197 Community Guidelines
Travelers helping travelers
197 is a passport of the world and of the people on the road with you. Share what would have helped you: the hostel worth the detour, the border that took three hours, the view nobody told you about. Meet everyone the way you would like to be met in a new country.
What 197 is for
- Stories and photos from the places you have been.
- Tips that save the next traveler time, money or trouble.
- Places on the map, and notes on them, that are true when you add them.
- Honest, kind answers when someone asks.
Never on 197
197 has no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive travelers. None of this belongs anywhere in the app: not in stories, comments, places, notes, profiles or private messages.
- Harassment or bullying: insults, threats, piling on, following someone around the app.
- Hate against anyone for their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any other part of who they are.
- Sexual content or nudity, and anything that exploits or endangers a child.
- Violence: threats, encouraging violence or self-harm, or graphic images of either.
- Spam and scams: advertising, fake offers, asking for money or documents.
- Dangerous or illegal activity, including a hazard presented as safe.
- Other people’s private information, such as a phone number, an address or where someone is staying, without their permission.
- Pretending to be someone else, or to speak for 197.
What breaks these guidelines is removed, and the account that shared it can be suspended or closed.
When something is wrong
- Report it. Every story, comment, place, place note, profile and message can be reported from where you see it. We review reports within 24 hours, and the traveler you report is never told who reported them.
- Hidden while we look. When three different travelers report the same story, comment, place or note, it is hidden at once until a moderator has looked. Moderators hide or delete what breaks these guidelines and can suspend the account behind it: a suspended account, and everything it shared, disappears for everyone else.
- Block. Blocking works both ways: you stop following each other and no longer see each other’s stories, comments or messages. They are not told.
- Mute. Muting is quieter: their stories leave your feeds, their likes, comments and follows leave your notifications, their messages still arrive but without a sound or an alert, and their comments fold away under a post. They are not told, and they still see what you share.
You can undo a block or a mute from their profile, or from Settings.
A short list of words that are never acceptable is refused before anything is shared.
Accounts on 197 are for travelers 13 and older.
If someone is in danger right now, call local emergency services first.