Reporting content
Every post, comment, listing, reply, user profile, and group has a Report button (a post in a group is reported on its own page, which you open from the post card). Choose a reason, optionally add a note, and submit. Reports are private — the reported person never sees who reported them.
Reasons include spam, inappropriate content, harassment, fraud or misinformation, copyright violation, a law violation / crime, and other.
Temporary hiding and the hiding threshold
When content is reported enough times, or in serious cases immediately, it is temporarily hidden while our team reviews it. Hidden content stays visible to its author but not to others; some actions may be limited in the meantime. Hiding is reversible — if the review finds nothing wrong, the content is restored.
For most reasons content is hidden after several reports. A law violation / crime report hides the content immediately (a single report is enough), because such cases are the most serious.
Reporting a suspected crime
A law violation / crime report is reserved for suspected criminal activity — not ordinary spam. Because it hides the content immediately, we ask for a short description (at least 20 characters) so our team can assess it, and we limit how many such reports one account can file in a given period.
Filing a knowingly false report can itself be unlawful (a false accusation). For this reason the identity of anyone who files a crime report is recorded together with the report.
When a crime report is filed, an independent case record is created with a frozen snapshot of the reported content, so the evidence survives even if the original is later edited or deleted.
How our team decides
A hidden item is always reviewed by a person — never by an automated penalty alone. Each decision requires a written justification. The outcome is one of:
- Confirmed crime — the account is blocked and a case file is prepared for the police.
- Other rule violation — it is not a crime but breaks our rules; the content stays hidden.
- Cleared — the content is harmless and is restored.
If a violation is confirmed, the content is hidden completely, including from its author. Instead of the post, the author receives a notification with its date and a short excerpt, together with a link to this page and to contact us to appeal.
Account blocking
If a crime is confirmed, the account is blocked: the person can no longer sign in. While a report is under review, the account cannot be deleted until the review is complete.
Groups
Two independent levels of oversight operate in groups.
The group leadership (the owner and admins) keeps order in its own group. It approves or declines membership requests to a private group, may exclude a post from the group (reversible; the author is notified) and may remove a member (a permanent removal; the member is notified). The group leadership cannot delete other people's posts or comments — only a BOWLMINE administrator can. A group's rules must not conflict with our Terms, which always take precedence.
BOWLMINE moderation works independently of the group leadership. You can report a group (on its page; you cannot report your own group) as well as a post in a group. When a group is reported enough times, or by a BOWLMINE administrator, it is placed in quarantine: non-members cannot see it and it disappears from search until our team reviews it. A law violation / crime report marks the group as harmful immediately — only a BOWLMINE administrator can then see it. The group's owner is notified when a group is hidden. A BOWLMINE administrator can also dissolve a group and restore it.
If you disagree with an action of the group leadership — for example being removed from a group or having a post excluded — there is no appeal within the app, but you can contact BOWLMINE support; this also applies to a removed member who wants to return. A group rule that conflicts with the Terms, or a group that breaks the rules, can be reported as described above.
Appealing a decision
If you disagree with a decision, you can appeal by contacting us. While a full internal appeal process is not something we are legally required to offer at our size, we handle appeals sent through the contact form.
Data and retention
Case records may contain personal data (text and images) needed only for the duration of the review. When a report is not confirmed as a crime, the snapshot is automatically deleted after a retention period (30 days from the decision); a minimal record that the report happened and how it was resolved is kept as an audit trail. Confirmed cases are kept as evidence until the matter is closed.
How we process this data — including the legal basis for handling information about suspected crime — is described in our Privacy Policy.