How moderation works

Who moderates

Our moderators are people, appointed by Michael Gabriel Papanikolaou, trading as Made By Michael. They work through one queue of reports, items waiting to be shared with everyone, photos held by our automatic checks, and appeals. A moderator never decides about their own content or account, about something they reported, or an appeal of their own decision. We don't watch what tables share among themselves: moderators look at content kept to Only me or to a table only when it's reported or held, and only as much as the case needs.

Reporting

Every recipe, photo, "I cooked this" post, tip, book and profile has a Report link, which opens the report form for it. Anyone who can see something can report it — a visitor without an account too, on pages shared with everyone. You choose a reason, and the reason decides what we ask:

• Illegal content — why you believe it's illegal, where on the page it is (the item's address is filled in for you), your name and email, and a statement that you believe in good faith that what you say is accurate and complete. You don't have to give your name or email when reporting child sexual abuse material. If you're signed in, your name and email are your account's.
• Copyright — the work you say was copied, who owns it, and how to contact you.
• Privacy — whether it's about you or your child, and how.
• Spam or rules — which rule of the guidelines it breaks, and, if you like, why.

Some limits keep the form fair: one open report per person per item; up to 20 reports a day; anonymous reports pass a robot check; nobody can report their own things. We never tell the account holder who reported them. You'll get a receipt by email (an anonymous report without an email gets one on screen).

What happens next

• A person looks. Every report opens a case, which a moderator reads with the item in its context, its history and every report on it. Reports of child sexual abuse material come first.
• Three Trusted account holders' reports hide an item — automatically — until a moderator looks. A Trusted account holder is one whose account is more than 7 days old and who has had no strike in the last 30 days. New account holders' reports, a visitor's and a second report by the same person don't count towards the three. The item's writer is told, in a statement that says automation decided it — unless the law asks us to wait (as with a report of child sexual abuse material).
• Every photo is checked before anyone sees it. A moderation classifier (Amazon Rekognition) refuses a photo that very clearly shows sexual, graphically violent or hateful content, and holds one it isn't sure about until a person looks. Each photo is also compared with known child sexual abuse images: a match stops the upload, suspends its uploader at once, and is reported to the authorities.
• While joining is by invitation only, nothing is shared with everyone until a moderator approves it — recipes, books, posts and tips alike. Until then, it shows "Everyone — waiting for a moderator" to whoever looks after it.

What a moderator can decide

• Approve something waiting to be shared with everyone, or ask for changes (it goes back to the audience it had before).
• Hide it (only its writer sees it), remove it (nobody does), or restore it.
• Dismiss a report when nothing breaks the rules.
• Reset a profile: its bio and photo cleared, its name set to the handle.
• Warn an account holder, suspend their account, or lift a suspension.
• Release or refuse a photo held by the classifier.

A removal, a warning or a suspension is a strike. Every decision is written to a log that can't be changed or deleted.

Statements of reasons

Whenever we hide, remove, ask for changes to, refuse or reset something of yours, warn you or suspend your account, we email you a statement of reasons at once, in your language, and show it in your notifications. It says:

• what we did, to what, for how long, and that it applies everywhere on the site;
• whether it's a strike;
• the facts, as the moderator wrote them;
• whether we acted on a report or on our own initiative — never who reported;
• whether automated tools found it, and whether they made the decision;
• the rule it broke, linked to the guidelines, and the terms — or, for illegal content, the law;
• how to appeal, and where else you can go.

After a known-image match, the authorities may ask us not to tell the account holder yet; the statement then waits until they say it may go.

Appeals

You can appeal once per decision: open the link in the statement and tell us why (up to 2,000 characters), or simply reply to the email. The link works even when your account is suspended. A different moderator — not the one who decided — looks at it again, and either upholds the decision or reverses it: a reversal restores what was hidden or removed, lifts the suspension and withdraws the strike. We email you the outcome either way.

If you reported something and disagree with what we decided, write to hello@onlygravy.com; a different moderator will look at it again.

Trust levels

Every account holder is New for their first 7 days, and again for 30 days after a strike; everyone else is Trusted. New account holders have lower daily limits (5 uploads, 10 posts, 20 tips, no links) and their reports don't count towards hiding an item. Only time raises a level. The terms give the numbers.

Suspension

A suspension lasts until a date, or until a moderator lifts it. It signs the account holder out of every device at once; no way of signing in works until it ends; and nothing can be posted, uploaded or sent from the account. The invitations and share links they made stop working until it ends (an invitation could otherwise get round it); a guest link they made belongs to its table and keeps working. What they made stays as it was unless a moderator hides it. To get a copy of their data or delete their account meanwhile, they write to hello@onlygravy.com (we delete it unless the law requires us to keep it). We suspend for serious breaches, repeated ones, or a known-image match.

What reporters hear

If you gave us an email, we tell you the outcome: that we took action, or that we didn't. We don't tell you the sanction — whether an account holder was warned or suspended is between them and us.

Copyright: notice and counter-notice

• Notice. Report the item under Copyright, naming the work, its owner and how to reach you. A moderator checks it against where the recipe says it comes from (the writer's own, a handwritten card, or adapted with its credit), and hides or removes what infringes.
• Counter-notice. The account holder can appeal: that appeal is their counter-notice. They tell us why they have the right — their own words, their family's card with the heirs' permission, or an adaptation in their own words with its source credited. A different moderator decides, and the person who reported it is told the outcome.
• Repeated infringement leads to strikes and suspension, like any other rule.

Serious crime

When something suggests a crime that threatens someone's life or safety, we hide or remove it, keep the evidence, and inform the Hellenic Police (or the police of the country concerned, or Europol) at once, as Article 18 of the Digital Services Act requires. Child sexual abuse material is always reported. If someone is in danger now, call 112.

Transparency

We keep a record of every report and decision. As a micro enterprise, we believe we're exempt from publishing yearly transparency reports and from sending our statements to the EU's Transparency Database (Articles 15(2) and 19 of the Digital Services Act); we'll start if that changes. Draft: our lawyer is to confirm this.

Other ways to resolve a dispute

Besides appealing to us, you can:

• turn to an out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under Article 21 of the Digital Services Act (as a micro enterprise, we may not be bound to take part — draft, for our lawyer to confirm);
• complain to the Digital Services Coordinator of the country where you live. In Greece, that's the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT, www.eett.gr);
• go to court.

Our contact points are on Legal notice and contacts.