Fair usage policy

Help Barter is for people talking to people. Here is what that means for messages.

Only people send messages

Every message on Help Barter has to be sent by you, by hand. Bots, scripts, auto-clickers, browser extensions that send for you, scraping, and any other outside automation are banned. Accounts that use them are closed.

Our own Automated messages feature is allowed: it only sends your saved opening message when you press a button like "Ask for help" on a member's card. You are still the one choosing each person.

Fair use means not spamming

Contact people you genuinely want to swap with, one at a time. Do not send the same message to everybody on a board, advertise in other people's inboxes, or keep messaging somebody who has not replied.

The limit

If you contact 25 or more different members within an hour — new conversations and automated opening messages both count — you will be asked to slow down, and our team will look at your account. Replies in conversations you already have never count.

Contacting many members in a short time can lead to new conversations being paused for a while, a warning, your messaging being switched off, or your account being closed.

If somebody spams you

Use the flag at the top right of the conversation to report or block them. Reports go to a person on our team, and you will hear what we decided.