House Rules

1. Be kind — disagreement is allowed

Challenge the idea, not the person. Debate, strong opinions and constructive criticism are welcome.

Personal attacks, bullying, discrimination, intimidation, threats, harassment or encouraging others to pile onto somebody are not.

Disagreement with another member, moderator, FRANK or an administrator is not, by itself, a breach of these rules.

2. You are free to belong elsewhere

FRANK does not demand exclusivity. You may belong to other reseller groups, Facebook groups, Discord servers, forums, communities and professional networks. You may create your own community, business, service or project.

Being involved with another community will never, by itself, be grounds for removing you from FRANK.

Members are people, not property.

3. Networking is normal — harassment isn’t

Members will naturally make friends, collaborate and communicate outside FRANK. That’s okay. Inviting somebody to look at another relevant project, event or community is not automatically misconduct.

What isn’t acceptable is repeated unsolicited promotion, mass messaging members, deceptive recruitment, harassment, scraping contact details or continuing to contact somebody after they’ve asked you to stop.

Context matters.

4. Private messages are private

Something said in a private conversation should not automatically become part of a public dispute. Don’t publish another person’s private messages, telephone number, email address or other private information without a legitimate reason and appropriate permission.

If private communications are reported because somebody believes they demonstrate harassment, threats, fraud or another serious breach, moderators may consider them privately.

We won’t encourage trial-by-screenshot.

5. No secret rules

We won’t knowingly sanction somebody for breaching a rule or expectation that wasn’t reasonably communicated to them.

If behaviour becomes a problem that isn’t adequately covered by these rules, we’ll normally explain the issue before treating further conduct as misconduct.

Significant changes to these House Rules will be published.

6. Moderation powers

FRANK exists to provide a safe, useful and open community. Administrators and authorised moderators may take proportionate action where they reasonably believe these House Rules have been breached or action is necessary to protect members, the community or the service.

Depending on the circumstances, we may:

• give informal guidance or a reminder;
• issue a formal warning;
• edit, hide or remove content;
• close, lock or temporarily pause a discussion;
• place posts into moderation before publication;
• restrict access to particular community features;
• temporarily pause or suspend an account;
• suspend an account while a serious matter is investigated; or
• permanently remove somebody from the community.

There is no automatic sequence of sanctions. We will normally use the least restrictive action reasonably appropriate, taking account of seriousness, context, previous behaviour and risk to other members.

Serious matters — including credible threats, serious harassment, deliberate disclosure of private information, fraud, illegal activity or an immediate safety concern — may result in immediate restriction, suspension or removal without a prior warning.

7. Temporary suspension doesn’t mean guilt

FRANK may temporarily restrict or pause an account while a serious matter is investigated. An interim suspension is a protective measure. It is not, by itself, a finding that somebody has done something wrong.

Where appropriate, the member should have a reasonable opportunity to provide relevant context or information before a final decision is made. We’ll aim to complete reviews within a reasonable period rather than leave accounts indefinitely suspended without a decision.

8. Fair moderation

Moderation should be based on behaviour and these published rules — not personalities, friendships, competing businesses, membership of another community or simply holding an unpopular opinion.

Where reasonably practicable, somebody receiving a significant restriction, suspension or permanent removal will be told:

What happened → Which rule applies → What action was taken → Whether it is temporary or permanent → How to request a review

There may be circumstances where we cannot disclose everything, particularly where doing so could compromise another person’s privacy or safety, an investigation, a legal obligation or platform security. We don’t have to reveal the identity of somebody who makes a confidential report.

9. Evidence should be considered in context

Screenshots, individual messages and extracts don’t always tell the whole story. Where a serious allegation is disputed, moderators should consider relevant context and, where appropriate, give the person concerned a reasonable opportunity to explain their side.

We don’t promise a courtroom. We do promise to try to be fair.

Deliberately falsifying evidence or materially misleading moderators may itself result in moderation action.

10. Right to request a review

A member receiving a significant account restriction, suspension or permanent removal may request a review. They can explain:

• why they believe the facts are incorrect;
• relevant context they believe was overlooked;
• why they believe the relevant House Rule doesn’t apply;
• new information or evidence; or
• why they believe the action was disproportionate.

Where reasonably practicable, serious suspensions and permanent removals should be reviewed by an administrator or moderator who wasn’t the principal decision-maker in the original action.

Uphold → Reduce → Modify → Reverse

The member will be informed of the outcome. The review decision will normally be final, although we may reconsider a matter if significant new evidence becomes available.

11. Moderators are accountable too

Administrators and moderators are members of the community and can participate in discussions and express their own opinions. When exercising moderation powers, however, they should distinguish between personal disagreement and enforcement of these House Rules.

Being criticised isn’t automatically harassment. Disagreeing with FRANK, OriginalToyStore, an administrator or moderator isn’t by itself misconduct.

Moderation exists to protect the community, not to protect administrators from legitimate criticism.

What this costs, and what that promise is worth

The front of this site says “free forever”. Anybody can write that, and a good few communities have written it and then changed their minds — usually for honest reasons. So here is the version that is part of the rules you agreed to when you joined, rather than a line on a homepage.

Free permanently, with no allowance and no catch

Reading anything. Posting, replying and asking. The Arena. What the board has settled. What things actually sold for. The buying guides and the knowledge library. Chat and private messages. Looking for. Your own scorecard. The classroom and every course in it. The meet register, if you run a meet.

Every one of those costs the same whether ten people use it or ten thousand, which is why the promise is safe to make. None of it will ever be put behind a payment, and no member will ever lose access to something they already had.

The AI tools: free, with an allowance, because each use costs real money

Ask FRANK, the listing checker, Snap it and the price check are not free to run. Every question and every checked listing spends money on the models behind them. So they carry a daily allowance — at the time of writing, twelve listing checks and twelve snaps a day each — and the whole board’s AI runs on a monthly ceiling, currently £20.

When that ceiling is reached, the AI features switch off for everybody, including the administrators, until the month turns over. They do not quietly become the paid version. That is how the code is written, not a policy that could be reinterpreted.

The allowances themselves may change as the board grows. If they do, they change for everyone equally, and no feature that was free will ever become payment-only.

Things that are not part of this board

FRANK itself — at /frank — and the listing and optimiser tools are separate products with their own accounts and their own pricing. They always have been. Nothing on this board is locked behind them, and nothing here requires you to have them.

New tools that cost real money to run may be charged for in future. If that happens they will be new — something that did not exist before, not something taken away from you.

What you can check right now, rather than take on trust

You can download everything you have ever written or set here, as a file, whenever you like, without asking anybody: export my data. You can delete your account and what is in it: delete my account. Neither needs permission and neither is buried.

A promise about the future is worth what the things you can verify today are worth. Those two are the ones to check.

If the money ever does run out

Honesty about the limit is what makes the rest of this believable. If running this ever cost more than can be funded personally, the order would be: say so here, openly; ask whether anybody wants to chip in; turn optional features off. Charging existing members for what they already have comes after all of those, and this section says it will not happen.

No advertising. Your posts are not sold. Your email address is not passed to anybody. Nobody pays to be ranked higher, recommended by FRANK, or featured.

12. Joining FRANK

Unless a particular area expressly states otherwise, FRANK operates open community registration. Joining doesn’t involve competitive selection, nomination, voting or approval against subjective membership criteria.

Registration or access may nevertheless be refused, restricted or cancelled where reasonably necessary because of:

• safety or safeguarding concerns;
• suspected fraud or impersonation;
• spam or automated accounts;
• attempts to evade an existing suspension;
• technical or security abuse;
• legal or regulatory requirements; or
• serious or repeated breaches of these House Rules.

Membership doesn’t give an individual ownership, management or voting rights in FRANK unless expressly stated otherwise.

