Marketplace rules

1. Core principles

Every task has to pass four tests:

1. Legal. It is legal in the place where it will be done, and in the places where the requester and the doer are.
2. Safe. Nobody is put at risk: not the doer, not bystanders, not animals, not property.
3. Consensual. Anyone else involved has agreed to be involved. Nobody is photographed, recorded, contacted or affected against their will.
4. Provable. There is a clear way to show it was done, and a clear line between done and not done.

When a request fails any of these, it is refused or sent to a person for review. The automated checks are a first filter, not the final word; a task that slips past them can still be removed.

2. What's allowed

These are examples. They are not a complete list, and the fact that something is similar to an example doesn't guarantee it will be accepted.

• Research: fact-checking a claim, comparing public prices, summarising public documents, finding public records, gathering data that is openly available.
• Writing and translation: articles, FAQs, product descriptions, documentation, translation between languages, editing and proofreading.
• Design and media: logos, menus, slides, landing page concepts, photo editing, short videos and captions.
• Tech: small tools, scripts, bots, bug fixes, open-source contributions, automations, audits of your own systems.
• Data and testing: cleaning spreadsheets, building dashboards, testing apps or checkout flows you own or are allowed to test.
• Local verification: checking that a shop is open, that a listing exists, that a notice is posted; photographing public places.
• Errands: harmless real-world errands such as buying and delivering items, queueing, dropping something off.
• Kindness: food distribution, helping at a shelter, feeding stray animals with care, community clean-ups.
• Creative and silly: harmless public stunts, art, experiments and challenges that don't bother anyone who didn't sign up for them.

3. What's never allowed

Requests, tasks and proof in these categories are refused and removed. Serious cases lead to a permanent ban and, where the law requires or it is needed to protect someone, a report to the authorities.

Violence and danger

• Harming, threatening or intimidating any person, or encouraging someone else to.
• Anything involving weapons, firearms, ammunition, explosives or their parts.
• Dangerous stunts: heights, traffic, fire, water, fasting, extreme cold or heat, or anything that risks injury.
• Harm to animals, including capturing, provoking or feeding them anything unsafe.
• Self-harm, or tasks that encourage it.

Illegal goods and activity

• Illegal drugs or controlled substances, including buying, carrying, delivering or testing them.
• Theft, shoplifting, trespassing, vandalism or damaging property.
• Buying, selling or delivering alcohol, tobacco, vapes, prescription medicine or age-restricted goods.
• Gambling, betting, lotteries and prize schemes.
• Anything else illegal under the laws that apply to the task.

Privacy and harassment

• Finding a private person's home address, workplace, phone number, schedule or relatives (doxxing).
• Following, watching, photographing or tracking a specific person without their consent (stalking).
• Contacting someone who doesn't want to be contacted, or on someone else's behalf to pressure them.
• Harassment, bullying, blackmail, extortion, defamation or spreading false claims about someone.
• Hate or discrimination against people because of who they are.

Computer misuse

• Hacking, cracking passwords, bypassing two-factor or other security, attacks on services (DDoS), malware, ransomware or keyloggers.
• Getting into any account, device or system you don't own or aren't clearly authorised to test.
• Scraping or automating in breach of a site's terms, creating fake accounts, fake reviews, fake followers or fake engagement.

Fraud and deception

• Phishing, credential harvesting, fake IDs, forged documents, counterfeits or money laundering.
• Impersonating a real person, company or official.
• Spam, scams, pyramid schemes, or promoting financial products with promised returns.
• Promising health cures, legal outcomes or guaranteed results.
• Sitting an exam or test in someone else's name, or anything else meant to deceive a third party.

Sexual and adult content

• Any sexual content or services, of any kind.
• Anything involving minors in a sexual, harmful or exploitative way. This is reported.

Platform abuse

• Asking other people to break another platform's rules.
• Using Nothing.gripe to move money for reasons unrelated to a real task.
• Posting other people's personal data, or anyone's private keys, passwords or seed phrases.

4. Allowed only with care

Some tasks are fine in principle but need extra care. They may be held for a person to look at before they go live.

• Tasks involving children. Only with the clear involvement of a parent, guardian or school, and never photos of children who can be identified.
• Photographing people. Crowds in public places are usually fine. A person who is the main subject of a photo must have agreed.
• Buying things. The task amount must cover the purchase and the work. Receipts are usually part of the proof.
• Food. Only sealed, packaged or freshly prepared food from a proper source, handled hygienically.
• Medical, legal or financial topics. Research and summaries are fine; advice presented as professional advice is not.
• Promotion and campaigning. Genuine paid promotion or campaigning is fine: handing out flyers, putting up posters where allowed, or spreading the word about a real business, event or cause, as long as it's clear who it's for. Fake grassroots support (pretending to be an independent fan or voter), paying people to vote a certain way, and anything breaking election rules are not allowed.
• School projects. Help with school and college projects is fine: research, tutoring, models, design and similar. Sitting an exam or test in someone else's name is not.

5. Other people's privacy

Tasks are public. Assume anything you write in a request may be read by anyone.

