
«Terms of Use» – /en/terms and «Privacy Policy» – /en/privacy. These are the legal documents, also in English. On the other language versions a banner at the top says the English original is the text that governs.

The privacy policy says one thing plainly that is worth knowing in advance: private messages on the site are not encrypted in a way that keeps everybody but the two sides out. If a conversation is reported, a senior moderator can open it to examine the report. This happens only in connection with a specific report, for a limited time and with an entry in the log – nobody may read other people's messages just because they want to.

How to report something

A report is a request for a moderator to look. A person reads it. The author is not told who reported them and gets no notification about the report itself.

Where to find the button:

A chart – on the chart's own page, the «Report this chart» card. The chart's card in the «Gallery» has no such button: to report from there, use the form for everybody (see below) and paste the page address into it.
A stitch (a short post on a wall) – «Report this post».
A blog article – «Report this article».
A review under a chart – «Report this review», right under the review. The report is about the review only, not about the chart it was written about.
A listing – «Report this listing» on the listing's page. Fraud in a deal is one of the reasons on the list.
A private message – under somebody else's message in a conversation, the link «Report this message». If the other person registered recently, the link says «Report spam».

In the form, pick a reason – «Spam or advertising», «Somebody else's work, without permission», «Illegal content», «Adult content», «Abuse or hatred», «Somebody else's personal data», «Fraud in a deal – paid for and never sent, or not what was described» or «Something else – describe it» – and in the «What exactly is wrong» field briefly explain what you saw. Press «Send». You will see «Reported – a moderator will look at it.»

What you cannot do:

Report your own work – you can simply delete it.
Report the same thing a second time while no moderator has looked at the first report.
Report from a brand-new account. Reporting opens at the «Member» level – it arrives on its own once your address is confirmed and you have spent a little time on the site.
Report while a restriction is in force on your account.

The weight of a report. A report counts for more the longer the reporting account has been trusted. When enough reports gather on one piece of work, the site hides it until it has been checked. That is not a decision yet: the work stays hidden until a moderator looks, and the moderator can put it back.

Reporting without an account

Under a chart, a stitch, a blog article, a listing and a review there is a link «Report this without an account». It opens the form «Report a breach of the rules» – /en/legal/notice – with the page address already filled in. You can also open the form directly.

Fill in «The address of the page» (only an address on this site), «What is wrong with it», «Say what exactly, in your own words» – a heading on its own is not enough, quote what you saw and where – and «Your e-mail address». Tick «I believe in good faith…» and press «Send the notice». Sometimes the form shows an «I am not a robot» check.

A letter will follow: open the link in it to confirm your address. Only then does the notice reach the queue. Your address is never shown to the person you are reporting. A notice like this hides nothing automatically – a moderator reads it.

What a moderator can do

Decisions are taken by people. The automation on the site hides a piece of work when many reports have gathered on it, briefly pauses publishing for a brand-new account when several different people report it for spam, and applies simple filters: forbidden words, limits on how often you post, duplicates. Texts are not sent to an AI for assessment or moderation; for translation they are sent to an external language-model service, as described in the «Privacy Policy».

The measures, in ascending order:

The work is hidden. Other people see «Chart hidden» and a note that it is hidden until it has been checked. You, as the author, still see it, with the reason, and can open it in the editor. After an automatic hiding you can still edit the work while a moderator checks it. If the work is restored, you get a letter «Your chart is visible again» (or the same about a stitch, a listing and so on).
A warning. The account is not restricted in any way, but next time the measure will be stricter.
Publishing is paused. You can sign in, read the site, work on your own charts and keep your projects. You cannot show anything to other people: share charts, publish, write or edit what is already published, start new conversations or send reports. Replying in conversations already under way is allowed. Taking down something already published and switching off a link is always allowed.
Access to the account is closed. You cannot sign in, but your data, charts and progress stay where they are. The profile page shows only that the account is suspended – without the reason.
Material is removed. The only measure that cannot be undone. If a chart is removed, the people who were stitching from it lose that project too: they get a message from the site, the marked stitches are not kept, but the days in their statistics remain.

