Community Guidelines

1Why these guidelines exist#

Perthro is where people keep an honest record of the games they play and share it with others. That only works if people feel safe writing here, and if what they read is real. These guidelines describe what that takes.

They apply everywhere you can post or appear in Perthro:

• reviews and ratings;
• comments and replies;
• lists, including their titles, descriptions and covers;
• your profile: username, display name, bio, avatar and banner; and
• mentions, likes, votes and follows.

The guidelines are part of our Terms of Service. Breaking them can get content removed or an account restricted or closed (see section 10). Perthro is only for people aged 16 and over.

2The spirit of it#

Rules can't cover everything, so here's what we're aiming for:

• Be honest. Say what you actually thought. "Dropped it at hour four, the combat never clicked" is a useful review. So is a glowing one.
• Critique the game, not the person. Tear into a design decision if you like. Don't attack the developer, the reviewer you disagree with, or someone for liking a game you didn't.
• Assume good faith. Other people's tastes aren't a provocation. Disagree once, clearly, and move on.
• Leave people room. Everyone plays differently: on easy mode, with guides, at a different pace. None of it makes their log less valid.

3Reviews and ratings#

Reviews and ratings are the heart of Perthro, so they have a few rules of their own:

• Review what you've played. Ratings should come from your own time with a game. If you only played part of it, it's fine to say so.
• Write your own words. Don't copy other people's reviews, or post text lifted from elsewhere as if it were yours. Quoting is fine if you say where it's from.
• No AI-written reviews. Reviews should be your own thoughts in your own words. Don't post reviews generated by AI tools as if you wrote them. Using a tool to fix spelling or grammar is fine.
• No review-bombing. Don't flood a game with ratings or reviews to punish it for something unrelated to playing it, and don't organise others to do it.
• Disclose connections. If you worked on a game, were paid to cover it, or got it free from the publisher, say so in the review. Undisclosed paid or incentivised reviews aren't allowed.
• One account, one voice. Don't use extra accounts to rate a game more than once, or to boost your own posts.

4Spoilers#

Turn on Contains spoilers when you log a game if your review gives away something a player would want to find out for themselves. Spoiler-tagged reviews are blurred until the reader chooses to reveal them.

• For a game released in the last six months, tag anything past the opening hour or so.
• For older games, tag major twists, endings and late-game surprises.
• Keep spoilers out of places that can't be tagged: list titles and descriptions, comments, and your profile.
• If you're not sure, tag it.

Untagged spoilers can be reported, and we may add the tag ourselves or remove the review. Don't remove a spoiler or mature tag that we've added; doing so breaks these guidelines.

5Mature content#

Some games are made for adults, and it's fine to review them honestly. When you log a game rated for adults only (for example ESRB AO or PEGI 18), Perthro shows a Mature toggle. Turn it on if your review discusses the game's adult content. Mature reviews are blurred, and they are never shown to members under 18.

The Mature toggle doesn't make everything acceptable. Sexually explicit writing or imagery isn't allowed anywhere on Perthro, whether tagged or not. That includes avatars, banners, list covers and animated avatars. Describing a game's themes is fine; graphic sexual descriptions are not.

6What isn't allowed#

The following will be removed. Depending on how serious it is, the account behind it may be restricted or closed, and for the most serious cases we act without warning.

6.1Harm to people#

• Harassment and bullying: insults aimed at someone, repeatedly targeting someone, encouraging others to pile on, or unwanted contact after being asked to stop.
• Threats and violent content: threats of harm, wishing harm on someone, or praising real-world violence and violent groups.
• Hate: attacks on people because of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or serious illness, including slurs and hateful symbols.
• Doxxing and privacy violations: sharing someone's personal information without consent, such as a real name, address, phone number, workplace, private photos or private messages.
• Self-harm: content that encourages, glorifies or gives instructions for suicide, self-harm or eating disorders. Talking about your own struggles is not against the rules; if you're in crisis, please contact local emergency services or a crisis line.

6.2Safety of young people#

• Any sexual content involving minors, or sexualising minors in any way. This includes fictional, drawn and AI-generated content. There is zero tolerance: the content is removed, the account is banned, and we report it to the authorities, including the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (Cybertip.ca) and, where relevant, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
• Trying to contact members under 18 in a sexual or predatory way.

6.3Sexual and graphic content#

• Sexually explicit text or imagery (see section 5).
• Graphic, gratuitous gore in images.

