Kind, useful, and safe.

1. What belongs here

• Friendly observations, questions and everyday dog-life moments
• Helpful, respectful exchanges that leave room for different experiences
• Helpful marks for posts you genuinely found useful; aggregate counts are acknowledgements, not rankings
• Short replies to a post; replies stay one level deep rather than becoming private or nested conversations
• The name and breed of dogs you deliberately choose to show on your Community profile
• Personal friend invitations sent through Ruffolio to people you know and trust
• An optional profile photo you have the right to share — ideally a photo of your dog
• Posts and images you are entitled to share and that do not expose another person
• An optional approximate area added with Ruffolio's location control, provided it does not identify anyone's home, route or current whereabouts
• Genuine shared-walk invitations with a public area, a future time, a sensible group size and private meeting instructions for confirmed attendees
• Creator Beta route suggestions with a deliberately reviewed public line, description, tags and sections, selected rights-cleared route photos, and factual dog-route observations such as water, shade, grazing animals, cattle grids, leash requirements or difficult passages, plus “Along the way & arrival” observations about food and refreshment stops, parking, public transport, toilets, a mountain lift/gondola or personally experienced dog-friendliness
• Respectful comments and genuine Helpful marks on podcast episodes curated by Ruffolio
• Factual, current danger reports about wildlife, dead animals, possible bait or poison, broken glass, or another concrete danger at the marked location — or the clearly labelled test category solely to verify the feature

Community posts and replies are not veterinary diagnoses or emergency advice. Contact a veterinarian for health concerns and local emergency services for immediate danger.

2. What is not allowed

• Harassment, bullying, hate, threats, glorification of violence or encouragement of self-harm
• Sexual content, exploitation, or content that endangers or sexualises minors
• Illegal content, animal cruelty, dangerous challenges or instructions intended to cause harm
• Spam, scams, repetitive promotion, impersonation or deliberately misleading claims
• Invented, deliberately misplaced, speculative or repeatedly submitted danger reports
• Personal data such as home addresses, phone numbers, private messages, live routes, identifying details about children, or someone else's confidential information
• Walk invitations used for advertising, dating, selling, collecting contact details, exposing a home address or arranging anything unsafe or unrelated to walking dogs
• Profile, post or route images showing people or children, contact details, addresses, documents, QR codes or clues to a current location
• Profile, post or route images containing sexual or violent material, animal cruelty, threats, hate or other unsafe content
• Links, coded contact requests or attempts to bypass Ruffolio's safety measures

3. Protect dogs and people

A Community dog profile starts with only the name and breed you explicitly select. Do not publish health records, medical documents, microchip numbers, notes, exact birth dates, home addresses or live walking locations. A post location is optional, rounded to a broad regional cell and expires after 24 hours; it must never be used to expose a home, private routine or someone's current whereabouts. A danger report's exact map pin may identify only the location of the concrete danger, never a person's home, current route or whereabouts. Ask permission before sharing information or an image of a dog you do not own.

Your nickname, posts, replies, selected dog names and breeds, optional Community profile photo, optional post photo, and whether you attached an approximate area are visible to other signed-in Community members. A friend you explicitly connect with can also see your current public pack in the private Friends area; this never shares private organizer or dog-sharing records. A post author may edit its text for 15 minutes; members then see the current text and that it was edited, not a public edit history. Members also see the aggregate Helpful count but never who marked it. Members using Nearby may additionally see a broad 5-, 15- or 25-kilometre distance band, but never the stored point. Replies follow the same safety and privacy rules as posts. Do not use a photo of a person or child, and only upload an image you have the right to share.

A selected dog profile starts with that dog's confirmed name and breed. Its chronological Moments feed shows only posts deliberately attributed to that dog, including an optional photo selected for such a post; a whole-pack post never appears there. Ruffolio does not pull photos, records or other content from the private dog organizer into this feed automatically. The profile and feed are visible only to signed-in Community members, and their posts and photos remain subject to the same reporting, blocking, deletion and photo-retention rules described here and in the privacy policy.

