Crisis Response Policy

This page is the public part of the policy that governs how PrayerGroup.Live responds when a post suggests someone may be in crisis. It says exactly what we show, what we never do, and when people are watching.

The four rungs

The removal line is drawn at content that endangers readers, not at content that expresses the author’s own pain. Distress is expected content on this platform; plans, methods and encouragement are not.

Rungs 1 and 2 are fully automated and always on, including overnight. Rungs 3 and 4 hold content and require a person.

The author of a rung-2 post is not told their post is screened. The screen is a reader-side protection; telling the author would turn a reader protection into a judgment about them.

A post expressing despair is never hidden, never held, never removed, and never has its thread interrupted. It receives a resource affordance and stays where it is.

Holding is reserved for content that endangers others: plans with time or place, description of method or means, encouragement of self-harm, pacts and instructions. The author still receives the resource card, and never receives moderation vocabulary.

What a person actually sees

Language follows your interface language. Resources follow the country you tell us you’re in — two different things. If you haven’t told us a country, you get the international block: findahelpline.com alone, with no US number. A person in Manila or Kerala who is shown 988 has been shown nothing. We never infer your country from your IP address or your interface language.

The card — United States, English

If you’re struggling, you can talk to someone right now.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential, and open 24 hours. You can call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org.

It then asks one question — “Something stopping you?” — and answers it:

• “It costs money.” It’s free. There’s no charge to call, text, or chat, and you don’t need insurance or any kind of coverage.
• “I’d have to wait.” Usually the wait is short. Text and chat often connect faster than a call, and you can start one and step away if you need to.
• “It’s not that bad.” It doesn’t have to be an emergency. Most people who contact 988 aren’t in immediate danger — they’re having a hard time and want someone to talk to.
• “I don’t want to talk on the phone.” You don’t have to. Text 988 or use the chat at 988lifeline.org, and you’ll reach the same trained people.

The card — international, English

If you’re struggling, you can talk to someone right now.

findahelpline.com lists free, confidential services in your country — by phone, text, or chat, many of them open 24 hours.

• “It costs money.” Most of the services listed are free to contact. The directory says which ones are, so you can choose before you reach out.
• “I’d have to wait.” Many services offer text or chat as well as phone, and those often connect faster. You can start one and step away if you need to.
• “It’s not that bad.” It doesn’t have to be an emergency. These services are for people who are having a hard time and want someone to talk to — that’s enough.
• “I don’t want to talk on the phone.” You don’t have to. The directory shows which services offer text or chat, and you can choose one of those.

The card — United States, Spanish

Si estás pasando por un momento difícil, puedes hablar con alguien ahora mismo.

La Línea 988 de Prevención del Suicidio y Crisis es gratuita, confidencial y está disponible las 24 horas. Puedes llamar al 988 y oprimir 2, enviar un mensaje de texto al 988, o chatear en 988lifeline.org.

También puedes enviar HOLA al 741741.

If you reported someone else

Thank you for looking out for someone. We’ve sent them information about support that’s available.

It’s okay if you don’t know what to say to them, and it’s okay not to respond at all. Reaching out on someone’s behalf can be hard on you too — if you’d like support for yourself, the same services are there for you.

If your own post is held

Your post hasn’t gone up yet.

One of us is going to read it personally before it does. That usually happens during our published coverage hours, below, and you’ll hear from us either way.

You can still read and reply to everything else on the board in the meantime.

That message is the whole explanation. There is nothing to edit and no way to resubmit — this isn’t a ground-rules matter and we won’t treat it like one.

The reader screen

A rung-2 post sits behind a single line — “This post may be hard to read.” — with one tap to read it. No adjective describing the author, no reason, no count. The author is not told it’s there.

Words you will never see from us

Our crisis copy is checked against the safe-messaging guidance of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Action Alliance, #chatsafe, and the Samaritans before it ships. Among other things, that means:

• Never “committed suicide,” “successful attempt,” or “failed attempt.”
• Never any method, means, dose, or location — including in report categories.
• Never “so many people feel this way” or other normalizing language.
• Never scale language like “epidemic” or “skyrocketing.”
• Never “this happened because of…” — single-cause attribution.
• Never platform-voice false presence — “we’re here for you,” “we’ve got you.”
• Never “your post was flagged / reviewed / reported / removed / screened” to the author.
• Never assessment questions — “are you safe?”, “do you have a plan?”
• Never anything discouraging medication or therapy.

When people are watching

We publish our hours of human coverage and, retrospectively, our volumes. We never publish a forward-looking review-time guarantee — a promise like that breaks at 4am.

We’re a two-person team. Somebody reads flagged posts during Pacific business hours on weekdays and checks in at least once daily on weekends. Between roughly midnight and 7am Pacific, nobody is watching — but if a post looks like someone is in crisis, information about 24-hour support is shown automatically, at any hour.

Our automated checks work best in English. They are being checked by Spanish-speaking crisis specialists, and in other languages they catch very little on their own — a person reading the post is what catches it. If you write in another language, please know that.

What we will not do

We do not contact emergency services

We do not contact emergency services on the basis of anything posted here, and we say so publicly rather than reserving the right. The reason: we cannot verify identity or location, we have no clinical staff, and we have no ability to assess. Attempting a welfare dispatch on the basis of a text classifier is more likely to cause harm than prevent it — a wrong address, a wrong person, an armed response to a household that did not ask for one. Some platforms state that they may contact emergency services on a specific, credible and imminent threat. We deliberately differ.

If you write to us directly with imminent intent

We respond once, with the resource card and nothing clinical. We don’t enter a counseling exchange and we don’t make promises.

Content that endangers others

Plans with time or place, method description, encouragement of self-harm, pacts and instructions are held before they go up, and anything real-time or in progress is escalated immediately. The author still receives the resource card. These are the only circumstances in which crisis-associated content is not visible, and the reason is the reader.

Child-exploitation material

Governed by a separate procedure: we preserve it, report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline, and act on the account. Preservation overrides the author’s deletion for the duration the law requires; this exception is also disclosed in the Privacy Policy.

Keeping this page honest

Crisis resources go stale on timetables we don’t control, and a stale crisis resource is worse than none. Every phone number, short code, and URL on this page is dialed or loaded and confirmed live every quarter, and the review is logged. The next review is due December 4, 2026.

Questions about this policy: hello@prayergroup.live.