Community guidelines

1What this place is#

The Cover the Gaps Community is where people learning English practise it together. Members share a few sentences about their day, ask about grammar, words and pronunciation, and correct each other's writing. Some members are native speakers or teachers; most are learners, like you.

It works because people feel safe making mistakes here, and these guidelines exist to keep it that way. They apply everywhere in the Community: posts, comments, corrections, profiles, practice invitations, the chats that start from them, and comments on our Articles.

These guidelines are part of our Terms of Use. Their last part, “Your data in the Community”, is the Community's privacy notice; it adds to our Privacy Policy, which covers the rest of Cover the Gaps.

2Be kind — and correct kindly#

Everyone here is doing something brave: writing in a language they are still learning, in front of people they don't know. Read every post with that in mind.

• Correct the English, never the person. Nobody here is “stupid”, “lazy” or “bad at English”.
• Keep corrections short and useful. Fix what matters most and, if you can, say why in one sentence.
• Say what works, too. “Nice sentence — just one thing…” goes a long way.
• Correct only when asked. “Check my English” posts ask for corrections; on other posts, answer and reply as you would to a friend.
• The author decides. They may accept a correction or not. Please don't argue about it in the comments.
• Assume good faith. A sentence that sounds rude may be someone who doesn't have the words yet. Disagree with ideas, not with people.
• Never mock an accent, a level, a native language or a country.

3Write in English#

Posts are written in English — practising it is why we are all here. Comments are mostly in English too, but it's fine to explain a word or a rule in another language when that helps someone understand.

Don't worry about mistakes. If you want yours corrected, choose “Check my English” when you post. To read a post in your own language, use Translate.

4Not allowed#

We remove the following wherever it appears in the Community.

Hate

Attacking or demeaning people for who they are — their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or a serious illness — including through “jokes”, slurs or symbols.

Harassment and bullying

Insults, contact someone has made clear they don't want, ganging up on a member, threatening to expose someone, or sharing someone's messages to embarrass them.

Sexual content

Sexual or sexually suggestive posts, images and messages, nudity, and sexual remarks about members. Anything that sexualises children is removed at once and reported to the authorities.

Violence and threats

Threatening anyone, encouraging violence, or praising violent attacks or violent extremist groups.

Promoting self-harm

Encouraging suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, or explaining how to do them. Talking honestly about a hard time is not against the rules — and if you are struggling, free and confidential help is at findahelpline.com.

Spam, advertising and selling

Ads, referral and affiliate links, and selling anything — lessons, courses and tutoring included — or asking members to contact you for paid services. Teachers are welcome as members, but the Community is not a place to find students. Posting the same thing again and again counts as spam.

Other people's personal data

Posting anyone's private information: an address, a phone number, an e-mail address, documents, account details, or photos of people who didn't agree. Be careful with your own, too.

Impersonation

Pretending to be someone else, claiming to be a teacher when you are not, or claiming to speak for Cover the Gaps.

Cheating on exams

Asking members to answer a test while you are taking it, or sharing questions from an exam that is still in use. Asking for help to understand something is always welcome.

Other people's work

Posting what isn't yours to share, such as whole articles, book chapters, song lyrics or videos. Quote a few lines and say where they come from.

Anything illegal

Scams, fraud, and anything else that breaks the law.

5Practice partners#

If you switch on “I'd like a practice partner”, members can find you on the Practice partners page and send you a short invitation. When you accept one, the two of you can chat. Nobody can message you before you accept.

Practice partners are for practising English — no dating, no requests for money, photos or contacts on other apps. Report anyone who does.

• Don't send romantic or flirting messages, and don't ask for photos.
• Never ask for or send money, gifts, or bank or card details.
• Keep the conversation here. Don't ask for phone numbers or accounts on other apps, and think twice before sharing your own with someone you only know from here.
• You don't owe anyone a yes. Declining is quiet — the other person isn't notified and can't invite you again for 30 days — and you can block and report from the invitation or the chat.

6Adults only (18+)#

The Community is for adults: you must be 18 or older to join. When you join, we ask for your date of birth if your account doesn't have it yet. It is saved to your account, used only for this check, and never shown to anyone. Once saved, only our support team can change it.

If you are under 18, you can't join the Community — but Articles and all our learning tools stay open to you.

If we learn that a member is under 18, we remove them from the Community. If you think someone is, please report them. Parents and guardians can write to us through the support page.

7AI on this site#

Every account in the Community belongs to a person. There are no AI members, and AI never posts, comments or chats as if it were someone.

We do use AI as a quiet helper, and we always label it:

• Moderation. AI checks posts, their images, comments, corrections, profile texts and practice invitations, and hides what clearly breaks these guidelines.
• Translation. When you tap Translate, AI translates the post into your language, and the result is marked as an AI translation.
• Writing check. “Check my English with AI” looks at your draft before you post it. Only you see its suggestions, and nothing is posted unless you post it.
• AI corrections. If no member corrects a “Check my English” post within about four hours — or its author asks sooner — the AI helper suggests corrections. They are always labelled “AI helper”, and the author accepts or rejects them like any other.

AI makes mistakes. That is why an automated decision can hide a single item but never restricts an account: only people on our team do that, and every automatic decision can be appealed. We don't use your community content to train AI models.

8Reporting, and what happens next#

Every post, comment, correction, profile and practice invitation has a Report button. Choose a reason, add a few words if you like, and send it. The person you report is never told who reported them.

1. A person reviews it. Reports go to moderators on our team, with a copy of what was reported — so editing or deleting it afterwards doesn't make a report disappear.
2. Some things are hidden before review. When several established members report the same post, comment or correction, it is hidden until a moderator looks at it. Our automated moderation also hides what it is confident breaks these guidelines.
3. You hear what happened. If we remove something you wrote, we tell you which item it was, why it was removed, whether that was automatic, and how to appeal. If you reported it, we tell you whether we removed it. One exception: a practice invitation that was reported is simply withdrawn, like one that went unanswered, because only the person invited could have reported it and telling the sender would tell them who did.
4. You can appeal. Write to us through the support page and choose “Community: reports and appeals”. A person reviews every appeal, and we restore anything we removed by mistake.

Not a member, or is it urgent? Write to us through the support page or at talgat.v1994@gmail.com.

Content that is illegal — above all, anything that sexually exploits children — is removed and reported to the police or other competent authorities.

9Consequences#

Most problems end with one removed post and a note explaining why. We look at what happened, not only at the rule:

• We remove content that breaks these guidelines and tell its author why.
• If someone keeps breaking them, or does something serious even once — threats, sexual content involving minors, scams — we can restrict their account, so that other members no longer see what they post, or remove them from the Community.
• A person decides every restriction, never an automated system, and we tell you when it happens and why.
• Where the law requires it, we pass information to the authorities.

You can appeal any of these decisions through the support page.

11Changes to these guidelines#

When we change these guidelines in a way that matters, we publish a new version with a new date. Members are then asked to read what changed and accept it before they post again; reading stays open meanwhile. The version you accepted is kept with your consent.

These guidelines may be shown in your language as a convenience; the English version is the one that applies.