Reporting, Enforcement and Appeals Policy ========================================= Tillyard. Version 1.1. In effect from October 21, 2026. Fingerprint of this text (SHA-256): b00d93570981d50e2f49cf2e3e426d8795c76d413c3be5a1cb2d3569e979c593 This version: https://tillyard.org/policies/reporting-enforcement-and-appeals-policy/v/1.1 This policy explains what happens between the moment someone says "this is not right" and the moment the matter is closed. It covers how to report, what the platform saves when you do, who looks, what they may do, what the person affected is told, and how to ask for a second look. The rules themselves are in the Community Guidelines. This document is about process. - Anyone can report. Members use the report control beside any member or item. People without an account use the public forms. If someone is in danger now, call 911 first. We are not an emergency service. - A report saves its own evidence. When you report, the platform saves a fixed copy of the item and what surrounds it. You do not need to copy or paste anything. - We do not say who reported. We do not tell the person you reported who reported them. There are limits: in a conversation between two people the other person may guess, and a court could order us to disclose it. - A hold is not a finding. Automated screening or a set of weighed reports may hide an item while it waits for a person. Nothing is deleted, nothing is added to anyone's record, and nothing public says a hold exists. - A person decides anything that lasts. A person, not software, decides every notice, 24-hour mute, suspension and removal for conduct. Software may hold an item, stop your table chat for one visit, or pause an account while a person looks, including a pause of up to 24 hours when activity looks like abuse; that pause ends by itself unless a person extends it, and it is not a finding. One closure happens by rule: an age re-check answered "under 18" or "high-school student", or left unanswered. At present the person is the owner, who is also the editor of Tillyard Research. The closure by rule is not a finding about conduct. - Outcomes run from no action to permanent removal. We weigh the harm, the intent, the pattern and the context. Reports are weighed, and the number of them settles nothing. - We aim to tell you what we did and why. A notice names the item, the rule, whether it reached us by a member report or by automated screening, how long the action lasts and how to appeal. It never names the reporter. - You get one appeal for each decision, which the site calls a second look. Ask for it in the time the notice gives, currently 14 days, and bring something we did not have. It is a second look by the same small house, usually by the same person. It is not an independent tribunal. - We do not report members to their colleges or to employers as a routine. We report to the authorities where the law requires it. In an emergency, or for serious misconduct where the law allows, we may tell law enforcement. - Good faith is protected. Reporting, appealing or disputing honestly never counts against you. Doing any of them to hurt someone can. If this summary and the full text below ever differ, the full text governs. 1. About this policy ==================== 1.1 What it covers ------------------ This policy covers: 1. reports about members, about anything a member wrote or set, and about public pages; 2. what the platform captures when a report is made; 3. holds placed on items, and pauses placed on accounts, before a person has looked; 4. how staff decide what to do, and the full range of what they may do; 5. the notices we send; 6. the records we keep about cases, and for how long; 7. reports made in bad faith; 8. the single appeal; 9. when we tell law enforcement or anyone else outside Tillyard, and what we do not do. 1.2 Who it applies to --------------------- - Members, whether they are reporting, are reported, or are simply present where something happened. - People without an account who use a public form to report, to ask for something to be removed, or to dispute something. - Outside confirmers, people named on a page, and anyone else whose words or name reach the platform. - Staff, who must follow it when they handle a case. 1.3 How it fits with our other documents ---------------------------------------- - The Terms of Use are the contract. They give us the right to take the steps described here and say how a legal dispute with us is resolved. - The Community Guidelines say what the rules are. This policy says how they are applied. - The Disputes and Corrections Policy covers the dispute form: payments, a record about you that is wrong, a confirmation you did not give, credit on a project or a paper, and records you believe are false. - The Messaging and Monitoring Notice says what is screened, what is logged, when staff may read a conversation and exactly what a report attaches. - The Privacy Notice and the Data Retention Schedule say what we hold about you and for how long. - Some subjects have their own document, because the law or the subject needs one: the Child Safety Policy, the Intimate-Image Removal Policy, the Copyright Policy, the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research (decisions about papers), the Reader Guidelines, the AI-Use Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy (automation, scraping and security), the Trademark and Brand Use Policy, and the Law Enforcement and Legal Requests Policy. Where two documents cover the same point, the more specific one governs. In particular: - the Child Safety Policy governs anything that concerns a person under 18; - the Intimate-Image Removal Policy governs a request to remove an intimate image, including its fixed deadline; - the Copyright Policy governs copyright notices, counter-notices and copyright strikes; - the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research governs whether a paper is accepted, corrected or retracted, and the appeal against a paper that was not accepted; - the Data Retention Schedule governs every retention period; - this policy governs how a report is handled, how a hold works, how a conduct decision is made and how an appeal against one is run. Section 37.5 of the Terms of Use sets the order among all our documents, including the sections of those terms that prevail over every other document. 1.4 Words we use ---------------- Words that have one meaning in every one of our documents, such as member, visitor, staff, the editor, record item, hold, case and tip, are defined in Definitions. The words below are added for this document's own subject, or repeated from Definitions for convenience. If a repeated meaning ever differs, Definitions governs the meaning of the word. - We, us and our mean Tillyard, which operates the platform. - The platform means the website at tillyard.org and everything it offers. - A member is a person who holds an account. - Staff means the owner and any person who works for us under a paid, written contract and holds a staff account. At present the owner is the only member of staff. Members are never staff, and no member is given any power over another member's content or account, whatever title or history that member has. - The owner is the president, who runs Tillyard day to day. The editor is the person who decides whether a paper is published in Tillyard Research. At present the owner is the editor, and every decision described in this policy is made by that one person. - Item means any single thing a member wrote, chose or set: a chat line, a note, a thread name, an order line, a table label, an answer, a profile field, a paper, a reading, an entry, a project line, a help-wanted card, an organization entry, a confirmation, a Record item. - Report means telling us, through a report control or a form, that you believe an item or a person's conduct breaks our rules or the law. The reporter is the person who does that. - Case means our file on a report, a hold, a dispute, a removal request or an appeal. Several reports about the same thing are kept in one case. - Ticket means the reference we give you for a case. - Evidence packet means the fixed copy of an item and its surroundings that the platform saves into a case when a report is made. - Screening means the automated checks that text goes through: a word list, and classification services that score text for kinds of harm. - A hold hides an item from everyone except its author while a person looks at it. A hold deletes nothing, adds no strike and is not a finding that a rule was broken. - Pause means that an account cannot take part while we check something about it, such as a report that the member may be under 18. A pause is not a finding either. - Restriction means the loss of one or more features for a time. A mute is a restriction on writing to other people. - Suspension means that the account cannot take part at all for a set time. - Removal means that the account is ended permanently. - Strike means our private record that a notice (the formal warning) or a stronger step was given for a breach of the rules. - Appeal means the one request a member may make for a decision to be looked at again. 1.5 How to read "may", "aim" and "currently" -------------------------------------------- When this policy says we may do something, it describes something we are allowed to do and can choose not to do. It is not a promise to do it in your case. When it says we aim to do something, it describes what we try to do, not a commitment about a result or a time. Currently and at present describe how the platform works on the date of this version, which can change. When a document of ours uses the word will for something we do, we mean it as a commitment, and every commitment is listed in Schedule 1 of the Terms of Use. A statement of how the site works describes the site as it is on the date of this document, and we mean it to be true on that date. It is not a promise that the site will stay that way (Definitions, section 2). Lists that begin "such as" or "for example" give examples and do not limit what comes before them. 1.6 This is not an emergency service ------------------------------------ Nobody watches the platform around the clock. A report may wait hours, or longer, before a person sees it. - If you or anyone else is in immediate danger, call 911. - If you are thinking about suicide or are in crisis, call or text 988, at any hour. - If you believe a child is being exploited, you can also report directly to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at report.cybertip.org (https://report.cybertip.org/) or 1-800-843-5678. The Child Safety Policy says more. Report to us afterward, so that we can act on the platform. A report to us is a report to a private company. It is not a report to the police, and it is not a report to your college under any law or campus rule. If you want either of them to act, you need to tell them yourself. Section 15.4 says how we can help with that. 2. Tools that work at once ========================== A report asks a person to look. These tools need nobody's decision and work straight away. - Block. A blocked member cannot sit with you, see your card or write to you, and you stop seeing theirs. They are not told. - Mute. You stop seeing a person's chat for a visit, or stop getting notices from a conversation. - Leave. Stand up from the table, leave the thread, end the conversation. You owe nobody an explanation. You do not need a reason to use any of them, and using them does not stop you reporting as well. If you block someone who has broken a rule, please still report it, because a block protects you and a report protects the next person. 