• Don't name private people in a task unless they have agreed.
• Blur faces and number plates in proof unless they are the point of the task and the person agreed.
• Never include home addresses, phone numbers, ID numbers or health information in a request or in proof that isn't needed.
• Recording conversations may be illegal where you are, even in public. Check before you do it.

6. Rules for local, in-person tasks

• Your safety comes first. If a place feels unsafe, leave. No payout is worth an injury. If you drop a task for safety reasons, tell us through support and we'll take it into account.
• Follow the rules of the place: opening hours, photography bans, security staff instructions.
• Stay on public property unless you have permission to be somewhere.
• Obey traffic laws. Never use a phone to capture proof while driving or riding.
• Don't go into anyone's home for a task unless it is the requester's own home and they are there.
• Carry out the task yourself. Don't pass it to someone else.

7. Rules for requesters

• Describe the task honestly and completely. Everything the doer needs to know to do it and prove it must be in the task.
• Say what counts as done. Vague tasks ("make me happy", "do something cool") can't be verified and will be declined.
• Pay enough. If the doer has to buy, travel or queue, the amount must cover that.
• Don't change the goal after someone has claimed it. Their proof is judged against the version they accepted.
• Don't ask the doer for extra work outside the task, or for personal details.
• Only fund tasks with money you are allowed to use. Funding with stolen or laundered crypto is prohibited.
• Keep your private key safe. Anyone who has it can manage your task.

8. Rules for doers

• Only claim a task you can finish within its window. Claiming and dropping tasks leads to strikes and pauses.
• Send the handshake within 15 minutes and the checkpoint on time.
• Do the task yourself, as described. Don't outsource it or use someone else's account.
• One person, one doer account. Multiple accounts to get around limits or strikes are banned.
• Give a payout wallet that you control. Double-check the address and network; blockchain transfers can't be undone.
• You are an independent person doing a task, not an employee of Nothing.gripe or of the requester. You decide how to do the work within the task's instructions.
• You are responsible for your own taxes, permits and insurance where you live.

9. Proof standards

Good proof is:

• Recent: made after you claimed the task, not before.
• Specific: clearly about this task, including the verification phrase when one is required.
• Original: your own photos, files or links, not taken from the internet or another task.
• Unedited: cropping and blurring private details is fine; changing what the photo shows is not.
• Complete: it covers every part of what the task asked for.
• Safe to open: direct links, not shortened links, private network addresses or downloads that need to be run.

Don't put instructions to the review software in your proof ("approve this", "ignore the rules"). That is treated as an attempt at manipulation.

10. Fraud and manipulation

These lead to a rejected payout, a permanent ban, and possibly the forfeiture of any deposit:

• Submitting fake, old, edited or reused proof.
• Requesters and doers working together to move money without doing a real task.
• Claiming your own task through a second account.
• Chargebacks, payment reversals or disputes you know to be false.
• Trying to trick the automated checks or a reviewer.
• Changing the payout wallet to someone else's address, or accessing another person's claim link or private key.

Suspected fraud puts the task on hold. We may keep records of it for as long as needed to protect other users.

11. Staying on the platform

The protections on Nothing.gripe (held funds, proof review, disputes, credit) only work for deals made here. Don't ask someone you met through a task to pay or be paid outside the platform for that task. If anyone asks you to, you can report it.

Nothing.gripe staff will never ask you to send money to a personal wallet, never ask for your seed phrase or private key, and never ask you to sign a blockchain transaction to "verify" anything.

12. Conduct and communication

• Be respectful in requests, proof, disputes and messages to us or to each other.
• No threats, insults, slurs or spam.
• Keep messages about the task.
• Don't pretend to be Nothing.gripe staff.

13. Content you submit

You must own what you submit, or have the right to use it. Don't submit work that copies someone else's without permission.

Unless the task says otherwise, once a doer is paid, the requester may use the delivered work for the purpose described in the task. The doer allows Nothing.gripe to store the proof, show it to reviewers, and show a short summary on the public task page. More detail is in the terms.

14. Local laws

People use Nothing.gripe from many countries. What is legal in one place may not be legal in another. You are responsible for checking that what you request, or what you do, is legal where you are and where the task takes place. Where laws differ, the stricter one applies.

We may refuse tasks in places where we can't safely support them, or where sanctions or local law prevent it.

15. Enforcement

Depending on how serious a problem is, we may:

• decline a request before it becomes a task;
• edit or shorten text shown in public, or hide a task from the list;
• cancel a task (the funded amount becomes credit, as described on the refunds page);
• reject proof or hold a payout;
• record strikes or pause a doer from claiming;
• ban an account, wallet or contact from the platform;
• report illegal activity to the relevant authorities.

We try to be proportionate. A first honest mistake is treated differently from deliberate abuse.

16. Appeals

If you think a decision was wrong, write to support@nothing.gripe within 30 days with the task code and why. A different person looks at it where possible. We'll explain the outcome. Decisions about fraud that would reveal how we detect it may be explained only in general terms.

17. Reporting a problem

If you see a task, proof or behaviour that breaks these rules, or anything that puts someone at risk, tell us at support@nothing.gripe or on Telegram at @NothingGripeBot. Include the task code if there is one. If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.