Moderation Policy
1. Pre-publish checks
Every new site submission and every new report passes an automated check before it appears to other users: 1. Spam and profanity filter on text fields. 2. Duplicate-location check, to catch accidental duplicate pins. 3. Required-field check (land type, source of the report).
Submissions that pass these checks publish immediately, marked "unverified" for the first period, and enter the community review queue in §2. Submissions that fail an automated check hold in a private queue for a human moderator.
2. Human review
- Safety-critical reports (fire ban, hazard, closure, road danger) are prioritized and reviewed within 24 hours.
- New site submissions are reviewed within 5 days.
- User reports of rule violations (§3) are reviewed within 48 hours, and within 24 hours if the report claims a safety risk or a policy violation involving harassment or private property.
3. User reporting
Every site, photo, report, and note has a "Report" control. Reporting a piece of content asks the user to pick one category: 1. Inaccurate or outdated information 2. Not a legal camping location / private property 3. Harassment or abusive content 4. Spam or advertising 5. Sensitive location shared without care 6. Other, with a short text field
Reported content is flagged for priority moderator review. Content is not auto-removed on a single report, to prevent abuse of the report system, except content matching a strict automated policy filter (for example, known spam patterns).
4. Enforcement ladder
- First minor violation: content removed, submitter notified with the rule that was broken, no account mark.
- Repeated or moderate violation: content removed, formal warning recorded on the account.
- Severe violation (harassment, doxxing, safety-endangering false reports, trespassing promotion): immediate content removal and temporary posting suspension (minimum 14 days).
- Severe repeat violation: account suspension or permanent ban from public posting. The account may still use the app to browse and save private data.
5. Appeals
A user whose content was removed or whose account was restricted can appeal from Settings → Support → Appeal a Decision, or by contacting FreeRangeLabs@drumnbus.com. Appeals are reviewed by a moderator who did not make the original decision, within 7 days.
6. Blocking abusive users
Users can block another user's public content (reports, comments, and photos) from Settings → Privacy → Blocked Users. Blocking is private and is not disclosed to the blocked user.
7. Transparency
OpenCamp Atlas publishes a summary moderation report (counts by category, not individual case detail) on a regular basis, consistent with platform User-Generated Content requirements.
8. Legal and safety escalation
Content that describes an active, imminent safety risk to a person, or that appears to document illegal activity beyond a policy violation (for example, credible threats), is escalated to Free Range Labs (FreeRangeLabs@drumnbus.com) for review, and to law enforcement where required by law.