3. How to report ================ 3.1 If you are a member ----------------------- 1. Find the report control. It sits beside every member's name and beside every item a member wrote or set, in every part of the platform. 2. Choose the category that fits best (section 4). If none fits, choose the last one and say what happened. 3. Add a sentence or two if the problem is not obvious from the item itself. You do not need to write much. 4. Send it. You are given a ticket. You do not need to copy, paste or take a screenshot. The platform saves what it needs at the moment you report (section 5). Reporting costs nothing, and the tip button is kept off report, removal and appeal screens. 3.2 If you do not have an account --------------------------------- You can still report. Public pages, such as Record pages, public profiles and published papers, carry a report link that works without signing in. There are also public forms at tillyard.org: - the report form, for a page or a person on the platform; - the removal form, for an intimate image shared without consent, described in the Intimate-Image Removal Policy; - the dispute form, for anything about a record, a confirmation, credit, a payment or a decision, described in the Disputes and Corrections Policy. Public forms ask for an email address so that we can reply and so that you can check your ticket. They sit behind an automated bot check and have limits on how often they can be used, to keep them from being flooded. The text you type passes through the same screening as other text. Copyright notices go to copyright@tillyard.org, as the Copyright Policy sets out, because the law lists what such a notice must contain. 3.3 What helps -------------- - Which item, or which person. Reporting from the control beside the item does this for you. On a public form, give the address of the page or the code printed on the Record item. - What is wrong, in your own words, if it is not obvious. - Anything we cannot see. For example, that the person has contacted you elsewhere, that this has happened before, or that being identified as the reporter would put you at risk. - What you would like to happen, if you have a view. We decide, but it helps to know. 3.4 What to leave out, and what not to do ----------------------------------------- - Do not send images, files or recordings. The platform accepts none, and for some material, sending it on is itself against the law. If your concern involves an image of a person under 18, do not save it, copy it or forward it to anyone, including us. Tell us where it is. The Child Safety Policy explains. - Do not paste other people's private details beyond what the report needs. - Do not investigate. Do not set a trap, pose as someone else, or gather a group. Tell us what you saw and leave it there. - Do not confront the person in public, here or on another site, in place of reporting. - Do not report the same thing many times. One report is enough. Further reports from you about the same item do not add weight. 3.5 Limits on reporting ----------------------- There is a daily limit on the number of reports one member can send, and limits on how often the public forms can be used from one connection. New accounts have lower limits. These exist so that reporting cannot be used to bury a person or the queue. If you reach a limit and something urgent has happened, use the removal form if it concerns an intimate image, or write to support@tillyard.org. A limit is never a reason to stay silent about danger. 3.6 Conversations you are in, and conversations you are not ----------------------------------------------------------- - You can report any note or thread message in a conversation you are part of. Doing so shows us messages that you sent or received. - You cannot report a private conversation you are not part of. The platform does not let a member open someone else's conversation to staff by guessing at it. - What is said at a table can be reported by the people who were at that table. - Public pages can be reported by anyone. 3.7 Reporting a person ---------------------- If the problem is a pattern, or something with no single item to point to, use the report control beside the member's name. The case then starts with what you wrote. The Messaging and Monitoring Notice sets out what staff may read from there, and when. 3.8 Reporting something that happened somewhere else ---------------------------------------------------- We look at conduct outside the platform only when it is connected to the platform and bears on members' safety or on the truth of The Record, as the Community Guidelines describe. Examples are harassment that began here and continued elsewhere, or a false claim about a Record item on a résumé. We do not monitor other sites and cannot see what happens on a call or in another app. Tell us what happened and, if you can, where a public trace of it can be seen. We may be unable to establish what happened somewhere we cannot see. 3.9 Reporting a concern about staff, or about the owner ------------------------------------------------------- A report about a member of staff is made the same way, or by writing to legal@tillyard.org. Tillyard has a board of three trustees, and the owner is one of them. If your concern is about the owner, write to the other two trustees at monica@tillyard.org or jason@tillyard.org. Your message goes to them. They may put it to the owner and ask for an answer, and they may take it to the board. Section 7.9 says what we do about conflicts of interest. You remain free to take the concern to any outside body, and nothing in our rules penalizes you for doing so. 3.10 If the site is paused or a form will not work -------------------------------------------------- The platform can pause parts of itself when it nears a capacity limit, and it is built to keep reporting, the removal form and moderation working when other things are paused. If a form still will not work, or you cannot complete the bot check, write to support@tillyard.org, or to legal@tillyard.org for legal matters, or by post to Tillyard, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062. For an intimate image, the Intimate-Image Removal Policy lists the other ways to reach us and how the deadline is counted. 3.11 Help with reporting ------------------------ If a disability, a language barrier or anything else makes the forms hard to use, write to accessibility@tillyard.org and we can take the report another way. Someone you trust may help you write a report, and may send it for you if you tell us they are acting for you. 4. The report categories ======================== The report form lists twelve categories. The headings below use the form's own words, in the form's order, so that a label you see or hear on the form can be found here. Each category tells us roughly what kind of problem this is, which decides where the case starts in the queue. The category you choose is a starting point. Staff may move a report to a different category when they read it, and choosing the wrong one in good faith is never held against you. 4.1 Harassment or threats ------------------------- Use it for: repeated unwanted contact; insults aimed at a person; pile-ons; following someone from table to table; romantic or sexual pressure; stalking; a threat of violence against a person or a place; a threat to expose private information; pressing someone to move to another app, a call or a meeting. What may happen before a person looks: where screening supports the report, or where enough established members report the same item, the item may be held. A threat that looks credible is treated as urgent. The rule: Community Guidelines, the sections on respect and harassment, threats and violence, and privacy. 4.2 Hate -------- Use it for: slurs; attacks on a person or a group for who they are; dehumanizing language; symbols or coded phrases used to demean. Not for: a paper or a discussion that examines hateful ideas in order to study them. The Community Guidelines explain the difference. 4.3 Sexual content ------------------ Use it for: sexual messages, propositions or remarks; sexual material in any text field; links to sexual material. If it involves a person under 18, use the child-safety category instead (4.5). If it is an intimate image of you, use that category (4.4). 4.4 An intimate image of me --------------------------- Use it for: a link to, or any representation of, an intimate image of you that was shared without your consent, including one made or altered by software. The platform is text only, so this usually means a link or a description that points to an image held somewhere else. What happens: this category follows the Intimate-Image Removal Policy, which has a fixed 48-hour deadline for a valid request and governs everything about it. The item may be hidden straight away. You do not need an account, and you can use the removal form in place of the report control. 4.5 Child safety ---------------- Use it for: anything sexual involving a person under 18, an attempt to arrange contact with one, or any other risk to a child. What happens: these reports go to the owner alone. The person reported may be given no notice, and an account may be paused by rule when the report is corroborated. Where the law requires it we report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Child Safety Policy governs. 4.6 This member may be under 18 ------------------------------- Use it for: a member who may be under 18. The platform is for adults. Tell us what makes you think so. What happens: these reports also go to the owner alone. An account reported as possibly under 18 may be paused at once, before a person has looked, and its holder may be asked to answer the age question again. A member who answers that they are under 18 or a high-school student, or who does not answer in the time shown, is closed as not eligible. A pause that is lifted leaves no mark. The Child Safety Policy governs. 4.7 Worried about someone ------------------------- Use it for: a member who says they intend to hurt or kill themselves, or whose messages worry you. What may happen: we may show the person crisis resources, send a short private notice, and hide content that describes methods. Where we believe in good faith that someone is in danger of death or serious injury, we may contact emergency services with the information they need. We cannot promise to see a report in time. If the danger seems immediate, call 911. Saying you are struggling breaks no rule. A report in this category is a request for care and is not treated as an accusation. 