Terms of use
Last updated 22 September 2026
Dogear is a place to keep a record of what you read, to talk about books with a club, and to sit in on live conversations with authors. These terms are the agreement between you and Dogear. Using the website or the iPhone app means you accept them.
There is no tolerance for abusive behaviour or objectionable content. Harassment, hate, threats, sexual content involving anyone, and impersonation are not allowed anywhere on Dogear — in a post, in a club channel, in a live room, or in a name. Anyone can report content from the app, every report is reviewed, and we remove content and permanently remove accounts that break this rule.
Your account
You need an account, you must be at least 13, and you are responsible for what happens under it. One person, one account. You can delete your account at any time from Settings in the app or on the website; deleting it closes any clubs you organise and removes your posts, shelves and reviews.
What you write
What you write stays yours. You give Dogear permission to store it and show it to the people you meant it for — your followers, your club, the room you are in — which is all we need in order to be Dogear. We do not sell it and we do not use it to train anything.
You agree not to post or say:
- anything that harasses, threatens, or attacks a person or a group;
- sexual content, or anything involving a child;
- anything illegal, or that encourages somebody else to do something illegal;
- somebody else’s work passed off as yours, or somebody else’s private information;
- spam, scams, or bulk advertising.
Live rooms
A room is live audio, and sometimes video. Anyone in the room can hear you when a host gives you the microphone. Hosts can mute you, take you off the stage, and remove you from their room. Some rooms are recorded; when one is, the app says so before you join and only the host receives the recording.
Clubs
A club belongs to the person who started it. They decide who is in it and can remove anyone, for any reason, from their own club. That is a decision about one club and not about Dogear as a whole.
Blocking, reporting, and removal
You can block another reader at any time, which hides them from you and you from them. You can report a post, a reply, a club message, a room message, a reader or a club. Reports go to a person, not a queue nobody reads, and are acted on within 24 hours: we take content down, and we suspend accounts. A suspended account cannot sign in and what it wrote leaves the site.
Buying things
Some author talks sell signed copies. Those are physical books, sold and shipped by the author or their bookseller; Dogear passes on the order. If a copy does not arrive, write to us and we will help sort it out.
Ending it
You can stop using Dogear whenever you like and delete your account. We may suspend or remove an account that breaks these terms, and we will say why unless doing so would put somebody at risk.
The boring part
Dogear is provided as it is. We do not promise it will always be available, and we are not responsible for what other people write on it. Nothing here limits any right you have that cannot be limited by an agreement.
Changes
If these terms change in a way that matters, the app will say so before you carry on using it.