Community guidelines
Most of BetweenBooks is yours alone. Two parts of it are not. Those are comments on a book's page, which every signed-in reader can see, and letters, which go to one friend. These are the rules for those two places, and what happens when someone breaks them.
Last updated 20 September 2026. These guidelines form part of the Terms of Use.
Comments are public
A comment you leave on a book's page is shown to every reader signed in to BetweenBooks, under your display name. It is not shown to friends only, and it is not anonymous. Write with that in mind.
Your reviews, your thoughts and your private notes are a different thing entirely. They never leave your account, under any setting. A comment is the only writing here that goes to strangers.
Mark your spoilers
There is a box for it. Tick it and your comment stays folded until a reader chooses to open it. Someone reading a book's page has usually not finished the book. Giving the ending away without the box is the one thing here most likely to be reported, and fairly so.
What does not belong here
- Abuse, threats, or contempt aimed at another reader.
- Hatred against people for who they are.
- Sexual material involving children, in any form.
- Spam, advertising, affiliate links, and promoting your own book over and over.
- Links to unlicensed copies of books.
- Someone else's private information.
- Pretending to be another person.
Disliking a book is not any of these. Disliking a book loudly is not either. Arguing about an ending is what the page is for.
Letters
A letter reaches the one friend you wrote to and no one else. Nobody reads them here. The same rules apply anyway, and a reader who is sent something abusive can block you, which ends the correspondence and the friendship at once.
You can unsend a letter. That erases its text and any book you attached. The fact that a letter was there remains, so the conversation still reads truthfully.
Reporting and blocking
Every comment carries a report link. You are asked to pick one of four reasons, namely that it gives the story away without a spoiler warning, that it is abusive or hateful, that it is spam or advertising, or that something else is wrong with it. The reader you report is not told who reported them.
Blocking is the stronger, quieter tool. One block covers everything at once. It ends the friendship if there is one, stops letters in both directions, and hides you from each other in discussions. You do not need a reason and nobody is notified.
What happens after a report
Reports go to an administrator, one person, who reads them. The response is meant to fit what happened. It may be nothing at all, if the comment was fine. It may be removing the comment, withdrawing access to the social features, or suspending the account for a period. For something serious or repeated, it may be banning the account.
If a measure is applied to you, you will be told what was done and which rule it was applied under. You can appeal once, by writing to privacy@betweenbooks.net within 30 days, and a person will look at it again.
Hiding is not deleting
Switching Book discussions off in Settings hides every comment you have written from other readers, and shows them again if you switch it back on. It does not delete them. To delete a comment, delete the comment, and that one is permanent.
Deleting your account takes all of it with you at once, including comments, reports you made, letters on both sides, and the rest of your library.
If something here has gone wrong and the tools on the page do not cover it, write to privacy@betweenbooks.net. It reaches a person.