4.8 Spam or a scam ------------------ Use it for: repeated or bulk messages; advertising; schemes that ask for money; fake opportunities; phishing; requests for sign-in codes; multi-level recruiting; someone selling coursework or writing services; a help-wanted card that asks for unpaid help for a business. Note: staff never ask you for a sign-in code, and Tillyard never writes to you in Notes. Report anyone who claims otherwise. 4.9 Impersonation or a false record ----------------------------------- Use it for: an account pretending to be someone else, to be staff, or to speak for a college or an organization; a Record item, title, role, confirmation or count you believe is invented or materially wrong; an organization entry that is not a real group at that college, that pretends to be another group, or that uses a college's name in a misleading way. Also see: if the record is about you, or the confirmation is in your name, the dispute form is usually faster, because some of those cases are settled by a standing rule without waiting for a person. The Disputes and Corrections Policy explains. 4.10 Plagiarism or undisclosed AI assistance -------------------------------------------- Use it for: a paper, a portfolio piece, an entry or a reading that copies someone else's words or ideas without credit, invents sources, or appears to rest on help from an AI tool that was not declared. What to know: - These reports go to the editor when they concern a paper, and are handled under the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research and the AI-Use Policy. - We make no claim that AI-written text can be detected. We do not run papers through AI detectors, and we do not act on a detector score, whoever produced it. We look at things that can be checked: sources, the drafting record, and the author's answers to questions. - A concern in this category does not hide anything by itself. It is the least time-sensitive kind of report. - We do not publish accusations. If a paper comes down, the notice on its page is neutral. 4.11 Copyright -------------- Use it for: telling us quickly that something here copies a work. This puts the matter in front of a person. If you own the copyright and want the legal process, send a notice to our designated agent as the Copyright Policy describes. Only a notice with the parts the law lists starts that process. 4.12 Something else ------------------- Use it for anything not listed, such as exposure of someone's private details, a risky link, an attempt to get around a block or a suspension, misuse of a title, dangerous instructions, or a breach of the rules of a round. Some places add reasons that only make sense there. For example, a help-wanted card can be reported because it "asks for unpaid help for a business", "offers or asks for money" or "asks to move off the site", and a credit line can be reported because "this credit is wrong". Those are handled like any other report in the nearest category. 5. What is captured automatically ================================= The Messaging and Monitoring Notice is the detailed statement and governs. This section is a summary so that you know what pressing "report" does. 5.1 The evidence packet ----------------------- When a report is made, the platform saves an evidence packet into the case at that moment. It holds: - the reported item, as a fixed copy; - its surroundings. For table chat, the ten messages on either side at that table. For a note or a thread message, the notes around it in that conversation, including the first wording of a note that was edited and the text of a note that was taken back in the previous 14 days. For other items, the item as it stood, and for some kinds its edit history; - when and where: the times, and the room and table, the conversation, or the page; - the accounts involved: their identifiers, how old each account is, and earlier reports about the reported account with their outcomes; - what screening made of the text, including classifier scores; - for table chat, the table's label and any call-link events; - technical details where the system records them: a keyed hash of the IP address of the connection, and the browser type. A keyed hash is a one-way scramble. It is still personal information, and we treat it as such; - the category you chose and what you wrote. A fingerprint of the packet is stored with it, so that any later change would show. 5.2 A packet does not change ---------------------------- Later edits and deletions do not affect a packet. If either person deletes a message, takes a note back or closes their account, the packet stays with the case for the case's period. That is the purpose of it: a decision should rest on what was actually there. 5.3 Other people in the packet ------------------------------ A packet can include words written by people who are neither the reporter nor the person reported, for example others at the same table. Every member has agreed, on joining and again on first entering the Shop and Notes, that table chat is logged and that messages can be read by staff when reported or flagged. Staff are expected to read no more than the matter needs. 5.4 What is recorded about the reporter --------------------------------------- Your account, the time, the category and what you wrote. On a public form: the email address you gave, what you wrote, the ticket, and a keyed hash of your IP address with the browser type. We also keep a private record of how reports turn out, which is used to weigh later reports (section 7.2). 5.5 What is not captured ------------------------ - No audio, video or image. The platform hosts none. - No recording of your screen and no copy of anything outside the platform. - No readable IP address in a case file. Only the keyed hash described above. - Nothing from a conversation you are not part of, unless it is the item reported or its stated surroundings. 5.6 Who can see a packet ------------------------ Staff working on the case. The reporter, the person reported and other members cannot see it. Each time staff open a case, a conversation or a packet, the view is written to the staff action log with a reason. That log is chained so that an entry cannot be changed or removed afterward without the break showing, and this applies to the owner as much as to anyone. Child-safety cases are opened by the owner alone. 6. Who learns that you reported =============================== 6.1 What we do to keep a reporter's name private ------------------------------------------------ - We do not tell the person you reported who made the report. - Our notices say only that something reached us through "a member report" or through "automated screening". They do not quote what you wrote. - The reporter's identity is visible only to staff, and staff views of a case are logged. - No other member can see that a report was made, by whom, or about whom. Hosts, thread owners, organization officers and readers have no access to reports. 6.2 The limits -------------- We keep your identity confidential. We cannot promise that it will stay unknown, and you should know why before you report. - The other person may work it out. In a conversation between two people, or at a small table, the content of the notice can make it obvious. If being identified would put you at risk, say so in the report, and we take that into account in what we say and when. - The law can require it. A court order, a subpoena or another form of valid legal process could require us to disclose who made a report. We check any such demand before answering it, as the Law Enforcement and Legal Requests Policy describes. - Some reports go to the authorities. A report we must make to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children includes the information we hold, which can include who told us. In an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury we may give emergency services what they need. - Our advisers may see it. We may share a case in confidence with our lawyers or insurers. - Some processes are open by their nature. A copyright notice is given to the member whose material is affected, with the name of the person who sent it, as the Copyright Policy explains. A teammate who questions a credit line on a project does so in the open, and the person whose credit is questioned is shown who questioned it. Those are disputes and not reports, and the pages where you start them say so. - You may choose to say so yourself. 6.3 What the reporter is told ----------------------------- We aim to tell you that your report was received and, where we can, that the case has been closed. We may tell you in general terms that we acted. We usually cannot tell you what was done about another member's account, because that is their information. If nothing visible changes, that does not always mean nothing was done. 6.4 Do not try to find out who reported you ------------------------------------------- If you receive a notice, do not try to work out who made the report, do not ask other members, and do not contact anyone you suspect. Retaliating against a person you believe reported you is a serious breach in its own right, whether or not you guessed correctly, and whether or not the original report led to anything. 7. What happens when a report arrives ===================================== 7.1 A case is opened -------------------- The report, its evidence packet and an entry in the staff action log are written together, and the reporter gets a ticket. If a case about the same item or person is already open, the new report joins it. 7.2 How reports are weighed --------------------------- A report is information for a person to consider. The number of reports about something does not decide anything by itself. Each report carries a weight that depends on things such as how long the reporting account has existed and how that account's earlier reports turned out. Reports from very new accounts carry less. A burst of reports about one person in a short time, or several reports that appear to come from the same source, is treated as a signal to look at the reporters as well as the person reported. This is deliberate. Members here often know each other, and an open report-anyone system can be turned into a weapon. 7.3 A report does not suspend or remove anyone ---------------------------------------------- No report, and no number of reports, suspends or removes an account. The most that reports can do before a person looks is cause an item to be held (section 8) or, for a child-safety report, cause an account to be paused. 