Lunchdate

Community Guidelines

Last updated: October 3, 2026 · Version 1.1

Lunchdate arranges professional lunches: real encounters with people who have something to say about their work. For a profile to turn into a good conversation, three things matter most — respect, reliability, and honesty. These guidelines describe what that means in everyday terms and what has no place on Lunchdate.

1. What this is about

Everyone on Lunchdate is offering you something that is scarce in working life: a lunch break and their undivided attention. Treat it the way you would want yours to be treated — whether you are here to talk shop, to get to know another industry, or simply for a good conversation with colleagues for an hour.

2. How we treat each other

In chat

• Write the way you would speak in a good working environment: friendly, clear, as equals.
• A "no" is an answer, not an opening bid. No reply is an answer too. Nobody owes an explanation for declining.
• Respect boundaries immediately — not after the third message.

At the table

• A commitment counts. Show up, and show up on time — or cancel as early as you can.
• The person across from you decides what they share about themselves, their work, or their company.
• Meetups take place in public — usually restaurants and cafés. Stay alert and trust your instincts. Share sensitive business, identity, or payment details only when it is genuinely necessary.
• If you create a group lunch, you are the host: you choose the place and the setting, hold the group together, and are the person to turn to when something is off.

3. Your profile is real

• You are you: your own name, your own photos, accurate details about your job and experience.
• Your primary profile photo shows your face.
• One person, one account. No fake profiles, no impersonation, no acting in someone else's name.
• Lunchdate is reserved for people aged 18 and over.

4. Photos

• Photos show you — or the group pictured — the way people would actually meet you at lunch.
• For group photos you need the consent of everyone recognizable. If someone pictured objects with good reason, remove the photo.
• No nudity, no violence, no hate symbols.
• No other people's images without permission, and no misleading AI images.
• No images that mainly carry advertising or contact details.

5. What has no place here

Some things have consequences regardless of context:

• harassment, threats, stalking, and any form of pressure after a "no";
• hate speech and discrimination, for instance based on origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or age;
• intrusive romantic or sexualized advances and sexual content — Lunchdate is not the place for it, and the person across from you did not sign up for it;
• depictions or glorification of violence;
• illegal content of any kind;
• fraud, deception, and misleading offers;
• spam, unsolicited mass advertising, pyramid and Ponzi schemes;
• sharing other people's private data without their consent;
• bots, scraping, automated activity, and circumventing technical safeguards.

6. Talking about your own work: yes. Solicitation: no.

Your work is part of who you are, and of course it can be a topic — that is exactly what professional lunches are for. The line is simple: transparent, relevant, and not pushy. Anyone who disguises a meetup as a sales appointment, or keeps sending sales messages after clear disinterest, is prospecting at other people's expense. We treat that as spam.

7. Reporting and blocking

If you come across something that violates these guidelines, report it — right on the profile, the message, the photo, or the group lunch. The categories in the app: Inappropriate behavior, Harassment, Threat or immediate danger, Appears to be under 18, Spam, Fake profile, Inappropriate content, and Other. We review reports of a threat or immediate danger, or of a person who appears to be under 18, with priority. After a connection ends, the reporting option currently remains available for another 48 hours.

• The reported person does not learn who reported them.
• Blocking works both ways: no contact, no mutual visibility.
• Even without an account, you can report suspected illegal content to support@lunchdate.io.
• In case of immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first (in the EU: 112).

8. What happens when rules are broken

We respond in proportion to the nature, severity, and frequency of a violation:

• content is removed or its visibility restricted;
• we issue a warning;
• individual features are temporarily restricted;
• an account is provisionally suspended;
• for serious or repeated violations, an account is permanently banned.

Automated systems may provisionally hold back content and prioritize cases for human review. Suspensions and permanent bans are decided by an authorized person — the mere number of reports never leads to a ban on its own. Before we take action against an account, we generally give you the opportunity to respond; in urgent safety or legal situations, a provisional measure may come first. Repeated, obviously unfounded reports can also lead to a temporary suspension of the reporting feature.

9. Review and contact

If we restrict your content or your account, we explain why — including the nature and duration of the measure, the relevant circumstances, and your options for review, as described in the Terms of Service. You can have any decision reviewed informally at support@lunchdate.io; the review is carried out by a person who is not bound to an automated outcome.

support@lunchdate.io is also our point of contact under Articles 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act — for users, authorities, and courts, in German and English.

10. How these guidelines relate to the Terms of Service

These guidelines translate the conduct and content rules of our Terms of Service into everyday language, in particular Sections 4 through 6 and 9. The Terms of Service are legally decisive; how we handle your data is described in the Privacy Policy. These guidelines are available in several languages; in case of discrepancies, the German version prevails unless mandatory law requires otherwise. We update them when the service or the legal situation changes.

Questions about these guidelines are welcome at support@lunchdate.io.