Selected walk routes are different from live locations and ordinary Community posts: the published, reviewed line and its markers are exact public location data and the catalogue can be viewed without signing in. Route suggestions are available only to separately invited Creator Beta members. Endpoint protection may be switched off in the local workshop; this does not make the line any less public. Never submit a line that reveals a home, school, workplace, private routine or anyone's current whereabouts. Review every visible start, finish, segment, marker and selected route photo before submitting. A route photo is uploaded without source metadata, but carries the position you confirm on the public line. Upload only your own or rights-cleared images without people, children, addresses, number plates, documents or current-location clues. Before editorial approval, photos are not listed in the route catalogue or returned by the route API. The separate route-media store is nevertheless technically public; anyone who knows the unguessable direct URL can already retrieve an uploaded photo. Ruffolio reviews suggestions and media before publication; creators cannot publish their own route.

Route knowledge about paths, surroundings and dogs should describe longer-lasting, directly observed conditions useful to dog people. State uncertainty and avoid promises of safety or drinkable water. Acute or short-lived dangers such as possible poison bait or broken glass belong in the expiring danger-report flow instead. Cattle, wildlife, water, access restrictions and path conditions can change, so a selected route and its observations never provide an all-clear.

Information under “Along the way & arrival” consists of Community or Creator Beta observations and is not verification by Ruffolio. Describe only what you personally experienced. Dog access, opening hours, timetables, parking rules and availability can change; check them locally or with the relevant provider. Do not use route notes for advertising, links, phone numbers or other unauthorised contact details.

For a “Mountain lift/gondola” marker, you may add personally observed muzzle or leash rules and optional approximate price examples for a person or dog with the currency, ticket type and observation month only — never an exact visit time. These are not live prices or offers. Fares, operating hours, conditions of carriage and rules can change; check them with the operator. A dog price of 0 only means that free dog travel was observed and is not a guarantee.

4. Shared walks

A shared-walk invitation may show its title, host, host dog, date, duration, public area, group size and audience to eligible Community members. For a Nearby invitation, Ruffolio uses rounded coordinates only to decide whether another member is within the approximate discovery radius. Do not use a home, school, workplace or another sensitive place as the public area.

The host may add a more precise meeting instruction. Ruffolio shows it only to the host and confirmed attendees, never to people whose request is pending or rejected. Keep that instruction limited to a safe public meeting place. A confirmation is not an identity or safety check: meet in public, supervise your dog, respect local leash rules, and leave whenever a situation feels unsafe.

Hosts may limit who can discover an invitation and may approve or reject requests. Use these controls fairly. Do not pressure someone to join, retaliate after a rejection, bring an undisclosed dog, or attend after a request was rejected or withdrawn. A host may cancel an invitation, and attendees may leave it.

5. Curated podcast listening tips

Ruffolio includes only selected external podcasts whose responsible publisher or authorised rights holder has expressly approved the integration. For a personal digital invitation, the latest eligible episode becomes visible with a separate Ruffolio summary only after that approval. The podcast, episode, original source and external provider are clearly labelled. The audio comes from the clearly identified original provider; Ruffolio does not alter it or present its statements as Ruffolio's own.

Comments and Helpful marks are available only when the podcast publisher expressly enables this additional Community feature and the feed does not disable it. When enabled, post only your own respectful comments about an episode. Copied transcripts, audio clips, paywalled material, misleading source labels, or suggesting a partnership that does not exist are not allowed. Health topics in an episode or discussion are not a diagnosis or a substitute for veterinary advice or treatment. Podcast comments follow the same Community guidelines and can be reported; blocking provides the same protections as for other Community content.

Podcast publishers can withdraw their approval immediately through their personal host link. Authorised rights holders may also request review and removal at mail@pmuench.com.

6. Shared danger reports

A danger report is a short-lived public safety notice, not a Community post. Everyone nearby can see its exact marked location, category, optional note and, for suspected blue-green algae, optional water-body name while the report is active, including people who are not signed in to Community. The same active details may also appear in other apps, maps and services through Ruffolio's public Safety API. Your nickname and profile are not shown publicly with it. Ruffolio still links the report internally to your Community account to limit abuse, moderate reports and remove them when an account is deleted.