7.4 How severity is decided --------------------------- Each case is given a priority that sets its place in the queue. The priority is about how quickly harm could happen or spread. It is not a view on how much the matter counts, and it is not a finding. The priority starts from the category and is adjusted by: - whether a person appears to be in danger; - whether a person under 18 may be involved; - whether the item is public, or visible to many people, or still spreading; - what screening made of the text; - the weight of the reports; - whether the person reported has earlier cases of the same kind; - whether a law sets a deadline. How severity is decided. Columns: priority, what usually belongs here, what may happen before a person looks. Priority | What usually belongs here | What may happen before a person looks ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Urgent | Child safety. A credible threat of violence. An intimate image. A person who may harm themselves. Private information exposed in a way that puts someone at risk. Extortion | The item may be hidden. An account reported as possibly under 18 may be paused. It goes to the top of the queue High | Harassment, hate, sexual content or pressure, stalking, impersonating staff, a fraud in progress | The item may be held where screening or the weight of reports supports it Standard | Spam, most scams, impersonation, false records, vulgarity, misuse of links | Usually nothing Low | Concerns about plagiarism, sources or undeclared AI help; quality; most "something else" reports | Nothing Staff may raise or lower the priority when they read the case. We work through the queue in order of priority, and within a priority, oldest first. We keep our own working targets for each priority. We do not publish them as deadlines, because one person cannot promise to meet them every day of the year, and a target we publish becomes a promise. The one fixed deadline is set by law: a valid request to remove an intimate image is acted on within 48 hours, as the Intimate-Image Removal Policy sets out. 7.5 Who looks ------------- A member of staff. At present that is the owner. No member, whatever their title, takes part in deciding a case about another member. If we later bring in paid help, we expect a moderator to be able to handle reports, holds and shorter suspensions, with removals and appeals remaining with the owner. 7.6 What staff look at ---------------------- - The evidence packet. - The reported member's earlier cases and any strikes that still count. - The reporter's earlier reports and how they turned out. - Further back in the same conversation or log, where that is needed to understand what happened and the Messaging and Monitoring Notice allows it. - Anything the reporter, the person reported or a witness tells us. - Public material, such as a public page elsewhere, where a report points to it. Staff do not go looking through a member's other conversations because a report was made. 7.7 Hearing from the person reported ------------------------------------ For anything beyond a first notice or the handling of a single item, we aim to take account of what the person reported has to say. Sometimes that happens before a decision: we may ask a question, or ask for an explanation. Sometimes, where waiting could leave someone at risk or where the facts are clear from the packet, we act first, and the appeal is the member's chance to be heard. We may ask the reporter or a witness for more. Nobody is obliged to answer, and we do not treat silence by itself as an admission. We may decide on what we have. 7.8 How we decide ----------------- - On the information in front of us. We are not a court. We cannot compel anyone to answer, take sworn evidence or see what happened off the platform. We decide what we believe happened and what should follow, in good faith, and we can be wrong. The appeal exists for that. - On the rules in force when the conduct happened. - On what each person did. Being at a table, in a thread, on a team or in an organization where someone else broke a rule is not a breach by you. - With more care as the outcome gets heavier. A notice can rest on a single clear item. A suspension or a removal should rest on something that can be shown: the packet, a pattern, an admission, or several accounts that agree. - Without regard to things that should not count (section 10.2). 7.9 Conflicts of interest ------------------------- If a case concerns the owner personally, or someone close to the owner, the fair thing would be for someone else to decide it. With one person running Tillyard there is not always someone else. In that situation we aim to ask a lawyer or another paid person outside the case to look, we record that we did, and we tell the people involved that Tillyard had an interest. We cannot promise this in every case. 7.10 Interim steps ------------------ While a case is open, staff may hold an item, restrict a feature or pause an account as a precaution, where leaving things as they are could cause harm. An interim step is not a finding. We aim to keep it as short as the case allows, and it ends when the case is decided. 8. Holds and pauses =================== 8.1 What a hold is ------------------ A hold hides an item from everyone except its author while it waits for a person. That is all it is. - It is not a finding that a rule was broken. - It deletes nothing. The item is kept exactly as it was and can be put back in one step. - It adds no strike and no mark to the author's standing. - It does not suspend the account. The author can keep using the platform. - Nothing public says a hold exists. A held public page reads the same as a page the member chose to stop sharing. 8.2 What can cause a hold ------------------------- - Screening. Text that the automated checks score as likely to be seriously harmful may be held before anyone else sees it. In table chat, where messages are delivered at once after a word filter, a line may be withdrawn from the table shortly afterward. - Weighed reports. When several established members report the same item, the combined weight may hold it. - An urgent report with something to support it. For example, a complete removal request that names one existing item. - A legal complaint about an item, while we look at it. - Staff, as an interim step in an open case (section 7.10). - Screening being unavailable. When the automated checks cannot run, some new text may wait, visible only to its author, until they can. Automated screening works from patterns. It makes mistakes in both directions. It holds things that are fine, particularly research about violence, sexual health, hate movements or self-harm, and it misses things that are not. 8.3 What a hold looks like -------------------------- What a hold looks like. Columns: where, what other people see while the item is held. Where | What other people see while the item is held ---------------------------------------------------- Table chat | The line is withdrawn from the table A note or a thread message | "This note is hidden." A thread | The thread is paused. Its name shows as "A thread" and nobody can post Profile text, an order line, an answer, a card | The text is not shown A Record item or a public page | The page reads "no longer listed" A published paper | The paper's page answers as not found, and the paper is left out of every list. The Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research explains A credit line on a project | The line is withheld and the Record item is taken off view An organization entry | The entry is not shown In most places the author can still see their own held item, marked as waiting or hidden. In your own Record, a held item reads "Hidden while we look at a report". 8.4 What the author is told --------------------------- When an item of yours is held, we aim to tell you which item, that it is hidden while a person looks, and that a hold is not a decision. The notice does not say who reported it, if anyone did. In child-safety matters, and where telling the author could put someone at risk or get in the way of a legal duty, we may give no notice. 8.5 Asking for a faster look ---------------------------- If an item of yours is held and the delay is causing a real problem, for example a paper that is cited in an application due this week, you may ask for the hold to be looked at sooner, using the control on the notice where one is offered or by writing to support@tillyard.org with the ticket. We take such requests into account in the order of work. We cannot promise a time. 8.6 How a hold ends ------------------- A person looks and does one of these: - restores the item, exactly as it was, with no mark against the author; - asks the author to edit it, and restores it once edited; - removes it, or leaves it withdrawn; - for a paper or a Record item, moves to a correction, a withdrawal or a retraction under the document that governs it; - decides that something more is called for, in which case the outcome follows section 9 and the author receives a decision notice with the right to appeal. A hold that is lifted leaves a record in the case file that it happened. It does not count against the author. One kind of hold ends by rule. A hold that was placed only because of the weight of members' reports, on a case in the standard or low priority, is lifted if no member of staff has opened the case after a set time (currently 7 days). The item is shown again and the case stays open for a person to read. Holds placed by screening, holds in the urgent and high priorities, strict holds and holds that follow a legal complaint do not end this way: they wait for a person, and an unreviewed one rises on the owner's list. A hold is not itself a decision, so it cannot be appealed. What can be appealed is the decision that ends it. 8.7 Pauses on accounts ---------------------- An account, as distinct from an item, may be paused before a person has looked in a small number of situations: - a report that the member may be under 18 (Child Safety Policy); - signs that an account has been taken over by someone else; - automated limits tripped by technical abuse, such as flooding (Acceptable Use Policy); - activity that looks like abuse in a short time: many refusals by the site's limits, reports from many separate members, links from a new account after they were refused, many connection requests declined, or many sign-ups from one browser or network. This pause lasts up to 24 hours, may cover only sending, and ends by itself unless a person extends it. While an account is paused the member cannot enter the Shop, exchange notes, nod, submit work or take part in sessions. They can still sign in to download their data and to close the account. A pause is a precaution. It is not a finding, and it leaves no mark on the member's standing if the concern turns out to be unfounded. Automated tools never remove an account and never impose a suspension as a penalty. They may pause sending (messages, table chat, connection requests, posts and voice), or pause the whole account, for up to 24 hours when activity looks like abuse. A person then looks and releases the pause, extends it, or treats it as a report. An automatic pause ends by itself unless a person extends it, it is not a finding, and the member can ask for a person to look at once. 9. What we may do ================= 9.1 The range of things staff may do ------------------------------------ Depending on what happened, staff may do any of the following, alone or together. Nothing further. - Close the case with no action, because no rule was broken, because we could not establish what happened, or because the matter has already been put right. Closing a case without action is not a finding that the report was untrue or made in bad faith. Lighter steps. - Ask a member to edit or take down an item, and restore it once it is edited. - Place a block between two members. Steps about an item. - Hold, hide, unlist, label or remove it. - Restore it. - Correct it, or add a note to it, where the governing document allows. Steps about an account. - Send a notice that names the rule and the item. A notice sent as the outcome of a case is the formal warning. - Restrict a feature for a time: table chat, Notes, threads, nods, hosting, the reading pool, the résumé swap, favors, rounds, help-wanted cards, submissions, links or call links. - Mute the member for a time. - Pause the account while something is checked. - Suspend the account for a set time. - Remove the account permanently, and refuse a new one. Steps about The Record and Tillyard Research. - Withdraw a title, a Record item, a confirmation, a count or a perk, or mark an item as disputed. - Set aside a reading, a score or an entry in a round. - Decline, unlist, correct or retract a paper, under the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research. - End a member's place in the reading pool or the résumé swap. Steps about the reporter, where a report was made in bad faith (section 13). Steps outside Tillyard, which are rare and are set out in section 15. 