Community Guidelines
These guidelines exist to protect trust. They aren't rules for control; they're boundaries that make vulnerability safe.
Last Updated: March 9, 2026
Our Values
Dear Nobody is built on honesty, empathy, and anonymity.
Every letter shared here is an act of trust — between the writer, the reader, and the silence that holds both.
Protecting Anonymity
We protect anonymity above everything.
Do
- Write authentically and from your own experience
- Use general language when referring to others
- Remember: what you share becomes part of a collective story
Don't
- Include real names, addresses, or identifiable details
- Share contact information or social media handles
- Attempt to identify, contact, or expose any writer
- Repost letters outside Dear Nobody without permission
Every story belongs here — but the person behind it stays unseen.
Content Standards
Dear Nobody welcomes honesty in all its forms — joy, grief, anger, regret, desire — but there are lines we do not cross. Honesty doesn't require harm.
Acceptable Content
- Personal stories, confessions, and reflections
- Emotional writing about trauma, identity, love, or loss
- Creative or poetic pieces written in a personal voice
- Letters to people who will never read them
- Expressions of grief, regret, anger, or hope
- Questions you can't ask out loud
- Apologies, goodbyes, and words left unsaid
- Explicit themes submitted to the 18+ section only
Prohibited Content
- Hate speech, discrimination, or slurs
- Explicit sexual acts outside the 18+ section
- Sexual content involving minors (zero tolerance — see below)
- Graphic violence or abuse meant to shock
- Harassment or accusations against identifiable people
- Spam, promotion, or advertising
- Encouragement of illegal activity
- Threats of harm toward self or others
- Terrorist content or content promoting extremist violence
Mandatory Reporting: Child Safety
Content depicting or suggesting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) will be:
- Immediately reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline
- Preserved as evidence in accordance with 18 U.S.C. § 2258A
- Reported to law enforcement when appropriate
This is a legal requirement, not a policy choice. We have no discretion in this matter. All electronic service providers in the United States are legally required to report apparent CSAM to NCMEC.
If your letter includes mature themes but not explicit detail, it may belong on the main site. Explicit material will be reviewed for our 18+ Archive.
18+ Archive
Because human emotion sometimes includes sexual and explicit realities, we maintain a separate, age-restricted archive.
The 18+ Archive is:
- A space for letters exploring sexuality, intimacy, and adult experiences
- Moderated for consent, respect, and emotional intent
- Restricted to adult audiences (18+)
The 18+ Archive is not:
- Pornographic content designed for arousal
- A place for sexualized violence or exploitation
- A loophole for violating community standards
- A space for graphic shock content or gore
- An excuse to include identifying information
- A platform for fetishized or exploitative content
If a submission crosses the ethical line, it won't be published — even in the 18+ section.
Mental Health & Safety
Sharing can be healing, but Dear Nobody is not a substitute for therapy or crisis support.
If you or someone you know is in crisis:
We may remove letters that include active suicidal intent, detailed methods of self-harm, or urgent safety concerns. This is not censorship — it's care.
Writing Guidelines
You don't have to be a writer to write here. Just be human.
Take a moment before you submit — reflection strengthens clarity
Be honest, but mindful: words can comfort or wound
Avoid sensationalizing pain or trauma
Proofread, not for grammar, but for truth
This space is for expression, not exposure
Moderation & Curation
To maintain these standards:
- Content may be filtered automatically for prohibited material
- Submissions may be reviewed by curators before publishing
- Dear Nobody reserves the right to edit, withhold, or remove any submission
- We may redact (obscure) identifying information such as names, locations, or contact details from your submission to protect privacy — yours and others'
- In limited cases, an administrator may reverse a redaction (unredact) if the content is determined to be safe. All redactions and unredactions are logged in our audit trail
- We may apply trigger warnings or content warnings to submissions containing sensitive topics (e.g., self-harm, violence, substance use, explicit material). These warnings are based on AI analysis and/or moderator judgment
- Removed content may be archived privately for documentation
AI-Assisted Moderation
AI helps our moderators by analyzing submissions for crisis indicators, suggesting themes, detecting explicit content, and flagging potential concerns. However, humans make all final decisions. The AI never approves or rejects content on its own — it only assists. Our AI does not learn from your content. You can view exactly what the AI detected about your submission using your Private ID in Access & Control.
Legal Holds
In certain circumstances, we may place a legal hold on content to prevent its deletion or modification. This may occur in response to court orders, subpoenas, law enforcement requests, or regulatory investigations. During an active legal hold, the affected content cannot be deleted even upon request. When the hold is released, normal deletion rights resume. All holds are tracked and logged for compliance.
Appeals
If your content is removed and you believe this was in error, you may appeal within 14 days by emailing support@dearnobody.org with both your Public ID and Private ID and an explanation. Appeals are reviewed and a final decision is issued within 7 business days. See Section 10 of our Terms of Service for full details.
We moderate to protect honesty — not to sanitize it.
Reporting Concerns
If you encounter content that violates these guidelines or feels unsafe:
- Click the Report button below the post
- Select your reason for reporting
- Do not engage with the content directly
Reports are reviewed carefully by our small moderation team. We may take action including removal, content blurring, or curation review.
Transparency & Use
Dear Nobody is a platform for anonymous expression. We do not verify the truth or accuracy of submissions. Letters represent the views of their authors, not Dear Nobody or Intelliquinte L.L.C.
By submitting, you grant Dear Nobody permission to publish your work anonymously in digital or print form, and you agree that it may be edited for clarity, safety, or readability.
We maintain a live Transparency Ledger with real-time platform statistics and intend to publish periodic quarterly reports covering moderation actions, legal requests, mandatory reports filed, and platform statistics. These never contain information that could identify individual users or specific submissions. See our Privacy Policy for details.
Privacy & Data
- We do not collect personal data beyond what is necessary to operate the site
- No email, name, or device information is required to write or read
- Reports and submissions are stored securely and reviewed only by authorized curators
- All data is encrypted in transit (TLS/HTTPS) and encrypted at rest (ECDH-P256/AES-GCM) in our database
- We never sell your data or share it for advertising purposes
- We use trusted service providers (Supabase for database storage, authentication, and real-time administrative updates; Cloudflare for hosting, security, and AI content analysis) strictly for platform operations — they process data under our direction and cannot use it for their own purposes
- We use privacy-preserving error monitoring that captures only generic error types and page locations. It does not log IP addresses, user agents, or any identifying information
Closing Ethic
Dear Nobody exists to prove that honesty can still be beautiful — even when it hurts. Every letter is a fragment of the human condition, preserved with care and respect.
Speak freely. Stay kind. Protect each other.