If you are stitching from a chart that has been hidden, your project in «My projects» will say «chart hidden pending moderation». Your progress is saved, but you cannot stitch from the chart while the measure stands. The project page has a «Contact support» link.

How you are told, and how to contest it

For every measure taken against your account or your work, a letter goes to the account's address: what was restricted, for what reason, until when, and whether a person or the automation took the decision.

If you think the decision is a mistake, write to the address given in that letter. A moderator who did not take the decision reviews it. Asking again about the same thing does not produce a further review. The site does not restore removed material and never says who reported whom.

Support

Support means questions to the site's team and the answers to them. The «Support» link sits in the footer of every page and leads to the form «Ask us something» – /en/support/new.

Asking from your account

Open «Support» in the footer.
Fill in «In one line» – the subject, «What it is about» – «My account», «A payment», «Somebody is behaving badly», «Something is broken», «Something I published» or «Something else», and «What happened».
Press «Send». The question's page opens straight away: its number, its state, your text and the field «Your answer».

All your questions are collected on the «Support» page – /en/support: with the number, the state and a link to the conversation. The states are «waiting for an answer», «waiting for you», «waiting for us», «answered» and «closed». When the team answers, a line appears in «Notifications» – notifications of this kind cannot be switched off.

Answer on the question's page, in the «Your answer» field. If a question is «answered» but the answer did not help, simply write again – the question goes back to the team with the same history. If you do not answer our question for a long time, a letter says the ticket will close soon, and then it closes. A closed ticket takes no more replies – ask a new question. The number of open questions per account is limited: if you already have many, the site asks you to wait for the answers to those first.

Asking without an account

If you cannot sign in or have no account, the form is the same, except that it has a «Where to answer» field – your e-mail address – and sometimes an «I am not a robot» check.

Fill in the form and press «Send».
You will see «We have sent a letter with the ticket number. Open the link in it and the question reaches us.»
Open the link in the letter «Your question, number …». The link works for a limited time. Until you open it, the question does not reach the team; if you never wrote to us, simply do not open it.
The link takes you to your question's page. Save its address – it is your only way into the conversation. The answer appears there, and that is where you reply, in the «Your answer» field. A reply sent as an ordinary e-mail to our letter will not be attached to the question.

A copyright claim cannot be sent through this form – it has a form of its own, linked right under the «What it is about» list.

If your work has been copied: a rightsholder's claim

If you hold the rights (or act for the person who does) and see a copy of your work on the site, open the form «Report a rights infringement» – /en/legal/complaint. No account is needed.

Choose «I hold the rights» or «I act for the rightsholder», fill in «Name», «Organisation, if any», «Where to answer», «On what authority you act» (if acting for somebody else), «The work you are protecting» – what it is, where and when it was published, «The address of the page here» and «Why this is a copy» – what matches and why it is not a coincidence. Tick both boxes and press «Send the claim». The address must lead to a publication on this site, or the form comes back with a hint.

What happens next:

You get a claim number and a letter. A person reads every claim – nothing is taken down automatically.
If the claim is substantiated, the publication is held: it stops being visible to everybody, but nothing is deleted – neither the chart nor the progress of the people stitching from it.
The author is told the substance of the claim, but not your name, organisation or address. Without your tick allowing the substance to be passed on, the author could not answer, and nothing could be decided.
The author has fourteen days to answer. A person decides at the end.

If a claim is made about your chart

You will get a letter «A publication of yours is held» and a ticket in «Support» with the substance of the claim. You can answer in that ticket until the date given: say where the work comes from and attach what shows your authorship or your right to use it. While the matter is examined, the chart cannot be edited or deleted – it is the very thing in dispute – but you can still open and download it. Holding the chart is not a measure against you; it is a pause while the claim is examined.