Community Guidelines

1. Why These Guidelines Exist

VarsityHub only works if students can trust the person on the other end of a listing. These guidelines set out what's expected of you as a registered student using the platform, alongside our Terms of Service. Where the two overlap, the Terms of Service remains the binding legal document; this page explains the expected behaviour in plain language.

2. Listings

• List only items or services you actually have and are entitled to sell
• Use honest titles, descriptions, and your own real photos of the actual item
• Set a genuine price; don't use a listing to lure buyers into a different, undisclosed deal
• Mark a listing as sold or remove it once it's no longer available
• Don't post the prohibited categories set out in our Terms of Service (stolen or counterfeit goods, weapons, drugs, adult content, academic ghostwriting, and similar)

3. Communication

Once you're interested in a listing, the "Connect" button opens a WhatsApp chat directly with the seller, with the listing pre-filled into your message. From that point, the conversation happens on WhatsApp, between the two of you; VarsityHub is not part of it and can't see what's said.

Because of that, how you treat each other in that chat is entirely on you. Be respectful, be honest about what you're offering or looking for, and don't use the contact you've been given for anything other than that transaction.

4. No Scams, and Don't Try to Route Around Connect

Scamming another student, taking payment and not delivering, sending counterfeit or materially different goods, impersonating someone else, or running any kind of fake-listing bait, is a serious violation and will get you removed from the platform.

Listings and profiles exist so a buyer can see who they're dealing with before they commit to anything. Don't use a listing purely as bait to pull a buyer into a side deal or a different, unlisted arrangement outside what the listing actually describes.

5. Safe Campus Meetups

• Meet in busy, public places on campus; a library entrance, student centre, or similar
• Avoid meeting alone at night or in an isolated spot
• Let a friend know where you're going and who you're meeting
• Inspect an item before you pay; don't send money for something you haven't seen
• Trust your instincts; if something feels off, you can walk away at any point

See our full Safety Tips page for more detail.

6. Reporting a Problem

If a listing or a person breaks these guidelines, use the reporting options built into VarsityHub rather than trying to resolve it yourself:

• Report a listing, from the listing page, for issues with a specific item (scam, already sold, inappropriate, wrong price, fake account, other)
• Report a user, from a seller's profile page, for issues with how someone is behaving (harassment, scam/fraud, impersonation, abusive behaviour, repeated prohibited activity, other)
• Block a user, also from their profile page, if you just want to stop seeing their listings and stop being contactable by them, without necessarily filing a report

Every report is reviewed individually by our team; we don't promise a fixed response time, and a report on its own doesn't automatically apply any penalty to an account. A person is never told who reported them.

7. Enforcement

How seriously we act depends on what happened, not a fixed formula. Roughly, in increasing order of severity:

• Warning, for a first, minor issue, we may simply ask you to fix or remove a listing, or clarify what's expected
• Suspension, for a more serious or repeated issue, your account is temporarily restricted while we look into it
• Ban, for scams, fraud, harassment, or repeated violations after a warning or suspension, your account is permanently removed and your active listings are taken down
• Referral to the South African Police Service, for conduct that amounts to a crime (fraud, theft, threats, or similar), we will refer the matter to SAPS and cooperate with any resulting investigation

We reserve the right to skip straight to a suspension or ban for serious violations, without first issuing a warning.

8. Changes to These Guidelines

We may update these guidelines from time to time as the platform grows. Continued use of VarsityHub after a change means you accept the updated guidelines.

9. Contact

Questions about these guidelines: legal@varsityhub.co.za