Guidelines

Community rules

Support is a gift toward a bill. These rules keep it that way. They are the product rules in the repository, and anything not yet decided is marked as undecided.
The one rule everything else follows
Support is never payment for access, labor, publicity, repayment, romance, sexual content, religion, politics or any other personal demand.

Support has no strings

  • A requester owes a supporter nothing. A supporter may not ask for anything in return.
  • Funding may not depend on access, labor, publicity, repayment, romance, sexual content, religion or politics.
  • Supporters see redacted request details, not a requester's private contact information.

Kind Gestures are optional

A Kind Gesture is a non-transactional acknowledgement a supporter can offer. The requester can decline every one of them, and funding never depends on the answer. The options in the app today are:
  • No response needed
    Give quietly with no acknowledgement expected.
  • A private thank-you
    An optional note, without sharing contact details.
  • A future update
    The requester may share how the support helped.
  • Pay kindness forward
    An invitation to help someone else someday, only if able.
  • Add a dedication
    A short dedication attached to the support.

Which bills are eligible

The app models requests for essential bills in these categories:
  • Electricity, Water, Heating, Housing, Medical, Education, Internet, Transport, Childcare, Other.
Settle is designed around these constraints:
  • Help is paid to the bill's provider, not to a person's wallet. The destination comes from a verified provider directory on the server, never from an uploaded document.
  • A request needs only enough evidence to confirm a provider, an amount, a due date and a reference. Home address, phone, email, government ID numbers and medical details are removed rather than shown.
  • A document that is entirely an ID is meant to be rejected.
  • Partial funding is allowed, so a request can be covered by more than one supporter.

Undecided

These questions have no answer yet, and this page will not guess one:
  • Limits on request size, and on how many open requests one person can have.
  • Which currencies, regions and providers are supported. The sample data uses five currencies and is not a commitment.
  • What the "other" category may include.
  • Moderation, reporting inside the app, and appeals.
  • Disputes, failed payments and refunds.
  • Age requirements and identity verification beyond what the prototype shows.
  • Retention periods for evidence. The proposed periods in the privacy design are awaiting legal review.
  • Whether providers can supply bills directly instead of requesters uploading them.

Reporting a problem

The prototype has no in-app reporting. For conduct or product concerns, open an issue on GitHub and leave out personal documents and real account numbers. For a vulnerability or a document-privacy flaw, do not open a public issue. Follow the security policy. Contributors and community members are also bound by the Code of Conduct.