9.2 The usual order ------------------- For repeated lesser breaches, the usual order is this. The usual order. Columns: step, what it is, length, currently, recorded as a strike. Step | What it is | Length, currently | Recorded as a strike ------------------------------------------------------------ Notice | A written notice that names the rule and the item, often with a request to edit the item. This is the formal warning | Not applicable | Yes Mute | You cannot write in table chat, Notes, threads or the house question. The rest of the platform works as usual | 24 hours | Yes Suspension | The account cannot take part | 7 days | Yes Removal | The account is ended | Permanent | Not applicable Beside these steps, staff may close one feature to a member (a restriction), such as the reading pool or hosting, for the time stated in the notice. This is a description of what usually happens. It is not a tariff. The lengths are the ones the staff tools offer today and may change. Staff may repeat a step or skip steps where the circumstances call for it, and the notice you receive states what applies to you. The tools may suggest a next step from the strikes that still count. They never apply one: a person chooses. Serious conduct can go straight to suspension or removal. The Community Guidelines list conduct that can end membership at once, including being under 18 or anything sexual involving a minor, a credible threat of violence, stalking, sexual coercion or extortion, sharing or threatening to share intimate images, exposing private information in a way that puts someone at risk, defrauding members or impersonating staff, deliberately invented records or confirmations, selling coursework, an attack on the platform or on members' data, and returning after removal. 9.3 Strikes ----------- A strike is a private record. It is not shown on a profile, a Record page or anywhere else, and no other member can see it. - A strike counts toward the usual order for 12 months from the decision. - After that it no longer counts toward the usual order. The record of it stays in the case file for the case's period (section 12), and we may take an older case into account where the new conduct is serious or shows the same pattern. - A strike is cleared, and counts for nothing, if the decision behind it is reversed on appeal or we conclude it was a mistake. - Copyright strikes are counted separately, under the Copyright Policy, because the law requires a policy for repeat infringers. Conduct that is both a copyright matter and a breach of the Community Guidelines may be recorded under both. 9.4 What each account step means in practice -------------------------------------------- While a feature is restricted or you are muted, the rest of the platform works as usual. The notice says which features and until when. While an account is suspended or paused, you cannot enter the Shop, send or read notes, nod, submit, read for others, host or take part in sessions. You can still sign in to: - read the notice and send an appeal; - download your data; - withdraw permissions you have given; - stop emails; - close your account. A suspension concerns taking part. It does not by itself change the facts on your Record, and nothing public shows that an account is suspended. When an account is removed, the member can no longer take part. Their public pages and Record pages read "no longer listed". A removed member can still sign in to appeal, to download their data, to withdraw permissions and to close the account. If they do not close it, the account's information is erased on the schedule in the Privacy Notice, and we keep the limited records described there so that the removal stays in force. A person we have removed may not open another account. 9.5 Effects on shared things ---------------------------- A step against one member can touch things that other members share with them. We aim to limit that. - Scheduled tables the member was due to host may be cancelled or released, and people who had seats are told in neutral words that the table will not run. - Threads the member owns may be handed to another participant or closed. - Projects and organizations continue without the member. A removed member's seat or role ends. Credit already recorded for other people is not affected. - Co-authored papers are handled under the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research and the Author Agreement and Licence. A step against one author does not by itself take down a paper, though the conduct behind it may. - Confirmations the member gave to others may be set aside if we conclude they were not honest, and the people who relied on them are told that a confirmation was withdrawn, not why. - Readings and scores the member gave may be set aside. Other members are not told why any of this happened. 9.6 What these steps do to The Record ------------------------------------- - A withdrawn item's page shows a neutral status, such as "withdrawn" or "no longer listed". It gives no reason and, once withdrawn, no name. - Titles are granted and withdrawn only by staff. - Counts and perks obtained by gaming may be removed. - Corrections and retractions of papers appear as dated notices in neutral words. The Disputes and Corrections Policy describes the public statuses and what each one does and does not say. 9.7 Things we do not use as outcomes ------------------------------------ - We do not charge money, and no payment or tip lifts or shortens any step. - We do not name members publicly or publish lists of people we have acted against. - We do not use a report to a college, an employer or a family member as a penalty or as a threat (section 16). - We do not quietly limit an account in place of a decision. If we restrict what your account can do as an outcome of a case, we aim to tell you, subject to section 11.4. Automatic limits that apply to everyone, such as rate limits and capacity pauses, are a different thing and are described in the Acceptable Use Policy. 10. What we weigh ================= 10.1 What counts ---------------- - Harm. How serious the harm was or could have been, to whom, and whether it can be undone. - Intent. Whether it was deliberate, careless or an honest mistake. - Pattern. Whether it has happened before, whether there were earlier reminders or warnings, and whether strikes still count. - Response. Whether the person put it right, and how they responded when it was raised. Admitting a mistake and fixing it weighs in a member's favor. - Context. What was said, where, to whom, and what had gone on between the people before. The same sentence can be scholarship in a paper and an attack at a table. - Trust. Whether a role was used to do it: as a host, a reader, an officer, the owner of a thread, a co-author or a confirmer. - Target. Whether the conduct was aimed at someone because of who they are, or at someone who had already asked for it to stop. - Reach. Whether it was public, how many people saw it, and whether it touched The Record, on which other people rely. - Risk. Whether leaving things as they are puts anyone at risk. - The effect of the step itself. What the outcome would cost the member and others who share work with them, set against the harm it prevents. 10.2 What does not count ------------------------ - Whether you have tipped or sponsored anything. Tips are not linked to accounts, and they play no part in any decision. - How many reports there were, as a number. - Who you are: your school, field, year, title, founding number, perks, how long you have been a member, or how many people know you. - Your views. Disagreeing with other members, with a paper or with Tillyard is not a breach. - A score from any tool that claims to detect AI-written text. We do not treat such a score as proof. - That you appealed, disputed something or reported someone in good faith. - A report we closed as unfounded. It stays on file for its period but does not count against the person reported. 11. Notices to the member affected ================================== 11.1 What a notice says ----------------------- When we act on your item or your account, we aim to tell you: 1. what we did, and to which item or account; 2. which rule it was done under, with a link to it; 3. how the matter reached us: through a member report or through automated screening. Never who reported; 4. how long it lasts, if it is temporary, and what, if anything, you need to do for it to end; 5. what it changes for you in practice; 6. how to appeal, and by when. We write notices in neutral terms. A notice describes a decision about conduct on this platform. It does not accuse you of a crime and it is not a statement about your character. 11.2 How a notice reaches you ----------------------------- As a notice inside the platform, and usually by email to the address on your account. The email says that there is a decision and links to it. It never contains another member's words. Safety and account notices come through even when you have asked for other notes to be held back or have turned off optional email. 