Accept the current Community Guidelines so you can open the Community feed and publish posts or comments. This article covers the acceptance gate at first visit, before publish, and after a rules update—not the full policy text or feed basics.
🔒If you are in crisis or need immediate support, open Crisis hotline in Resources—not Community posting or comment flows.
What acceptance unlocks
- First Community tab visit—a full-screen gate blocks the feed until you accept the current version.
- Posting and commenting require the same version—if you skip the entrance gate, a Guidelines sheet appears when you publish.
- After a rules update, returning members see an alert and must re-accept before the feed or publish resumes.
- Read the full policy in Community rules—this article covers only the acceptance steps.
First Community tab visit
01
Community
Tap the Community tab. If you have not accepted the current Guidelines version, a full-screen gate replaces the feed.
02
Community Guidelines
The navigation title reads Community Guidelines. Scroll through the rules text to the bottom—the app requires you to reach the end before continuing.
03
I have read and agree to the Community Guidelines.
Check the agreement toggle after you finish scrolling. Accept & Continue stays disabled until both scroll and checkbox are complete.
04
Accept & Continue
Tap Accept & Continue to load the Community feed. Acceptance saves the document version and date on your account.
05
Cancel
Tap Cancel in the toolbar to leave Community and return to Home. The feed stays blocked until you accept on a later visit.
Accept before you post or comment
If you reach compose or CommentBar without current acceptance, the same Community Guidelines sheet appears before publish—not the full-tab entrance gate.
01
Post
From Create Post or My Posts, tap Post when your draft is ready. If acceptance is missing, the Guidelines sheet opens first.
02
Comment as
When you send a comment from CommentBar, the same sheet may appear before submission completes.
03
Community Guidelines
Scroll to the bottom and check I have read and agree to the Community Guidelines. Accept & Continue enables only after both.
04
Accept & Continue
After you accept, publish resumes—your draft text or comment stays intact.
05
Cancel
Tap Cancel to dismiss the sheet without posting. Compose drafts and comment text are preserved.
✦After Guidelines acceptance, publishing runs an on-device keyword check—see Community safety for the full publish flow.
When Community rules update
01
Updated Community Rules
When you previously accepted an older version and a new one ships, this alert appears when you open Community or try to publish—not on first acceptance.
02
OK
Tap OK to dismiss the alert and open the Community Guidelines gate with the updated document.
03
Community Guidelines
Scroll through the updated rules text to the bottom—the app requires you to reach the end before continuing.
04
I have read and agree to the Community Guidelines.
Check the agreement toggle after you finish scrolling. Accept & Continue stays disabled until both scroll and checkbox are complete.
05
Accept & Continue
Tap to record the new version and restore feed access or resume publish.
First-time acceptance never shows this alert—only returning members on a new rules version. Re-acceptance uses the Community gate only, not the global Terms or Privacy re-consent sheet.
Sync across your devices
Your accepted Guidelines version and acceptance date sync with your Apple ID through iCloud private account data. Once synced, the gate should not reappear on another device signed into the same Apple ID.
If guidelines cannot load
01
Community Guidelines could not be loaded. You can review them from Settings → Legal when online.
If rules text fails to load, this fallback message may appear. Open Settings → Legal when you have a connection to read the document—acceptance still requires completing the gate when it succeeds.
After you accept
- Creating a post — compose sheet, photos, and publish gates.
- Reading and writing comments — CommentBar and reply threads.
- Reporting posts and comments — when something breaks the rules.
- Community rules — full policy text, expected behavior, and consequences.
🔒Acceptance records a pseudonymous consent event with the document version and timestamp—it does not store your post or comment text in that ledger. Your accepted version and date sync through private iCloud on your Apple ID, separate from post and comment content on company servers.