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Community Guidelines

We are committed to making Hown (“Service”) a welcoming environment for all users by maintaining an environment where people are free to interact and express themselves. Our goal is to create a trusting community where users can discover properties of interest and meet other users with similar interests.

We have created this set of community guidelines (“Community Guidelines”) which outlines the actions, behaviors, and Content (previously defined in the Terms of Service) that are acceptable on this Service, to establish rules to which all users must adhere.

These Community Guidelines include a number of provisions but the overall theme is straightforward: there are undoubtedly going to be wildly different perspectives and ideas across this community. We celebrate this diversity, however, respect, kindness, and generosity must be universal. Simply put, regardless of your viewpoint, treat everyone with the same decency that you would treat a friend or favorite family member.

Please also review our Privacy Policy, available at www.hown.app/policies/privacy/, and our Terms of Service, available at www.hown.app/policies/terms/.

Properties are the focus of this Service but the community of users is its foundation. This Service represents an exciting opportunity for all users but its ongoing success requires a strong community, with positive interactions between users. To ensure a suitable level of decorum, we would like to make a few recommendations:

Be open-minded, welcoming, and respectful. Users are going to have different backgrounds, beliefs, ideas, and experiences, and although they may not align with your own, we encourage you to be respectful and accepting. We also recommend that you avoid topics that could alienate users, including controversial topics, like religion and politics.

Assume good intentions and give the benefit of the doubt. Similar to other communities, conflict is bound to occur among users, as differing opinions are inevitable. Try to approach conflict with patience and assume good intent as we all make mistakes. By displaying this level civility, hopefully other users will do the same when you eventually make a mistake.

Respect users’ privacy. Users’ level of comfort with publicly sharing information will vary. Do not assume that your level of comfort is the standard. Rather than overshare or risk offending other users, before posting anything related to another user or property, assume that user or that property’s owner is less comfortable than you with publicly sharing information. Also, if there is a question about comfort level, just ask the user.

Clarity is key. Communicating over posts, comments, and direct messages is difficult and filled with ambiguity. Tone is nearly impossible to discern through text, so please focus on clarity and think about how your messaging and tone will be received by users.

Use good judgement. You are responsible for your behavior and actions when using this Service, and you will be held accountable for both. Broadly speaking, exercise good judgement, and do not post, transmit or make available any Content that is morally objectionable, unlawful, false, misleading, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, embarrassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, or, in any way, harmful to minors.

Prohibitions

We are committed to maintaining a community where users’ safety is guaranteed, allowing them to freely interact and express their interests in properties. We will not tolerate any of the following, regardless of intent:

Property Violations. Content that would constitute a trademark or copyright violation. Very simply, please post only content that you personally created, or have the express permission to post from the author that created the Content.

Sexuality. Content that includes pornography, nudity, partial nudity, or anything sexually suggestive in nature. We recognize that sexuality is a part of life but it has nothing to do with properties, and therefore does not belong on this Service. When necessary, we will refer any violations to law enforcement, in particular Content that involves possible unlawful activities involving or affecting any minor.

Violence. Content or behavior that is violent in nature or could be construed as such. Where we deem appropriate, we will refer any such violations to law enforcement.

Discrimination. Content or behavior that is disrespectful of or threatens a user or group of users on the basis of who they are — including their age, disability, body size, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation. This prohibition extends to derogatory terms, inflammatory language, and the promotion of hate groups.

Bullying and harassment. Content or behavior that we constitute as bullying or harassment, meaning any habitual badgering or intimidation targeted at a specific user, group of users, or property. In general, if your actions are unwanted and you continue to engage in them, you are bullying or harassing. If another user asks you to refrain from certain actions or posting certain Content, and you continue, you are committing harassment.

Impersonation. Content or behavior intended to mislead others as to your identity, including, but not limited to, fraudulently claiming ownership of a property, impersonating Hown, a Hown employee, another user, or any other person or entity.

Privacy. Posting personally identifiable information of another user, including, but not limited to, name, phone numbers, email addresses, residential addresses, credit card numbers, Social Security/national identity numbers, passwords, or content from other users’ private messages without their permission. This prohibition extends to soliciting passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from others.

Further, although we obviously encourage users to post Content about properties, any Content that includes images (or likenesses) of the properties’ owners or their family members may constitute a violation of the property owners’ interest in privacy, especially when such Content presents a safety risk to the subject. To avoid any potential violations, please refrain from posting Content that includes another person unless you have their consent.

Exploitation. Taking advantage of this Service or users. We strictly prohibit using this Service for exploitation purposes, such as delivering spam, viruses, malware, Trojan horses, worms, or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. This prohibition extends to transmitting, or procuring the sending of, any advertising or promotional material, including any “junk mail”, “chain letter”, “spam”, or any other similar solicitation.

Illegal Activity. Content or behavior that promotes, encourages, materially supports, solicits, or fosters any criminal activity, enterprise or organization(s) designated by the United States government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This prohibition extends to providing instructional information about illegal activities including, but not limited to making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone’s privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses. We have zero tolerance for these types of violations.

We Need Your Help

We cannot moderate all of the activity and Content on this Service, and instead have to rely on our users to monitor other users’ actions, behaviors, and Content. Should you encounter users or Content that you either do not like or believe violates these Community Guidelines, you have the following options:

Communicate expectations. Our hope is that users may be able to resolve issues on their own by reminding other users of these Community Guidelines, and by requesting that the other users alter their behavior or remove certain Content.

Unfollow and mute users. If you encounter a user who engages in behavior or posts Content that you do not like but the issue does not violate these Community Guidelines, you can unfollow them (if you were previously following them), or you can mute them.

Muting a user keeps you from ever seeing their Content. Should you need any help with muting a user, please contact us at: contact@hown.app.

Report Content or user. If you run into a user or Content on this Service that violates these Community Guidelines, please report it using our reporting functionality.

Once reported, there is a variety of actions that we may take, and it usually depends on the circumstances particular to the case. We recognize that users make mistakes, usually not realizing how their behaviors or Content would be perceived. However, we will always err on the side of prudence. We will review each report on a case-by-case basis. We will have our team investigate the surrounding facts of each circumstance and respond as we deem appropriate.

The actions that we may take in response to a report include, but are not limited to: