Community guidelines
Last updated 2026-06-22.
Connect is the community side of Mushroom Hunt - a wall, friends, and chat where foragers share finds, ask questions, and learn together. These guidelines exist so that Connect stays helpful, honest, and safe for everyone.
Respectful conduct
Treat every member with courtesy. Disagreement about identification or habitat is fine and often useful - personal attacks, insults, threats, or harassment are not. We have no tolerance for hateful speech targeting any person or group, sexual or explicit content, or deliberate intimidation.
Do not contact another user through chat or comments to harass, pressure, or stalk them. A single earnest message is fine; persisting after someone has not replied or has asked you to stop is not.
Private spots and location privacy
Spots saved inside Mushroom Hunt are private to the person who saved them. Never share, photograph, screenshot, or otherwise disclose another user's spot coordinates or location details without their explicit consent. This includes inferring a location from context clues in photos or descriptions and then publishing it.
If someone shares a location with you privately (in chat or in person), treat it as confidential. The unwritten forager rule - "take only what you need and tell no one the address" - applies here too.
Identification and edibility advice
Mushroom Hunt's species engine shows habitat likelihood and reference information. It is a foraging aid, not an authority, and it never guarantees what a specimen is or whether it is safe to eat.
The same standard applies to community advice:
- Do not state edibility as a fact when you are not certain. A confident wrong answer can seriously harm someone. Say what you observe, name the features you are comparing, and say explicitly when you are unsure.
- Always recommend a physical field guide, an in-person expert, or a mycological society as the final check before eating any wild fungus.
- Do not pressure or dismiss someone who expresses caution about a find.
Posts that present dangerous edibility claims as authoritative will be removed without warning.
Legal and ethical foraging
- Do not encourage picking protected or endangered species.
- Do not encourage foraging in restricted or off-limits areas (nature reserves where it is prohibited, private land without permission, national parks with applicable rules, etc.).
- Do not encourage taking quantities that damage the habitat or mycelium.
No spam or commercial promotion
Do not post repetitive messages, unsolicited promotions, referral links, or content whose primary purpose is to advertise a product or service. One mention of something you genuinely recommend in a relevant context is fine; repeated posting of the same link or product is spam and will be removed.
Reporting and blocking
Every post, comment, message, and profile has a report option. Report reasons include unsafe advice, harassment, spam, and other guideline violations. Our team reviews every report and may hide content, issue a warning, or suspend or permanently ban an account depending on severity.
You can also block any user at any time. Blocking makes you and the other person invisible to each other across all of Connect - wall, comments, and chat.
If you believe a post poses an immediate safety risk (for example, someone is about to eat something misidentified as safe), please report it as "unsafe advice" immediately so it can be reviewed quickly.
Consequences
Violations of these guidelines can result in content removal, a temporary suspension, or a permanent ban, depending on the nature and history of the violation. We will act without prior warning for content that endangers health or safety.
Questions
If you have questions about these guidelines or want to appeal a moderation decision, email [email protected].
Foraging safety always comes first - see our safety page.