11.3 What a notice leaves out ----------------------------- - Who reported, and what they wrote. - Other members' private information. - Detail that would help someone get around screening or limits. - Anything a law or a court order forbids us to say. Where an item of yours was removed, the notice identifies it. We may describe it and not quote it in full. 11.4 When we may say less, wait, or say nothing ----------------------------------------------- We may give less detail, delay a notice or give none where telling you: - could put a person at risk; - would reveal who made a report; - would get in the way of an investigation or a legal duty; - is forbidden by law or by a court order; or - is pointless, as with an account that exists only to send spam or to attack the platform. In child-safety matters we may give no notice at all. If a notice is given, it says only that the account has been restricted or removed for a serious breach of our rules. If you were given no notice and later learn that we acted, the time to appeal runs from the day you learn of it. 11.5 Notices are private ------------------------ A notice goes to you. We do not publish notices, we do not show them to other members, and we do not send them to your college, an employer or anyone else. Public pages carry only the neutral statuses described in the Disputes and Corrections Policy. 11.6 What others are told ------------------------- - The reporter: see section 6.3. - People who share something with you, such as co-authors, teammates, fellow officers or people with a seat at your table: only what they need in order to carry on, in neutral words. For example, "this table will not run", or "a confirmation on this item was withdrawn". The reason is not shared. - Everyone else: nothing. 12. What stays on record, and for how long ========================================== The Data Retention Schedule lists every kind of record with its period and governs. The periods below are copied from it for convenience and are ceilings. 12.1 How long each record is kept --------------------------------- How long each record is kept. Columns: record, how long it is kept. Record | How long it is kept ---------------------------- A report: who reported, the category, what they wrote | With the case A hold | Until it is released or the case is decided. The record that it happened stays in the case A case closed with no action | 12 months after the case closes A case closed with a notice, a mute, a restriction, a suspension or a withdrawn item | 24 months after the case closes or any appeal ends A case that ends in removal of an account | 36 months after the case closes or any appeal ends A strike | Counts for 12 months. Its record stays in the case An evidence packet | With the case. The hashed IP address and browser type are removed after 90 days An appeal and its outcome | With the case Safety signals that did not lead to a case | 30 days The staff action log, which holds identifiers and reason keys and never names, email addresses or member text | For as long as Tillyard operates; it cannot be edited or pruned The record of an age re-check, which holds no date of birth | 36 months If staff removed an account: a keyed hash of its name and college, which can only raise a flag for a person to look at | 24 months A keyed hash of the email address of an erased account | 90 days if the account was in good standing; 24 months if other members had blocked it or a report about it was open; 36 months if staff had removed it Material reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children | 1 year from the report, as federal law requires, and longer only if legal process requires it An intimate-image removal request | 5 years after the ticket closes, as the Intimate-Image Removal Policy states Copyright notices, counter-notices and copyright strikes | 3 years after the matter closes Legal requests we receive, and the register of legal holds | 6 years after the matter closes or the hold is released Anything under a legal hold | Until the hold ends Backup copies | Up to 12 weeks after the live copy is deleted This table repeats the Data Retention Schedule (rows H1 to H22), which governs if the two ever differ. Deletion runs on a schedule and is not instant. 12.2 Closing your account does not close a case ----------------------------------------------- Closing your account does not stop us finishing a case that was open, keeping its records for the periods above, or refusing a new account to someone we removed. The erasure of an account may be put on hold while an urgent report about it is open or the law requires us to preserve something. 12.3 What a past case is used for --------------------------------- - To apply the usual order in section 9.2 while a strike counts. - To recognize a pattern. - To weigh a reporter's later reports. - To recognize a person we removed who tries to return. - To answer an appeal, a later complaint or a legal claim about what we did. We may also publish totals, such as how many reports were received and how many accounts were removed in a term, with nothing that identifies a person or a case. 12.4 What it is not used for ---------------------------- - It is not published, and it is not shown on any profile, paper or Record page. - It is not given to colleges, employers, recruiters, sponsors or people who tip. - It is not used for marketing, and it is not sold or given to data brokers. - It is not used to train AI models. 12.5 Seeing and correcting your own case record ----------------------------------------------- You can see the notices we sent you, and the outcomes of your own reports and appeals, in your account, and they are included when you download your data. You can ask for a copy of other information we hold about you as the Privacy Notice describes. We do not hand over who reported you, what they wrote, other members' messages that you were not part of, or staff working notes, because those belong to other people or would defeat the protections in section 6. If you believe a case record about you contains a factual mistake, tell us, with the ticket. We may correct it, and you may ask us to add a short statement of your own to the file, which we keep with it for the case's period. 13. Reports made in bad faith ============================= 13.1 Good faith is protected ---------------------------- A report made honestly is never a breach, even when we decide that no rule was broken, and even when you turn out to be mistaken about the facts. We would much rather read a report that did not need making than miss one that did. We do not ask for proof before you report, and you are not penalized for being unsure. 13.2 What bad faith looks like ------------------------------ - Reporting something you know to be false. - Reporting to punish, silence or get back at someone, or to gain an edge in a round, a project or an organization. - Choosing an urgent category you know does not apply, in the hope of getting an item hidden. - Organizing other people to report the same person, or taking part when asked. - Reporting someone again and again over things you know are within the rules. - Using second accounts to add reports. - Threatening to report someone unless they do what you want. 13.3 The safeguards built in ---------------------------- - A daily limit on reports for each member, and lower limits for new accounts. - Weighing by the age of the reporting account and by how its earlier reports turned out. - Attention to bursts of reports against one person and to reports that share a source. - Reports alone never suspend or remove anyone (section 7.3). - A hold hides without deleting, adds no strike and is undone in one step. - Private conversations can be reported only by the people in them. 13.4 What may happen -------------------- Where we conclude a report was made in bad faith, we may: - set the report aside and restore anything that was held because of it, with no mark against the person reported; - give the reporter's later reports less weight, so that they no longer hold anything before a person has looked; - limit how often that account can report; - treat the report itself as harassment, and give a warning, a restriction, a suspension or, for serious or repeated cases, removal. A decision that you reported in bad faith is a decision about your account. You are told, and you may appeal it under section 14. We still read later reports from a person who has made a bad one, and a report that looks sound is still treated as sound. 13.5 Retaliation and counter-reports ------------------------------------ Do not retaliate against anyone for reporting, for giving information in a case, for appealing or for disputing something. Retaliation includes harassing them, turning others against them, exposing them, questioning a credit of theirs you know to be right, withdrawing a confirmation you know to be true, or reporting them in return for no other reason. If two people report each other, we look at both reports on what each shows. Being reported does not make your own report less worth reading. 13.6 Beyond our rules --------------------- A knowingly false statement about another person can have legal consequences for the person who makes it, apart from anything we do. Copyright notices and counter-notices carry their own legal penalties for false statements, which the Copyright Policy explains. We do not give legal advice. 14. The appeal ============== 14.1 What it is --------------- You may ask once for a decision to be looked at again. A person reads what you send, looks at the case again and gives you an answer. It is a second look. It is not a hearing, and it is not a review by an independent tribunal or panel. One person currently runs Tillyard, so the person who looks again will usually be the person who made the first decision: the owner, who is also the editor. Where someone else on staff is available, we aim to use them. What the second look does offer is a fresh reading after some time has gone by, with whatever you can add that we did not have. 14.2 What can be appealed ------------------------- A decision by staff about your content, your record or your account: - a notice that is a formal warning; - a restriction or a mute; - a suspension; - a removal; - the removal of an item, where a person decided it; - the withdrawal of a title, a Record item, a confirmation, a count or a perk; - a reading, a score or an entry set aside; - being taken out of the reading pool or the résumé swap; - a decision that you reported or disputed in bad faith; - an account closed because we concluded the holder was under 18, or kept paused because we could not tell; - the outcome of a dispute that a person decided, as the Disputes and Corrections Policy describes. 