Run Vibes Challenge Conduct & Fair-Play Policy

Challenges on Run Vibes are friendly but competitive. Leaderboards, series, team standings, and individual placements are only meaningful if participants trust the numbers. This Policy sets out the rules for submitting, correcting, and disputing results, and the actions we may take when results are manipulated or misrepresented.

1. Scope

This Policy applies to every runner, creator, or admin who participates in a Run Vibes challenge, submits a race result, or manages a series. It is part of your agreement with Run Vibes and sits alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

2. What we verify

We do not re-time races. We rely on the race operator and, when you choose to connect it, RunSignup. Specifically, we treat a result as verified when:

• It is synced from a RunSignup registration with a finisher record tied to your RunSignup account, or
• It is submitted with an official result URL (for example, a link to the race's published results page) that a human moderator can open and match to the name, bib, and time you entered.

Unverified entries may appear in your personal journal but will not count toward public challenge leaderboards until verified.

3. What is not allowed

• Falsified results. Submitting times, distances, placements, or finisher status that do not match the official result.
• Impersonation.Claiming another person's result, running a race while wearing someone else's bib, or creating an account that pretends to be another person or organization.
• Category manipulation.Submitting an incorrect age, gender, or city of residence to benefit from a particular bucket in a challenge. Gender classes follow the race's published categories; if a race accepts a non-binary or open category, we do too.
• Course cutting or unauthorized shortcuts. If a race disqualifies you for cutting the course, the result is not eligible for Run Vibes challenges either.
• Bot-assisted submission. Automated scripts, farm-style submissions, or rate-limit circumvention.
• Harassment or retaliation. Harassing another runner, creator, or moderator because of a dispute over results.
• Account sharing. Letting another person sign in or submit results under your account.

4. Your responsibilities when submitting

• Use your real legal or commonly-used name on your profile so we can match to race results.
• Keep your date of birth and gender accurate. Changes that materially affect your category require manual review and may be rejected.
• Provide an official result URL if you submit manually. If a race does not publish results online, contact us before submitting.
• Do not resubmit results after removal without an explanation of what changed.

5. Corrections and appeals

If you believe a result is wrong — either yours or someone else's — use the flag button on the result or email support@getrunvibes.com. Please include a link to the official result and a brief description. We aim to respond within five business days. If a result is corrected, downstream leaderboards are recalculated automatically.

6. Moderation actions

Depending on the severity and history, we may:

• Edit a result to match the official record.
• Remove a result from public leaderboards.
• Hide a public profile while an investigation is open.
• Warn, restrict, or suspend the responsible account.
• Permanently ban the account, and if appropriate, block re-registration attempts from the same provider identity.
• Refer the matter to the race operator, timer, or law enforcement where warranted.

We will notify you by email of any action taken against your account and the reason, unless doing so would compromise an investigation or violate law.

7. Automated tools

We use automated tooling to help moderators, including rate limits, duplicate-submission detection, pattern analysis on result URLs, and optional AI-assisted scoring of journal entries against official results. Automated tools never take irreversible actions (bans, data deletion) without human review.

8. Creators and series admins

If you create or administer a challenge, you agree to apply this Policy consistently to all participants, not to alter leaderboards to favor specific runners, and to disclose any affiliation that could present a conflict of interest. Run Vibes may remove a challenge that is administered in violation of this Policy.

9. Reporting

Reports of fair-play violations can be sent to support@getrunvibes.com. Good-faith reports are never cause for account action against the reporter.

10. Changes

We may update this Policy to close loopholes, match evolving race practices, or clarify ambiguity. Material changes will bump the version at the top of this page and prompt you to accept before continuing.