6.4Illegal and harmful activity#

• Pirated games, cracks or links to them; leaked unreleased builds or assets.
• Buying, selling or trading accounts, keys, in-game currency or cheats.
• Scams, phishing, malware, and links designed to deceive.
• Anything else illegal where you live or in Canada.

6.5Integrity#

• Impersonation: pretending to be another person, a developer, a publisher or Perthro, including with a username or avatar designed to mislead. Parody accounts must say they're parody.
• Spam: repetitive or off-topic posts, advertising, affiliate links, or posting the same thing across many games.
• Manipulation: fake accounts, coordinated voting, trading likes or follows, automating activity, or scraping Perthro.
• Evading enforcement: creating a new account after being banned or restricted, or to get around a block.

6.6Other people's work#

• Posting images, text or other material you don't have the right to share. Game screenshots and short quotes for commentary are fine; reposting someone else's work as your own is not.

7Profiles and usernames#

Your profile is public by default, so the same rules apply to it. Your username, display name, bio, avatar and banner must not be explicit, hateful or misleading, or impersonate anyone. We may ask you to change, or may reset, a username or image that breaks these rules. Squatting on the names of well-known people or companies to mislead, or to sell the name, isn't allowed.

You can control who sees your activity in Settings → Privacy & feed → Profile visibility: Public, Followers only or Private.

8Lists and comments#

• Lists are for taste, not targets. "Games that broke my heart" is a list. A list built to attack a specific developer, studio or member is a pile-on, and we'll remove it.
• Comments should add to the conversation. Disagree with the review, not the reviewer. Don't reply just to provoke.

9Reporting, blocking and muting#

You don't have to put up with anything that breaks these guidelines.

• Report a review or comment by tapping its … menu and choosing Report. Report a person from the … menu on their profile. Pick the reason that fits best. The person you report isn't told who reported them.
• Block someone from the … menu on their profile. Blocking works both ways: they can't follow you, see your activity or interact with your posts, and you won't see theirs. Blocking also removes any follow between you.
• Mute a person or a game, or hide a single post, to keep them out of your feed without the other person knowing.
• Undo any of these in Settings → Privacy & feed → Blocked & muted.

Anyone can report content by email to support@perthro.io, including people without a Perthro account. Include a link or screenshot and tell us which rule or law you think it breaks. If you report by email, we confirm we've received it and tell you what we decided. If someone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services first.

10How we enforce these guidelines#

A person on our team reviews every report. We act on objectionable content within 24 hours of a report. We may also find violations ourselves. Reviews that attract several reports from established accounts are shown less prominently in feeds while we look at them.

Depending on how serious the violation is, the context and the account's history, we may:

• remove the content, or add a spoiler or mature tag to it;
• reset a username, avatar, banner or bio;
• warn the account holder;
• restrict the account, temporarily or permanently, from posting, commenting or appearing in feeds; or
• ban the account and, where needed, stop the same person from signing up again.

Moderation is about behaviour, not opinions. Removing a review is never a judgment on the game or on what the reviewer thought of it, and a negative review that follows these guidelines stays up.

We usually start with a warning for first-time, low-level problems. We skip straight to a ban for the most serious ones, such as anything involving the sexual exploitation of minors, credible threats of violence, or accounts set up to spam or abuse. Where we're required to, or a person may be at risk, we share information with law enforcement, as described in our Privacy Policy.

We'll tell you why. When we act against your content or account, we tell you what we did, which rule or law it was based on, the facts behind it, whether automated signals played a part, and how to appeal. The only exceptions are where telling you would be unlawful, would put someone at risk, or where the content is spam.

11Appeals and complaints#

If you think we got a decision wrong, email support@perthro.io from the email address on your account within 6 months of the decision. Tell us what was actioned and why you think it was a mistake. Where possible, someone other than the person who made the original decision reviews the appeal, and we'll tell you the outcome and our reasons. If we got it wrong, we restore what we can. If a review was removed for one fixable problem, such as an untagged spoiler, you can also fix it and post it again.

A restriction or ban stays in place while we look at your appeal, unless we decide otherwise.

You can also complain to support@perthro.io if you think we've handled a report badly, haven't acted on content that breaks these guidelines or the law, or aren't doing enough to keep Perthro safe. We look into every complaint and reply with what we found and what we'll do.

12Changes and contact#

We update these guidelines as Perthro and its community grow. The date at the top shows when they last changed. If we make a significant change, we'll let you know in the app.

For questions about these guidelines, email support@perthro.io. For legal matters, including copyright complaints, see our Terms of Service.