Community Guidelines

1. The Principles That Govern Everything

• Be real. Use a real person’s account. Don’t create sock puppets or rotate accounts to evade bans.
• Be honest. Don’t post things you don’t believe or have reason to believe are true.
• Be specific. Recommendations, reviews, and reports are much more useful when grounded in a concrete personal experience.
• Be kind. Disagreement is fine; harassment, contempt, and pile-ons are not.
• Protect each other. Don’t post information (addresses, photos, workplace, school) that could put another person or a minor at risk.

2. The Community Board

The community board is for time-limited local posts (posts expire after 30 days unless extended). Each post is attributed to your account.

What you can post

• Community notes — updates, announcements, local happenings
• Services — businesses and professionals offering services
• Events — community events, fundraisers, meetings, gatherings
• For sale — items for sale by community members
• Lost & found — lost pets, lost items, found items
• In memoriam — community remembrances
• Now hiring — see Hiring below for additional rules

3. Community Groups

Community Groups are private, creator-owned spaces. The person who creates a Group owns it outright and decides who belongs, what is posted, and how it is run.

• Premium creation. Starting a Group requires an active Premium membership. Any Premium member may create as many Groups as they want.
• Fully private.Groups are not searchable, listable, or visible to non-members. The only way in is an invitation from the Owner (or a member acting on the Owner’s behalf).
• Owner runs it. The Group Owner is the sole moderator inside their Group. Every Iowan does not appoint platform moderators or override Owner decisions, except to remove content that violates these Guidelines (see Section 6) or applicable law.
• Membership ratio. For every one (1) Premium member in a Group, up to two (2) free-tier members may join. Owners can require Premium membership of all members if they prefer.
• Ownership transfer.If a Group’s Owner is inactive for ninety (90) consecutive days, a current member in good standing who is Premium may petition [email protected] to take over. Every Iowan decides petitions case-by-case.

4. Reviews and Referrals

Reviews and personal referrals ("I Know a Guy / I Know a Gal") reflect individual experience. When you post a review or referral:

• You must have a genuine personal experience with the business or service.
• You may not accept payment or other consideration for posting, removing, or altering a review.
• Do not name-and-shame private individuals, employees, or children. Criticize the business, not the person.
• Disputes with a business belong in the review or in a private message to them — not in calls to action against the business.

5. Hiring and Job Listings

Job listings are free to post and carry strict obligations. When you post a job:

• The position must be real, currently open, and genuinely intended to be filled.
• You must respond to applicants and close the listing when filled or withdrawn.
• You must not request legally protected information (for example, age, marital status, disability, immigration status) as a condition of applying.
• You must not use the Service to build a candidate database with no intent to hire ("ghost" postings).

Failure to respond to applicants, running evergreen postings with no hires, or harvesting resumes may result in removal of the listing, suspension of posting privileges, or permanent blacklisting from hiring features.

6. What Is Never Allowed Anywhere

• False or defamatory claims about individuals or businesses
• Discriminatory housing, employment, or public-accommodation content based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic
• Harassment, threats, intimidation, stalking, or doxxing
• Content that sexualizes or exposes minors, or that invades a minor’s privacy
• Sexually explicit or gratuitously violent content
• Spam, multi-level marketing pitches, or commercial promotion outside designated categories
• Impersonation of other individuals, businesses, or government agencies
• Medical, legal, or financial advice presented as professional advice (personal experience is permitted)
• Calls to coordinated reporting, review-bombing, or brigading against a person or business
• Content that violates any applicable local, state, or federal law, including Iowa Code § 708.7 (harassment) and Iowa Code Chapter 716A (computer-related offenses)

7. Health and Safety Information

You may share your personal experience with any provider, treatment, or health decision. You may not post prescriptive medical claims that are not supported by mainstream authorities, attempt to diagnose others, or steer people away from evidence-based care in ways that could cause harm. Urgent health content is reviewed against Iowa Department of Health and U.S. CDC guidance before being featured.

8. Your Responsibilities

• You are responsible for the accuracy and content of your posts, endorsements, and reviews.
• Posts are attributed to your account. If you use a pseudonym, it is still linked to your account for moderation purposes.
• Board posts expire after 30 days unless extended or pinned by an administrator.
• Group Owners are responsible for moderating content inside their own Groups.
• Repeated violations may result in account suspension or permanent removal.

9. Reporting and Moderation

Every post, review, and job listing has a flag button. Inside a Group, the Owner is the moderator; outside Groups, Every Iowan handles reports. We respond in good faith and aim to act within one business day (immediately for safety emergencies).

If your content is removed or your account restricted and you believe the decision was wrong, email [email protected] to request a human review. Appeals are read by a different reviewer than the one who made the original decision whenever possible.

For urgent safety threats, contact us immediately through our contact form and, if you or someone else is in danger, also contact local authorities or 911.

10. Enforcement Ladder

Our typical enforcement ladder, from least to most severe:

1. Warning or content removal
2. Short timeout from posting in a specific surface (board, Group, or hiring)
3. Longer suspension of community privileges
4. Permanent account removal
5. Referral to law enforcement where the content or conduct appears to violate criminal law

We apply the minimum action required to keep the community safe. Severity escalates for repeat violations or for conduct that threatens other users’ safety.