SameBoat — Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 23 July 2026

1. About these terms

In this agreement, references to “SameBoat”, “us”, “we” or “our” mean Same Boat Pty Ltd ABN 43 607 659 183, the operator of sameboat.com and any other websites, forums, applications or platforms (including social media platforms) operated or controlled by us (collectively, the “website” or “forum”).

References to “you” or “your” mean you as the person or legal entity using our website.

By accessing or using our website, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, our Privacy Policy, our Disclaimer, and any other legal policy linked from our website. Please read and understand these terms before using the website or any of our services. If you do not agree, your only remedy is to stop using the website.

These terms contain important provisions that affect your legal rights, including disclaimers (clause 13), limits on our liability (clause 15), your indemnity of us (clause 16), how we moderate the forum (clause 6), and the law and courts that govern disputes (clause 17). Please read them carefully.

We may update these terms from time to time. Updated terms apply from the date they are posted. For substantial changes, we will make reasonable efforts to notify registered account holders by email or by a notice on the website. Your continued use of the website after an update means you accept the updated terms.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account or use the forum. By using the forum, you confirm that you meet this requirement. If we become aware that an account is held by a person under the required age, we may suspend or close it.

The forum is operated from Queensland, Australia. We make no representation that the website or its content is appropriate, lawful, or available for use in your location. If you access the website from outside Australia, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for complying with the laws that apply to you. Use of the website is unauthorised in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these terms. If you are in such a jurisdiction, you must stop using the website.

3. Nature of the forum — important

SameBoat is a peer-support forum. Its purpose is to encourage people to talk about challenges they are facing so they can receive support from others who have been, or are, in the same boat.

We are not a health, medical, crisis, counselling, legal or professional advice service. The forum is not designed to, and does not, diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any condition, whether physical or mental, and is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional.

:warning: IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS, OR ARE AT RISK OF HARM TO YOURSELF OR OTHERS, DO NOT RELY ON THIS FORUM. SEEK IMMEDIATE HELP FROM EMERGENCY SERVICES OR A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL.

In Australia, call 000 (emergency), Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 13YARN on 13 92 76. If you are outside Australia, contact your local emergency or crisis service.

Participants in the forum generally have no professional qualifications and share only information, opinions, and ideas based on their own experiences. Their content may be inaccurate, incomplete, unreliable, or unsuitable for your circumstances. We do not check, verify, or endorse the accuracy of any content posted by participants and you must not treat it as professional advice.

You use the forum, and rely on any content on it, solely at your own risk. You agree to do your own research and to consult a qualified medical, mental-health, legal or other professional as appropriate before acting on anything you read on the forum. This is your responsibility.

4. Moderators and Sponsors

Some categories of the forum are supported by volunteer or partner moderators, including category “Sponsors” (together, “Moderators”). In these terms, references to “us”, “we” and “our” include our Moderators where the context permits, and the protections, disclaimers, limitations of liability and indemnities in these terms apply for the benefit of our Moderators as well as SameBoat.

You acknowledge and agree that:

Moderators moderate on a reasonable-efforts, discretionary and “as available” basis. They are not obliged to read, review, monitor, respond to, or act on any particular post, and may not see every post.

Moderators are not health, medical, crisis, legal or other professionals acting in that capacity when participating in the forum, even where they hold qualifications elsewhere. Anything a Moderator posts is general peer-support information, not professional advice, and is provided in good faith without any warranty.

Sponsors are independent third parties. They are not our employees, agents, partners in a legal sense, or representatives, and they do not act on our behalf. We do not independently verify a Sponsor’s qualifications, credentials, licensing, insurance, or the accuracy of anything they publish beyond our own onboarding checks. A Sponsor’s presence on the forum is not an endorsement, recommendation, or guarantee by us of that Sponsor, their business, their services, or their content. Any dealings you have with a Sponsor outside the forum are entirely between you and them.

