Reporting and Removal Policy

How we hold each other accountable to our community standards

We want Bloom to be the safest place to meet new partners and friends. While dating and meeting new people always carries some risk, we have created community values to clarify the standard of behavior we expect in our community. These are:

Consent

We always practice affirmative consent, which means asking before escalating intimacy and actively listening to each response. Act only on a clear and enthusiastic "yes!" (with an exclamation point). Anything short of that is not consent.

Communication

We clearly express our interests and boundaries, which creates a shared space to connect and play.

Respect

We treat people with respect. We honor each other's boundaries, diversity, and time.

If a community member or Bloom employee experiences behavior from a member that is not in alignment with these community values, we collect this as follows:

  1. We ask members to report violations of our community values via our app reporting system. You can do this on the People tab, on the Chat tab, and on the post-Bloom feedback screen. There is a "..." on the right side and tapping on that will give you an option to report. You can also email report@joinbloom.community.*
  2. We give extra weight to reports that include a specific community value that was violated with a description of how the value was violated.
  3. We collect feedback from Bloom staff when they observe members violating our community values.

When the Bloom team determines that continued participation of the reported person in the community would put the community or its members at risk, the person will have their Bloom account suspended and will be unable to participate with Bloom going forward. To protect the privacy of reporters, we do not provide warnings, details of reports, or the ability to dispute a removal. As a small team, we are unable to provide the feedback, coaching, and process management that would be required to re-admit a person who is removed. While there may be valid distinct perspectives related to reports, we are unable to litigate these while maintaining privacy. The Bloom team always reserves the final right of judgement.

While inclusion is important in our community, safety rules all. In the often grey area of disputes related to consent, communication, and respect, we will always lean in the direction of trusting the reporter. In many cases, it will take two or three reports to remove someone, though the Bloom team reserves the right to remove someone after a single report if their continued participation would put the community at risk.


*The Bloom team may not count erroneous reports. For example:

  • If a report was made by mistake
  • If a member asks another member to report someone on their behalf but that member did not experience the reported behavior (e.g., attempting to get someone kicked out by teaming up against them)

Note: it is also possible to "unmatch" from someone by tapping the "..." in the top right of a chat conversation. If you do not have an interest in continuing to chat with someone but do not want to report them, you should unmatch from them.

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