13. No public vendettas

You can discuss difficult experiences involving buyers, sellers, marketplaces, businesses, organisations and communities. Talk about what happened and what you learned.

Don’t use FRANK to organise harassment, retaliation, publish somebody’s private information or send a crowd after an individual.

Tell the story. Don’t create a mob.

14. Talk honestly about eBay and other platforms

Positive experiences, frustrations, mistakes, policy changes and constructive criticism of marketplaces are all legitimate subjects. You can disagree with eBay, FRANK, OriginalToyStore or the people running this community.

Don’t use FRANK to organise or facilitate fraud, counterfeiting, feedback manipulation, fee avoidance or deliberate circumvention of marketplace rules.

Discuss the rules. Don’t use the board to help break them.

15. No spam or disguised advertising

Mentioning your eBay shop, business, YouTube channel, community, product, event, service or project when genuinely relevant to a conversation is fine.

Repeated promotion, affiliate spam, misleading links, unsolicited commercial pitches or joining solely to advertise aren’t.

If you have a commercial relationship that materially affects a recommendation you’re making, be open about it.

16. Member information isn’t a marketing database

Don’t scrape or harvest member names, profiles, email addresses, telephone numbers, posts or other information for unsolicited marketing, recruitment or external databases.

Being able to see information doesn’t automatically give permission to commercially exploit it.

17. AI is here to be questioned

This is a place to discuss what AI can genuinely do for sellers — and where it gets things wrong. Share experiments. Challenge claims. Talk about failures as well as successes.

AI can be confidently wrong.

Don’t knowingly present unverified AI-generated information as established fact, particularly where money, health, safety or somebody’s reputation is involved. Where AI materially contributed to something and that matters to the conversation, be open about it.

FRANK believes in AI with a human in the loop.

18. Don’t use other people’s data to train AI without authority

Content being visible in FRANK doesn’t automatically mean it is available for unrestricted AI training, scraping or dataset creation.

Don’t systematically harvest another member’s posts, photographs, personal information or private communications for external AI training, profiling or commercial datasets without appropriate authority.

FRANK may use AI to operate community features, assist moderation, search community knowledge and provide services such as Ask FRANK. Our Privacy information explains how those systems use community information.

19. Share experience, not diagnosis

You’re welcome to talk openly about your own mental health and what has or hasn’t helped you.

Don’t diagnose another member. Don’t tell somebody to start, stop or change medication, treatment or professional care. Those decisions belong between that person and an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

Nobody needs to disclose a diagnosis to participate.

20. Protect yourself too

Remember that this is an online community. Think carefully before sharing personal, financial, medical or commercially sensitive information you may later wish you’d kept private.

You never need to disclose your diagnosis, medication, turnover, sales figures, real name, business name or other personal information simply to participate.

21. If you’re worried about somebody

Take genuine concerns about somebody’s immediate safety seriously. Report the content to a moderator so it can be reviewed.

FRANK can provide conversation and peer support, but it isn’t a crisis or medical service.

In the UK — Samaritans 116 123, free, day or night. SHOUT — text SHOUT to 85258.
If somebody is in immediate danger or there is an emergency, call 999.

22. Help us look after the room

If something doesn’t feel right, report it rather than starting a fight underneath it.

Reports aren’t votes. The number of people reporting somebody doesn’t automatically determine whether a rule has been broken. Moderators should consider the behaviour, evidence, context and applicable rule.

23. These rules aren’t a weapon

Don’t deliberately misuse the reporting or moderation system to silence somebody you disagree with, settle a personal dispute, damage a competitor or repeatedly target another member.

Good-faith reports are always welcome, even where moderators ultimately decide no rule was broken.

24. Circumventing moderation

Don’t create additional accounts or use somebody else’s account to evade a restriction or suspension. Attempting to circumvent a moderation decision may lead to further restrictions.

Use the review process instead.