The presence of Moderators does not create any duty of care to you, does not guarantee that harmful, inaccurate, or unlawful content will be detected or removed, and does not make us or our Moderators responsible for content posted by users or for the consequences of acting on any content.

Moderation, where it occurs, is for the general benefit of the community and does not constitute supervision of, or responsibility for, your individual safety or wellbeing.

Nothing we or our Moderators do — including reviewing, editing, removing, responding to, or leaving up any content — should be taken as an endorsement, verification, or assumption of responsibility for that content.

5. Your permission to use the forum

Subject to these terms, we grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable permission to use the forum. We may withdraw this permission at any time, including by contacting you directly to say you may no longer use the forum.

6. How we moderate

We may, but are not obliged to, monitor, review, screen, moderate, edit, refuse, or remove any content on the forum, at any time and for any reason, in our sole discretion. Any moderation we carry out is on a reasonable-efforts basis only. We do not warrant that we will detect or remove any particular content, that the forum will be free of harmful, offensive, inaccurate or unlawful content, or that moderation will be carried out within any particular time.

Our right to moderate does not create any obligation to moderate, and our exercise (or non-exercise) of that right does not make us or our Moderators responsible or liable for any content or for any failure to act.

We may use automated tools (including spam filters and content-classification systems) to assist moderation. Automated tools are imperfect and may produce false positives or miss harmful content; their use does not create any warranty that content will be reviewed, detected, or removed.

We are not obliged to give reasons for a moderation decision, though we will generally do so where practical. We are not obliged to restore removed content or reinstate a closed account.

7. Acceptable use and rules of engagement

As a condition of your use of the website, you warrant that you will not use it for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, and that you will not use it to cause harm to any person.

To foster a supportive, non-judgemental environment, you agree that you will:

  • treat other users with respect and courtesy and behave in a civil manner;
  • respect the vulnerability of others on this forum, and recognise that people posting here may be in distress;
  • report content that concerns you using the flagging tools, rather than replying to it or escalating a conflict publicly; and
  • respect the confidentiality of others — what people share here is shared in the context of seeking support, and must not be republished, screenshotted, or shared elsewhere in a way that identifies them.

You agree that you will not:

  • break any law, or encourage or help anyone else to break these terms or the law;
  • defame, libel, insult, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, bully or attack any person;
  • deliberately disrupt conversations, troll, or post material that is off-topic, repetitive, or excessively long;
  • transmit any unlawful, discriminatory, defamatory, obscene, offensive, hateful, harmful or scandalous content, or content that encourages conduct that would breach the law;
  • post content that encourages, glorifies, instructs, or provides means for suicide, self-harm, disordered eating, substance misuse, or violence against any person;
  • post graphic or gratuitous descriptions of self-harm, suicide methods, violence, or abuse, including where framed as your own experience — you are welcome to talk about what you are going through, but not in a way that may endanger another reader;
  • hold yourself out as a qualified professional, or give medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice in a professional capacity, unless you are qualified to do so and have clearly disclosed the basis on which you are speaking;
  • exploit, solicit, or prey upon vulnerable users, including by offering paid services, treatments, or products in response to someone’s disclosed difficulty;
  • post personal or contact information about yourself or others (such as phone numbers, email or street addresses) without permission;
  • republish, screenshot, or redistribute another user’s content outside the forum in a manner that identifies them or could reasonably lead to their identification;
  • post content that is fraudulent, deceptive or misleading, or impersonate or falsely represent any person or organisation, or falsely imply affiliation with or endorsement by us;
  • falsely claim to be, or imply that you are, a SameBoat Sponsor, Moderator, or official representative;
  • post content that advertises, offers or promotes anything of a commercial nature, send spam, chain letters or solicitations, or use the forum to gather personal data for mailing lists or databases;
  • use the forum as a lead-generation tool for your own or another’s benefit;
  • use or attempt to use another person’s account without their specific permission, or buy, sell or trade in usernames or unique identifiers;
  • create multiple accounts to evade moderation, a suspension, or a ban;
  • introduce any virus, malicious code, spyware, or unauthorised technology, or otherwise damage, disable, overburden, or impair the website;
  • automate or monitor access to the forum (for example with a crawler, scraper, bot, plug-in, or add-on) other than to index the forum for a public search engine you operate;
  • use content from the forum to train, fine-tune, or develop any machine-learning or artificial-intelligence model or dataset, whether commercial or otherwise, without our prior written permission;
  • decompile, reverse engineer, scrape, frame, embed via <iframe>, or copy or imitate the website or its content;
  • remove proprietary or copyright notices, or circumvent any security or access restriction; or
  • post content you do not have the right to post, that is confidential, or that infringes any third party’s intellectual property or other rights.

