Recovery Circle Community Terms and Code of Conduct

Effective: September 29, 2026
Version: 2026-09-29-v2
Developer: Stillwater System
Contact: support@stillwatersystem.com

These Community Terms supplement the Stillwater Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. They apply only to Recovery Circles. If these Community Terms conflict with the general Terms about Recovery Circles, these Community Terms control.

1. Eligibility and acceptance

Recovery Circles are for people who are at least 18 years old and legally able to accept these terms. Before creating or joining a circle, you must check the acceptance box presented in Stillwater. The box is not preselected. By checking it and continuing, you confirm that you have reviewed and agree to the linked Community Terms and Code of Conduct.

Stillwater records the accepted terms version, disclosure text, user ID, and acceptance time. A material change requires acceptance of a new version before further community participation.

2. What Recovery Circles are

Recovery Circles are small, optional, invite-only spaces where members can deliberately share text posts and replies. They are peer spaces, not professional treatment groups, confidential therapy, medical care, crisis response, or emergency monitoring. Circle owners and administrators are users; they are not agents, clinicians, or representatives of Stillwater System merely because they manage a circle.

Members may be stressed, intoxicated, withdrawing, mistaken, insensitive, or hostile. User content can be inaccurate, upsetting, offensive, or harmful. Stillwater System does not endorse user content and cannot guarantee that every member will follow these terms or that moderation will prevent every harmful interaction. If a person or post is unsafe or unwelcome, use Report, Block, or Leave. For immediate danger or a medical or mental-health emergency, contact local emergency services or an appropriate crisis service.

3. What you agree not to post or do

You may not use Recovery Circles to:

harass, bully, shame, ridicule, belittle, stalk, threaten, intimidate, or target another person for abuse;
encourage suicide, self-harm, violence, substance misuse, dangerous withdrawal practices, or other conduct likely to cause serious harm;
attack or exclude people based on race, color, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, serious medical condition, or another protected characteristic;
post sexual exploitation, sexual content involving minors, nonconsensual intimate material, or content that sexualizes or exploits another person;
reveal another person's private, identifying, medical, recovery, employment, financial, location, or contact information without permission;
impersonate another person, misrepresent credentials, provide individualized medical instructions as professional care, or claim that a post replaces qualified care;
post illegal material, malware, scams, spam, commercial solicitation, or content that infringes copyright, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
evade a block, removal, suspension, invite restriction, or other safety control; or
organize abuse, retaliation, or false reporting.

Disagreement is allowed. Targeted cruelty is not. Recovery, withdrawal, intoxication, anger, or distress does not excuse abusive conduct.

4. Your content and permission to operate the service

You keep ownership of content you create. When you select Share with this circle, you give Stillwater System a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, reproduce, display, and transmit that content only as reasonably needed to operate, secure, moderate, support, and legally protect Recovery Circles. You confirm that you own the content or have permission to share it.

This license ends when the content is deleted from the active service, except for limited technical backups, security or moderation evidence, legal obligations, and copies another member made outside Stillwater. Stillwater System does not control copies or disclosures made by other members.

Selecting Keep private on this device does not publish that note and does not grant a community-content license. Stillwater never automatically turns journals, check-ins, workbook answers, sobriety records, addiction records, recovery contacts, AMM inputs, AMM state, or AMM output into a Circle post.

5. Privacy and audience

An invite-only circle is not confidential. Every active member can read shared content in that circle. Members may copy, screenshot, quote, or reshare what they can see even when doing so violates these terms. Do not post information you cannot tolerate another member retaining or disclosing.

Use a recovery nickname if you do not want your legal name displayed. Do not post another person's private information without permission.

6. Reports, blocks, and moderation

Report sends the selected member, post, or reply and your explanation for moderation review.
Block immediately hides shared Circle posts and replies between you and the blocked account. Blocking does not remove either person from the circle, erase prior copies, or prevent an owner or administrator from reviewing reported content.
Leave removes your active membership, subject to owner-transfer requirements.

Stillwater System and authorized circle moderators may review reports; remove content; restrict invitations, posting, or community access; remove members; suspend or terminate accounts; preserve limited evidence; and contact appropriate services or authorities when reasonably necessary for safety, security, legal compliance, or enforcement. We may act without advance notice where permitted by law. We are not required to publish our investigative methods or reveal the reporter's identity.

Moderation is not continuous emergency monitoring. Reports will be handled as reasonably practicable based on severity and available information, but no response time is guaranteed. Misusing reports or blocks to harass others is itself prohibited.

7. No reliance on user content

User content is provided by users, not Stillwater System. Do not treat it as verified medical, legal, financial, clinical, or emergency advice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Stillwater System is not responsible for user statements, member conduct, off-platform contact, or another member's copying or disclosure of content. The disclaimers and liability limits in the Stillwater Terms of Use also apply.

Nothing in these Community Terms excludes rights or liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.

8. Copyright and other complaints

To report infringement or another legal concern, email support@stillwatersystem.com with enough information to identify the content, the right involved, your contact information, and the basis for the complaint. False notices may have legal consequences. Stillwater System may request additional information and may remove or restrict content while reviewing a complaint.

9. Changes and contact

Material changes will receive a new version. Stillwater may require you to accept the new version before creating, joining, posting, or replying in a Recovery Circle.

Safety, moderation, and legal contact: support@stillwatersystem.com