14.3 What has its own route, or none ------------------------------------ What has its own route, or none. Columns: this, goes here. This | Goes here ---------------- A paper not accepted for publication | The appeal in the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research, which has the same shape: once, within the stated time, with new information, to the same editor after a short wait A correction or a retraction of a paper | This appeal, started through the dispute form Material removed after a copyright notice | A counter-notice under the Copyright Policy. A copyright strike or an account step under that policy can be appealed here. That does not put the material back Material removed after an intimate-image request | This appeal covers any step taken against your account. It does not restore the material, which stays down unless we conclude the request was clearly mistaken A report to the authorities | Cannot be appealed. An appeal does not undo a report, and does not end any duty we have to preserve records A hold or a pause that has not yet been decided | Not a decision. Ask for a faster look (section 8.5) A request to edit an item that was then restored, with no strike | Not a decision. You are welcome to reply and tell us if we got it wrong An outcome reached by a standing rule and not by a person | Ask for a person to look, through the dispute form. That request is not your appeal; the appeal remains available against what the person then decides A rate limit, a capacity pause or another automatic limit that applies to everyone | Not a moderation decision. Write to support@tillyard.org if you think one is misfiring A decision not to act on your report | See section 14.14 A confirmation withdrawn by the person who gave it | That is the confirmer's choice and not ours. See the Disputes and Corrections Policy 14.4 Who can appeal ------------------- The member the decision is about. For a decision about a shared item, such as a co-authored paper or a project, any member directly affected by it. Someone may help you write an appeal. A lawyer or another person may send it for you if you tell us in writing that they act for you. We do not accept appeals made on another member's behalf without their agreement. A person without an account who is affected by a decision of ours, for example an outside confirmer whose confirmation we set aside, can ask for a second look through the dispute form. 14.5 One appeal for each decision --------------------------------- You may appeal each decision once. A later, separate decision about you carries its own appeal. Sending the same appeal again, through another form or another address, does not start a new one. 14.6 When to appeal ------------------- Within the time stated in the notice, which is currently 14 days from the day the notice was sent. We may accept a late appeal where there is a good reason, such as illness, an exam period, a notice that did not reach you, or a pause in the platform that kept you from sending it. Say why it is late. If the notice was withheld under section 11.4, the time runs from the day you learned of the decision. 14.7 How to appeal ------------------ - Use the appeal link in the notice, or the same link in your account. It works while an account is suspended or removed. - Or use the dispute form at tillyard.org/dispute and choose "a decision about my paper, record or account". The day you send it counts as the day of your appeal. - If you cannot use either, write to support@tillyard.org with the ticket, or by post to Tillyard, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062. Nothing about an appeal costs money. 14.8 What an appeal must contain: something new ----------------------------------------------- An appeal is a short written statement. It has a length limit. It must tell us something that was not in front of us, or show us something we got wrong. For example: - Facts we did not have. What came before the reported message; what the other person had agreed to; that the account was being used by someone else at the time. - A mistake of fact. The wrong item, the wrong person, a quotation taken for a statement, a date or a count that is wrong. - The wrong rule. The rule named in the notice does not cover what happened, or a more specific rule allows it. - Something that changes the weight. Circumstances that bear on intent, on harm, or on what the step will cost you or others, which we did not know. - A problem with how it was handled. The notice never reached you; you were asked a question and your answer was not considered; the person who decided had an interest in the outcome. - A reporter who has since withdrawn the report, or a later event that changes the picture. "I disagree" is not, by itself, new information. Neither is a statement that the rule is a bad rule, that others did the same and were not caught, or that the step is inconvenient. An appeal that brings nothing new may be answered briefly, with the decision left as it is. You cannot attach files. Describe what you have and, where it helps, give the address of a public page. If we need to see a document we tell you how to send it. Be truthful. An appeal that relies on something you know to be false is itself a breach. 14.9 Who looks, and when ------------------------ A member of staff. At present that is the owner, who is also the editor and who will usually have made the first decision. The second look does not happen the moment the decision is made. It is read no sooner than a short period after the decision, currently 24 hours, so that it is a fresh reading and not a reflex. We may look sooner where the decision looks clearly mistaken or where waiting would itself cause harm, for example a mute that would be over before the wait ends. An appeal about a paper has its own wait, set in section 9 of the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research. Timing. We do not state a time for the answer. One person handles appeals alongside everything else, urgent cases come first, and exam weeks, illness and busy periods can make it longer. An appeal that has waited a set time (currently 14 days) moves up the owner's list by itself, so that none is left to sit. If your suspension will end before an answer is likely, the appeal still matters, because it decides whether the strike stays on your file. 14.10 What stays in place meanwhile ----------------------------------- A restriction, suspension or removal usually stays in place while an appeal is considered, and removed content stays down. We may lift a step in the meantime where the appeal shows on its face that the decision was probably wrong and lifting it puts nobody at risk. 14.11 What the second look covers --------------------------------- The whole case file, your appeal and anything new. We may ask you a question. We may ask the reporter or a witness something, without telling them that you appealed or what you said. 14.12 The possible outcomes --------------------------- - The decision stands. - The decision is changed: a lighter step, a shorter time, a different rule, or a corrected notice. - The decision is reversed. The step ends. The strike is cleared and counts for nothing. Content, titles, Record items and counts that were taken away because of it are restored where they can be, and the case file is marked to show that the decision was reversed. We do not make an outcome heavier because you appealed. If an appeal brings to light conduct that was not part of the original case, that conduct may be looked at as a new case, with its own notice and its own appeal. What a reversal cannot undo. Time during which you could not take part; a round that closed while you were suspended; a scheduled table that was cancelled; a seat someone else has taken. We aim to put right what we reasonably can, and we tell you if something cannot be put back. 14.13 The answer ---------------- We reply in writing, in the platform and usually by email. The reply says whether the decision stands, is changed or is reversed, and gives the reason in general terms. It does not name the reporter. 14.14 If you reported something and disagree with the result ------------------------------------------------------------ A reporter does not have an appeal under this section, because the decision was not about the reporter's account. If we closed your report without action and you have something to add that we did not have, reply once to the closing message with the ticket. We may look again. If the conduct continues, report the new instance; it is considered together with the earlier case. 14.15 After the appeal ---------------------- The answer ends our own process for that decision. There is no second appeal. We may reopen a closed case at our discretion if something significant comes to light later, such as a court decision, an admission, or a reporter who withdraws what they said. The appeal does not take away any right you have under the Terms of Use or the law. If you want to take a dispute with us further, the Terms of Use say how to send a formal notice and what happens next. Using the appeal is not a condition of that, and it does not extend any legal time limit except as the Terms of Use provide. 14.16 No penalty for appealing ------------------------------ Appealing in good faith does not affect your standing, your papers, your Record or any later decision. Appeals that are abusive toward staff, or that are sent repeatedly after an answer, may be closed without a reply. 14.17 Asking to return after removal ------------------------------------ Removal is permanent. We do not offer a schedule for coming back. A person whose account was removed may write once to support@tillyard.org, no sooner than 12 months after the removal, to ask whether we would consider a new account. We are not obliged to agree, we may decline without giving a reason, and for some conduct, including anything in the child-safety category, credible threats, sexual coercion and intimate-image abuse, we do not expect ever to agree. Opening an account without asking is a breach and ends the question. A person whose account was closed only because they were under 18 is welcome once they are 18, as the Child Safety Policy explains. 15. When we tell law enforcement or anyone else =============================================== Almost every case begins and ends inside Tillyard. This section sets out the exceptions. 15.1 Where the law requires it ------------------------------ - Child sexual exploitation. If we obtain actual knowledge of apparent child sexual abuse material, or of the other child-exploitation offenses that federal law requires providers to report, we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and preserve what the law requires. The Child Safety Policy governs. - Legal process. We respond to valid legal process, such as a search warrant, a court order or a subpoena, after checking that it is properly issued, addressed to us and asks for no more than the law allows. The Law Enforcement and Legal Requests Policy has the detail. - Preservation. We keep records past their normal deletion date when the law requires it or we receive a lawful request to preserve them. 15.2 Emergencies ---------------- If we believe in good faith that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires it, we may give police or emergency services the information that relates to the emergency, without waiting for legal process. 