You comply with the terms of any third-party platform (such as Facebook) that hosts our content. You are entirely responsible and liable for any infringement of another person’s rights arising from your use of the website.

8. Enforcement

If you breach these terms, or we otherwise consider it appropriate, we may in our sole discretion (and without obligation):

  • remove, edit, or refuse to post any content you submit;
  • suspend, restrict, or permanently close your account and block your access;
  • report your conduct to any relevant platform operator and/or law enforcement or other authorities; and/or
  • take any other action, including legal action, that we consider appropriate.

We may investigate suspected breaches and cooperate with law enforcement. We may take any of these actions without prior notice and without liability to you, including where we consider urgent action necessary to protect the safety of any person or the integrity of the forum.

9. Your account

You must create and log into an account to use some features. You agree to provide accurate information, including a valid email address, and to keep it current. You are responsible for all activity under your account, whether authorised or not, until you close it or notify us that it has been compromised. You agree to keep your password secret and secure, and to notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorised use. You may close your account at any time by contacting us. We may restrict, suspend or close your account in accordance with these terms or our policies.

10. Your content

You retain ownership of the content you submit (“your content”). Nothing in these terms transfers ownership of your intellectual property to us, or of our intellectual property to you.

You warrant that you hold all rights necessary to post your content, that it is not confidential, and that it does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights.

By submitting your content, you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable licence to host, store, copy, publish, display, adapt, analyse and otherwise use your content for the purpose of operating and providing the forum and our services, now and in the future. This includes using parts of the texts without personal information in advertisements on third-party sites/social media sites. You agree we may continue to display content while it remains on the forum and that residual copies may persist in backups or caches after removal.

You remain solely responsible for your content. You must not imply that your content is sponsored or approved by us. We are not obliged to store, maintain, or return any of your content. We may remove or disable any of your content at our discretion, including where we believe it breaches these terms. You indemnify us against any claim arising from your content.

11. Links, third-party services, and promoted services

The forum may link to or integrate websites and services operated by others (“Linked Sites”), including the curated external support resources we display on category pages (“Liferings”). Linked Sites are not under our control. We are not responsible for their content, availability, or any transmission you receive from them, and a link does not imply endorsement or association. Your use of a third-party service may be governed by separate terms between you and that provider.

Liferings are provided in good faith as a convenience to help you find official or specialist support. We do not operate, control, fund, or accept responsibility for those services, we do not guarantee their availability, suitability, or quality, and their inclusion is not a recommendation that any particular service is right for your circumstances. You must exercise your own judgement.

Where we promote third-party products or services, it may be because they have sponsored, donated to, or otherwise supported us. You must exercise your own judgement, based on your own circumstances, before purchasing or relying on any third-party product or service.

12. Intellectual property

We own, or have permission to use, the intellectual property in the contents of the website. Except as expressly authorised by us, you may not use, copy, display, distribute, modify, translate, reformat, incorporate into other works, create derivative works from, or otherwise exploit any of our content, in whole or in part. You may access, download, or print our material for your personal, non-commercial use only; sharing or commercial use requires our prior written permission. You agree not to remove any copyright or proprietary notice.

