Hottub is for small, hosted rooms online and in real life. These are the constraints we design around: no pressure to perform, no public scoring, no selling people, no random matching, and no business model that makes rooms less safe.
Some principles are enforced by product guardrails. Others are written commitments our team uses to decide what ships.
Members can join, gather, and belong without a paid subscription.
No infinite feed, trending-drama panel, or algorithm built to hold attention.
Trust and safety signals affect product behavior, but aren’t shown as public scores, badges, or rankings.
Private connection signals are not notifications, matches, or public popularity counts.
Businesses can sponsor Hottubs, subTubs, Soaks, or city/category surfaces — never individual members.
Reports are reviewed by people, not silently auto-resolved by templates.
In-person gatherings require stricter safety structure.
No streak pressure, guilt nudges, or manipulative re-engagement.
When you RSVP to an in-person Soak and the Host confirms you, you see the exact details. Until then, people see only general location such as city or day-part.
Trust, safety, and room-fit signals may affect what appears where. They are not displayed to other members as scores, percentages, rankings, or badges.
You can step out without explaining. We don’t use streaks, guilt language, or “people are talking about you” pressure.
Rooms are ranked by place, category, safety, and fit — not by how long they can keep you scrolling.
No cross-context behavioral ad graph. Data serves the room you’re in, not a third-party ad network.
When you report something, a person reviews it. We don’t hide reporting or auto-close serious reports with templates.
Charged subjects can exist in rooms people choose to enter. Hottub doesn’t push politics, religion, or similar topics into general rooms by default. Neutrality does not mean tolerating abuse.
Hosts can set the tone, invite Lifeguards, and end sponsorships in their rooms where policy allows.
Better safety and belonging signals can improve discovery. We don’t use public popularity contests as the core host model.
Heat Checks and room signals are private or aggregate — meant to help you host better, not shame people.
Basic hosting can start simply. Paid, sponsored, and in-person features may require verification and safety steps.
We will not help you target individual members. You sponsor a Hottub, subTub, Soak, or city/category surface — that is the unit.
A Host’s room is their room. Host trust matters more than forcing a placement.
We don’t inflate member counts, attendance, engagement, or check-ins. Weak campaigns should be visible as weak campaigns.
No stacked sponsors, banner-and-chip combos, or ad clutter that makes the room feel invaded.
No ads next to chat. No member-level targeting. No sponsorship of safety-flagged rooms.
AI is used sparingly for prompts, summaries, and recommendations. It doesn’t replace human moderation or create fake activity.
Organizations can count gatherings, people served, and recurring participation without turning people into named profiles.
Organization reporting is paid by the organization, grant, sponsor, or waived support — not by the person being served.
Reusable attendance cards can count recurrence without requiring a name, phone, email, or account.
Grant-ready reports are about programs and participation, not lists of vulnerable people.
Real-world gatherings require stricter rules because the risk is higher.
Principles only matter if they affect what ships. Hottub treats these promises as product constraints.
Where practical, changes that would violate these principles should fail automatically.
Changes that affect privacy, safety, sponsorship, or in-person gatherings get reviewed.
Reports and serious enforcement actions require human review.
When policies change, users should be able to see what changed.
Anyone can report behavior that contradicts these principles.
Hold us to this.If you find code, product behavior, sponsorship, moderation, or copy that conflicts with these principles, tell us. Principles matter only when people can point to them.
How rooms stay safe, online and in person.
What we collect, and what we never sell.
What we ask of everyone in a room.
The agreement for using Hottub.
Permissioned, clearly labeled sponsorship.
Impact reporting without a roster.