15.3 Serious misconduct ----------------------- Serious misconduct such as threats, stalking, fraud or impersonation may lead to permanent removal and, where appropriate and lawful, referral to law enforcement or your institution. That sentence is narrow on purpose, and this is how we read it. Section 12 of the Law Enforcement and Legal Requests Policy sets the limits on what may be disclosed to a college. - It is a discretion, used rarely. Most breaches of our rules, including serious ones, are dealt with by our own steps and go no further. - The owner decides, after legal advice where that is practical, and writes down what was sent, to whom, and why. - The law limits what we can send. A federal law, the Stored Communications Act, generally bars us from giving the content of members' messages to anyone outside Tillyard unless a person who sent or received them consents, proper legal process requires it, or an emergency or another listed exception applies. Records that are not content may not be handed to a government body without legal process, consent or an emergency, and many colleges are public bodies. In practice, a referral usually rests on the consent of a person who sent or received the messages, who is often the person who reported them, or on an emergency, or on legal process. - What we weigh: how serious and how well established the conduct is; whether anyone remains at risk; what the person harmed wants; whether the recipient has any authority over the matter; and the chance that we are wrong, because a mistaken referral can do real damage to a person. - We send facts, to one recipient. A referral states what we observed and what we did. It does not speculate. 15.4 Supporting your own report ------------------------------- If another member has harmed you and you want to go to the police, to a court or to your college, that decision is yours, and it is usually the better route. - You can export your own conversations at any time and take them with you. The Community Guidelines allow you to share them for that purpose. - On request, we can give you written confirmation of your own report and of what we did on the platform about your ticket, to the extent that does not disclose another person's information. - Tell us if you are going to the police, and we can keep the relevant records ready for a lawful request. - We cannot give you another person's messages that you were not part of, or their account details. Those go to the police or a court when they ask for them properly. 15.5 Our advisers, and a change of ownership -------------------------------------------- We may share case information in confidence with our lawyers and insurers, and may use it to bring or defend a legal claim. If the company or the platform changes hands, the Privacy Notice says what happens to the records we hold. 15.6 Other services ------------------- We do not currently pass reports to other websites or apps. If a link or an account on another service is the problem, report it to that service as well. We can tell you what we removed here. 15.7 Telling the member concerned --------------------------------- Where we disclose a member's information in answer to legal process, we may tell the member first so that they can object. We do not do so where the law or a court order forbids it, in an emergency, or where telling them would put someone at risk or defeat the purpose of a lawful request. The Law Enforcement and Legal Requests Policy governs. 16. What we do not do ===================== These are descriptions of our practice. Each is subject to what the law requires of us. - We do not report members to their colleges as a routine. Breaking the Community Guidelines is not, by itself, something we tell a college about. We do not send a college the content of anyone's messages. - We do not report members to employers, recruiters or scholarship bodies, and we do not answer questions from them about whether a member has been warned, suspended or removed. A Record page shows what it shows. - We do not tell parents, partners or friends about a member's account. - We do not use the possibility of telling anyone as a threat. No notice from us says, or hints, that your college or an employer will hear about it unless you comply. - We do not publish moderation history, and we do not put reasons on public pages. A withdrawn item says "withdrawn". An unlisted one says "no longer listed". - We do not name the reporter to the person reported. - We do not let software decide a sanction. A person, not software, decides every notice, 24-hour mute, suspension and removal for conduct. Software may hold an item, stop your table chat for one visit, or pause an account while a person looks, including a pause of up to 24 hours when activity looks like abuse; that pause ends by itself unless a person extends it, and it is not a finding. One closure happens by rule: an age re-check answered "under 18" or "high-school student", or left unanswered. - We do not act on an AI-detector score, whoever produced it, and we do not claim that AI-written text can be detected. - We do not read conversations out of curiosity. Staff open a conversation only in the situations the Messaging and Monitoring Notice lists, with a reason recorded. - We do not give members power over other members. There are no member moderators. - We do not ask for identity documents to settle a case. - We do not let money change an outcome. Tips are not linked to accounts. - We do not penalize honest reports, appeals or disputes. If a college, an employer or anyone else asks us about a member, we treat it as any request from outside. We point to whatever the member has chosen to make public. For anything else we ask for the member's consent or for valid legal process. 17. Particular situations ========================= 17.1 Hosts, title-holders, officers and thread owners ----------------------------------------------------- The same rules and the same process apply. A title, a founding number or a role gives no protection and attracts no extra suspicion. Where a role was used to break a rule, that weighs (section 10.1), and the step may include ending the role. A thread's owner can remove someone from their own private thread, and an organization's officers can take someone off their roster. Those are things people do with their own groups. They are not moderation decisions by Tillyard, they add no strike, and the person removed can report the thread or the entry if they believe a rule was broken. 17.2 People who are not members ------------------------------- An outside confirmer, a person who sends a public form, or anyone else without an account is not subject to warnings or suspensions. Where they misuse the platform we may remove what they wrote, set aside a confirmation, stop accepting forms from that source, and block an email address from being used again. 17.3 When the person reported closes their account -------------------------------------------------- The case continues to a decision, and the outcome is recorded. Erasure may be put on hold while an urgent report is open. Closing an account and joining again does not clear strikes, case history or other members' blocks, as the Privacy Notice explains. 17.4 When the reporter closes their account ------------------------------------------- The case continues. The report stays in the case file for the case's period. 17.5 An account used by someone else ------------------------------------ If you tell us that someone else used your account, we take that into account, and we may pause the account and ask you to secure it. You are responsible for keeping your account secure, and "someone else was using it" does not by itself undo a step. 17.6 The wrong person --------------------- If you receive a notice about something you did not do, appeal and say so. Mistaken identity is exactly the kind of thing the second look is for. 17.7 Conduct before a rule changed ---------------------------------- We apply the rules that were in force when the conduct happened. A new rule or a heavier consequence applies only to conduct after it takes effect. 17.8 Getting round a decision ----------------------------- Do not get round a hold, a restriction, a suspension or a removal: no new account, no borrowed account, and no asking someone else to post or write for you. Doing so may turn a temporary step into a permanent one, for both accounts. 17.9 Legal claims ----------------- A letter from a lawyer, a court order or a formal legal demand goes to legal@tillyard.org, or by post to Tillyard, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062. It is not handled through the report queue, though we may open a case alongside it. 17.10 Language -------------- Reports, notices and appeals are handled in English. If that is a barrier, see section 3.11. 18. What we do not promise ========================== - We do not see everything. We have no duty to monitor the platform and do not review everything that is posted. Screening and reports both miss things. - We do not promise to act on every report, to act within any set time other than a time fixed by law, or to reach the outcome a reporter or an appellant wants. - We do not promise that screening is right. It holds some things that are fine and misses some that are not. We make no claim that screening catches any particular kind of text. - We do not vouch for any member, check anyone's background, or stand behind what members say, offer or confirm to each other. - We decide in good faith and can be wrong. - Not acting once is not approval. It does not give up our right to act later. - Our working targets are not deadlines. The only fixed deadline in our processes is the one the law sets for intimate-image removal. - Nothing here limits our rights under the Terms of Use to restrict or end access to the platform, or gives anyone a right to have another person penalized. 19. Changes to this document ============================ - We may change this policy as the platform grows, as the law changes or as we learn where it falls short. - Each version carries a number and an effective date at the top, and earlier versions are kept available. - For a change that matters, such as a new kind of step, a shorter time to appeal or a change in who decides, we aim to tell members on the platform, and by email where the Terms of Use call for it, before it takes effect. Small clarifications and corrections may take effect when posted. - A case is handled under the version in force when the conduct happened, as to what counts as a breach and what step may follow. Changes to process, such as how to send an appeal, apply from their effective date. - If you do not agree with a change, you can close your account as the Terms of Use describe. 20. Contact =========== - To report a member or an item: the report control beside it, or the public report form at tillyard.org/report. - To have an intimate image removed: the removal form described in the Intimate-Image Removal Policy. No account is needed. - To appeal a decision: the link in your notice, or the dispute form at tillyard.org/dispute. - To dispute or correct a record, a credit, a confirmation or a payment: the dispute form, described in the Disputes and Corrections Policy. - Copyright notices: copyright@tillyard.org, as the Copyright Policy explains. - Questions about this policy, or a form that will not work: support@tillyard.org. - Legal notices and requests from authorities: legal@tillyard.org, or by post to Tillyard, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062. - Security problems: security@tillyard.org. - Accessibility, or help with a report or an appeal: accessibility@tillyard.org. - In an emergency, call 911. In a crisis, call or text 988.