Content posted by third parties (including images and descriptions) is the responsibility of those parties and may be subject to copyright; you must obtain permission from the third party before using it. Company and product names mentioned on the website may be trademarks of their respective owners. Any example companies, organisations, products, people, or events depicted are fictitious, and no association with any real one is intended or should be inferred.

If you believe content on the website infringes intellectual property rights, please contact us with enough information to identify the owner and form a reasonable belief that infringement has occurred, and we will remove it. You may be liable if you knowingly make a material misrepresentation.

13. Disclaimers

You accept all risk of using the forum and any content on it. To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to clause 14, the website, the forum, and all content are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty or condition of any kind, whether express or implied, including as to suitability, reliability, availability, timeliness, accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose.

We do not warrant that the website will be secure, uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or harmful components. Continuous availability depends on third-party services, and the website may be unavailable from time to time. We disclaim liability for any virus or technological problem we do not intentionally cause or that is beyond our control. You are encouraged to maintain up-to-date security software.

We make no representations or warranties about content posted by users, Moderators or Sponsors, and we do not endorse any view, opinion, advice, or information posted on the forum.

We do not warrant that the forum will provide you with support, benefit, improvement in your circumstances, or any particular outcome, and we make no representation that any person will respond to anything you post.

14. Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer guarantee, right, or remedy you may have under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (including the Australian Consumer Law) or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded (“Non-Excludable Rights”).

To the extent our services come with a Non-Excludable Right, and we are able to limit our liability for breach of it, our liability is limited, at our option, to re-supplying the relevant services or paying the cost of having them re-supplied.

15. Limitation of liability

Subject to clause 14, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:

  • neither we nor our Moderators, Sponsors, suppliers, partners, officers, or agents will be liable to you or any other person for any loss or damage of any kind — including direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive loss, loss of profits or data, personal injury, psychological or emotional harm, or loss arising from your reliance on any content or advice on the forum, the conduct of any user, Moderator or Sponsor, any failure to moderate or remove content, or any harm resulting from your use of the website — however arising, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise; and
  • where liability cannot be wholly excluded, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims relating to the website or its content is limited to AUD $100.

This clause survives termination or expiry of these terms and your use of the website.

16. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and defend us, our Moderators and our Sponsors against any claim, damage, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from or related to:

(a) your content;

(b) your use or misuse of the website, or of products or services advertised or promoted on it;

(c) your breach of these terms; or

(d) your violation of any law or any third party’s rights. We will notify you of any such claim, may control its defence and settlement, and you agree to cooperate. We will not settle in a way that admits fault on your behalf or imposes obligations on you without your agreement.

17. Governing law and disputes

These terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or your use of the website, are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. You and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland and the Federal Courts of Australia, and you agree not to object to venue in those courts. Nothing in this clause prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief.

This clause does not deprive you of the protection of any mandatory consumer-protection law of the country in which you are habitually resident, where that law applies and cannot be excluded by agreement.

18. Feedback

We welcome your feedback and suggestions. You agree we may use them freely, without notifying you, obtaining your permission, or paying you, and you agree not to submit feedback you consider confidential or proprietary.

19. Termination

Either you or we may end this agreement at any time. When it ends, your permission to use the forum ends. Clauses that by their nature should survive — including clauses 3, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 20 — survive termination.

20. General

Our performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process. Nothing in these terms limits our right to comply with governmental, court, or law-enforcement requests relating to your use of the website or information we hold about it.

You may not assign your rights under these terms. We may assign ours to an affiliate, a successor, or a buyer of assets relating to the forum.

No joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship arises between you and us from these terms or your use of the website, including between us and any Sponsor. A waiver of any breach is not a waiver of any other breach.

If any provision is found invalid or unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or if that is not possible, severed, and the remaining provisions continue in effect.

These terms, together with our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer, form the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the website and replace any prior agreement.

21. Contact

Questions, feedback, complaints, or notices under these terms can be sent to us at sameadmin@proton.me (or via our contact page). We aim to respond to enquiries within two business days. We may give you notice by email to the address on your account or by posting a notice on the website.