Room rules

Charla Club is for conversation. Any lawful topic is welcome here, and a rule only exists if it protects a specific person or the law requires it.

What a room is

A room is a group of up to 8 people who talk by voice at a set time, for 45 minutes unless whoever creates it picks another length. It can have a host or not. The host is always a real person, and a table is the room of one particular host. Anyone can create a room, with its title and its category.

The room is voice only: nobody sees you here. The camera exists only in a call with someone in "Your people", and there it is yours: turn it on if you want to, turn it off whenever you choose, and you only see each other if you both turn it on. For video, one of you needs the member plan.

To join

• You are 18 or older.
• You use your first name and a current photo of yourself where your face can be seen. Nobody is anonymous here: you are going to talk to people, and they to you.
• You say "I'm going" before it starts. If you then can't make it, free your seat: it goes to someone else, and you can't join another table that day.
• You join with your microphone off, and you turn it on when you want to speak. You can also join just to listen.

What you can talk about

Any lawful topic. Health, grief, faith, politics, sexuality or money are as welcome as anything else. You can disagree, criticise a law or tell the story of a fine. An opinion that bothers someone is not a breach of the rules.

What is not allowed:

• Anything that is a crime or encourages one.
• Harming a specific person: harassing, threatening or humiliating them.
• Insulting someone or mocking them.
• Recruiting, selling or scamming: asking for or giving money, payments or "investments", or coming to sell products or courses. Talking about money or faith is fine.
• Sexual content in the room. Talking about sexuality as a topic is fine.
• Recording other people.
• Sharing outside the room anything that identifies another person in the room.

In the room chat, in the messages in "Your people" and in a room's title, phone numbers and shortened links do not go through, and in messages payment details do not either.

If you are attracted to someone

Being attracted to someone is not a breach. A comment is not a breach; insisting after a no is. And a no is not always said out loud: changing the subject or staying silent is a no too. Asking for a phone number once is fine; asking again after a no is not.

Who looks after the room

If the room has a host, the host shares out the turns and looks after the conversation. If someone else has been talking for a while, wait; if you have, leave room for others. The host can mute someone and remove them from the session without argument. Their decisions are reviewed afterwards, not live.

With a host or without one, every room has a named person behind it, its host or whoever created it, and Charla Club's moderators can enter any room, always openly: they appear as "Charla Club moderation" and can remove someone or end the room.

You can leave whenever you like, no explanations needed.

What is said in the room

We do not record or transcribe conversations, and nobody listens in from outside: anyone listening is in the room, and you can see them.

The room chat is deleted when the room closes. It is only kept if someone makes a report, and then only what the reported person wrote.

The panic button. It is always at the top, in every room and every call, and you hold it down for one second. It takes you out at once, and nobody else, and alerts a person at Charla Club, who reviews what you tell us. In the Android app, while you talk, your phone keeps the last 60 seconds of what you hear, never your own microphone, overwriting itself; if you press the button, they are frozen, and they only leave the phone if you make a report. They are deleted after 30 days.

"Your people"

When a room ends you can mark, privately, who you would talk to again. Nobody sees a mark that is not mutual. If you both mark each other, you appear in each other's "Your people": you can write and call each other, and it is a conversation between the two of you, with nobody else.

In private, between two adults who have chosen each other, sexual content is not forbidden. What has not been asked for is still harassment.

If someone in "Your people" makes you uncomfortable, remove them: they can no longer write to you, call you or be in a room with you, without being told. And you can report them from your conversation: they are not told who did it, and a person reviews it.

If something makes you uncomfortable

Tell the host, use the panic button or write to us at admin@charlaclub.com. We always read it, and we never say who told us anything: not to the person you tell us about, and not to the room. To report illegal content, even without an account, use the point of contact.

If someone crosses the line

We look at what the person did and whether they did it again, not at what we think they meant.

• Depending on what happened: a written warning, a 7-day suspension for a minor breach or a 30-day suspension for a serious one. The most serious breaches skip the warning.
• A ban with no end date is only ever decided by a person, after reviewing it.
• Every sanction is explained in writing, with the rule quoted, and you read it in the app, in "About your account". You have 14 days to ask for it to be reviewed, from that same screen or by writing to admin@charlaclub.com, and we answer in writing within 72 hours at most.
• While a serious report is being reviewed, such as one from a panic button, the reported account may be paused. The person is told what they cannot do and how to ask for a review, and the pause is always lifted by a person.

If someone looks under 18

They are taken out of the room and their account is suspended until they prove they are 18, by showing their ID in person, with no copy made. If they prove it, they come back.

One more thing

A room is a conversation between equals, not professional help. If you are going through a very bad time, call the helpline in your country; in an emergency, call 112.

These rules are part of the terms.