Report only a danger you actually observed at the marked location, choose the closest category, and keep the optional note short and factual. The explicitly labelled “Test danger report” is the sole exception: use it only to verify the feature, never add a misleading note, and remember that it remains public while active. Do not name people or include addresses, contact details, licence plates or unverified accusations. A report must not encourage anyone to touch wildlife, inspect possible bait themselves or otherwise put themselves at risk. Duplicate reports, jokes, advertising or reports intended to expose a person are not allowed.

Test reports leave the public map and API after 15 minutes, wildlife and dead-animal reports after 24 hours, blue-green algae, bait and broken-glass reports after 7 days, and other dangers after 3 days. Community reports are not independently verified and do not provide an all-clear. For immediate danger, contact the police, fire, ambulance, veterinary-control or other responsible authority; do not rely on Ruffolio.

7. Official Community guides and team chat

Community includes a small number of official Community guides. Guides are artificially designed personas of the Ruffolio team, not real members. They are permanently labelled “Community guide” or “Official” everywhere they appear, and their profile openly explains that they are an artificially designed persona. Guides never pose as ordinary members; the impersonation ban in section 2 applies unchanged to everyone — including Ruffolio itself. Guide content is editorial material from the Ruffolio team, not veterinary advice and no substitute for professional help.

The team chat is the Community's only private messaging channel and connects you exclusively with the Ruffolio team; there is no private chat between members. Replies always appear generically as the Ruffolio team, never under a guide's name. Your messages in the team chat follow the same rules as other Community content: stay respectful, do not send spam or prohibited content; abuse may lead to restrictions, and messages are rate-limited. Share only the details needed for your request and no sensitive data. The team chat is not an emergency channel and no veterinary advice; contact local emergency services for immediate danger.

8. Report and block

Use the relevant menu to report a post, including its attached photo, a reply or a profile photo, or to block its author. Reporting a post removes your own replies and Helpful mark on it; reporting a profile removes your replies on that member's posts. A block hides that person's Community content and removes replies either of you left on the other's posts, even if you later unblock. Reports are reviewed and may lead to a post, reply or photo being hidden or removed, posting restrictions, or account suspension. For urgent safety concerns, contact mail@pmuench.com; do not rely on Ruffolio for emergencies.

9. Fair moderation

Ruffolio may reject or remove clearly prohibited posts, post photos, replies, podcast comments, profile photos, route suggestions or danger reports and may review reported content. Moderation decisions consider context, severity, repetition and risk. We may remove a post, post photo, reply, podcast comment, profile photo, dog mention, selected route or danger report, or restrict an account when necessary to protect the Community or comply with law. To question a decision, email mail@pmuench.com with the nickname and relevant details.

10. Age and consent

Community is intended for people aged 13 and over. If the law where you live requires a higher age or permission from a parent or guardian to use an online service, join only when that requirement is met. Never post a child's personal information or include a child in a Community profile or post photo.

11. Your choice and your data

Joining Community is optional; Ruffolio's private dog organizer and viewing public danger reports or selected walk routes work without it. Publishing a shared walk or danger report requires an active membership; suggesting a selected route additionally requires a Creator Beta invitation and editorial approval. Sharing a dog, profile photo, post photo, approximate post location or exact route line is off until you deliberately choose the relevant flow. You can remove selected dogs, profile and post photos, Helpful marks and Community friends, cancel your walk invitations or requests, delete your own posts and replies, block profiles, or permanently delete your Community account in the app. Deleting a post or account also removes its public photo and approximate location; report evidence follows the separate period stated in the privacy policy. Danger reports automatically lose public visibility and are then deleted after that policy's stated period; deleting the account removes your friend invitations and friendships, reports, shared walks and route submissions, including published routes, immediately. Deleting Community does not delete private data stored on your iPhone.

12. Changes

If these rules change materially, the app will ask active members to review and accept the current version before continuing.