Safety & community

Last reviewed 2 September 2026

Pre-release draft. Operator details, support availability, retention periods and the deletion process must be confirmed before launch.

Linkland is a two-player strategy game. The safest design was the simplest one: there is very little a player can say to you, and everything they can say is moderated.

1. What one player can actually see of another

There is no chat in Linkland. No text messages, no voice, no emotes, no images, no web links. During a game you see your opponent's nickname, the first letter of it as their avatar, and the moves they make on the land — nothing else.

  • A nickname — chosen by the player, 3 to 20 characters, checked against a list of banned words before it is accepted, and checked again every time it changes.
  • A short player code — the thing you give a friend so they can find you on purpose. It says nothing about who you are.
  • Results and a ranking — how games went, and where a player sits on the leaderboard.
  • Nothing else. There is no profile text, no picture and no message field, so there is nothing a player can write at you.

2. Community rules

These apply to every account. Breaking them can cost you the account.

  • No harassment, threats, hate speech, sexual content or impersonation — including in a nickname.
  • No nickname that is deceptive, that pretends to be a member of our team, or that targets another player.
  • No cheating: bots, modified clients, automation, exploiting a bug instead of reporting it, or manipulating ranked results.
  • No block evasion, and no new account created to get around a suspension.
  • No false reports.
  • Nothing unlawful.

The full obligations are in the Terms of Use.

3. Your tools

Block — immediate, and you can undo it

Open a player from your friends list and press Block. It works at once and in both directions: the two of you are never put into a game together again, and neither can invite the other. Nobody reviews it and nobody is told. The list of people you have blocked lives in Settings, so you can unblock someone whenever you want.

Report — read by a person

The same screen has a Report button. The game sends us that player’s nickname and code and tells us who reported them; there is no message to write, because there is nothing in the game a player could have written at you. The person you report is never told who reported them.

What the app cannot do yet. Block and Report only work for players in your friends list. If someone you were matched with is not on that list — an opponent with an offensive nickname, for example — email [email protected] with their nickname or player code and we will deal with it by hand. We would rather tell you that than let you press a button that is not there.

Nicknames are filtered before anyone sees them

Names are checked on our servers before another player can ever see them: hidden or broken characters are refused, the length is enforced, and a list of banned words is applied. Anything offensive that slips past the list is removed once it is reported.

4. How we moderate

  • Triage. Reports are read by a person. Safety reports — threats, sexual content involving minors, self-harm — are handled first.
  • Timeline. We aim to review every report within 24 hours of it being filed.
  • What we look at. The reported name, whether that account has been reported before, anything you sent us by email, and the record of the games in question, which is kept on our servers.
  • Outcome. Depending on severity: no action, a forced nickname change, a temporary suspension, or permanent closure of the account. Repeat and severe cases go straight to closure.
  • Illegal content. Where the law requires it, we preserve records and report to the competent authorities.

Reports are kept as described in the Privacy Policy. Filing a report never makes the reporter visible to the reported player.

5. If you think we got it wrong

Write to [email protected] from any address, with your player code and what you think happened. A different person than the one who made the original decision reviews the appeal, and we answer within 5 business days. Where a decision is reversed, we restore the account and its progress.

6. Younger players

Linkland is a general-audience game and is not directed to children. It has no chat, no advertising, no purchases and no way to share personal details with another player, which removes the usual risks — but it is still a game played with strangers. If you are a parent, the game needs no account of yours to work, and you can request deletion of a child's account at any time through the account deletion page.

7. Reaching us

Safety reports, appeals and everything else: [email protected]. Start the subject line with “safety” and it is triaged first.

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. We cannot act as fast as they can.