Xplorians is a community of travelers who read each other, write to each other and sometimes host each other. These guidelines are part of the Terms of Use and apply everywhere in the product: the feed, comments, direct messages, groups, events, hosting, contests and profiles.
1. What this place is for
Telling travel stories, asking real questions, recommending places and meeting people. The best of what is here is specific: the beach that was worth the detour, the visa application that went wrong, the person who put you up. Write that.
2. What we expect of you
- Be who you say you are. A real name, a photo of yourself, and a profile that matches the person writing.
- Treat people the way you would in a hostel courtyard: you can disagree without insulting anybody.
- Post your own work. If you share somebody else's photo or words, say so.
- Look after the privacy of the people in your photos and of the people who write to you privately. A private conversation does not get published.
3. What is never allowed
There is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive members. This is removed, and the account that posted it is suspended:
- Harassment and threats. Insulting, humiliating, threatening, following somebody from post to post, or seeking them out in private after they blocked you.
- Hate. Attacking or demeaning people for their origin, nationality, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.
- Sexual content and nudity. This is not a community for that. Anything that sexualises a minor is removed, ends the account, and is reported to the authorities.
- Violence and harm. Graphic violence, glorification of terrorism, and anything encouraging people to hurt themselves or others.
- Deception. Fake accounts, impersonating a person or a brand, scams, money schemes, and any conversation that opens by asking you to continue somewhere outside Xplorians in order to pay for something.
- Other people's details. Posting somebody's address, phone number, documents or messages without their permission.
- Spam. Repeating the same post, mass following and unfollowing, comments that exist only to carry a link, and advertising dressed up as a post — advertising here is bought, and labelled.
- Illegality. Drugs, weapons, forged documents, protected wildlife, and anything else that is illegal where you are.
4. How to report, and how to cut somebody off yourself
Every post, comment, profile, event, ad, listing and conversation has a report option in its own menu, on the web and in the app. The report joins our team's queue; you hear back when we dismiss it and when it ends in a suspension, and a report closed another way can close without a message to you. Blocking does not go through us and takes effect at once: the two accounts stop seeing each other and can no longer exchange messages. And if you simply want to stop seeing something, you can hide a post or mute an author without blocking them.
5. What we do about it
A moderator reads every report and decides: dismiss it, ask the reported member to explain — which leaves the report open until they answer — take the content down, or suspend the account. Two of those come back to you: a dismissal and a suspension are both sent to whoever reported. Taking the content down closes the report without a message to the reporter, so silence does not mean nothing happened. When we take a post down the author is told, usually with the reason. New accounts go through review first: their earliest posts do not appear until a moderator has read them, and once a few have been approved they stop going through the queue. A suspended account cannot sign in and its booked stays are cancelled. Reporting a conversation is what lets a moderator read it: they see the twenty most recent messages of that conversation, from both people, because that is the evidence a report about harassment or threats turns on. It goes no further — there is no screen here for opening a conversation nobody reported.
6. If you think we got it wrong
Write to us at [email protected]. A suspended account cannot sign in, so email is the only way back. Tell us what happened — a person reads it.
7. Advertising and commercial posts
Xplorians ads are bought and labelled as sponsored; some arrive as a one-way message in your inbox. Recommending in good faith the agency that took you somewhere is not advertising; an account created to post offers is, and is treated as spam. If you have something to sell, write to us and we will tell you how.
8. The safety features are not an emergency service
Trusted contacts, “I’m safe” check-ins and SOS tell the people you chose, and nobody else. Nobody on our team is watching. If you are in danger, call the local emergency number where you are.