Good company has ground rules.
One October competition. Free to enter. Real stories, fair votes, and clear expectations.
The dates, without the guesswork.
Downtober opens on October 21, 2026. Submissions and votes are accepted before October 31, 2026 at 23:59:00 UTC. At that exact instant, both close. There are no weekly resets and no new campaign in November. Stories remain readable while moderation review, finalization, and archiving proceed.
Tell your story. Protect other people.
Share your own October experience. Do not post private addresses, phone numbers, medical records, intimate material, threats, hate, harassment, or identifying details about another person without permission. Leave out names when they are not necessary. No scams, impersonation, copyrighted work you cannot use, or fabricated tragedies for votes.
A human reads it first.
Every new or revised story is pending until a moderator reviews it. We can request changes, reject a story, or remove it from public view. You can report a published story privately, mute an author, or appeal a decision from your account. Safety reports may lead to immediate removal. Heuristics assist review and are not proof of wrongdoing.
Keep the conversation kind.
Alias accounts can comment, reply, react, and follow stories without a wallet. Comments may be held for human review. Edit your own comment within 15 minutes or delete it later; deleted comments leave a blank place in a thread. Story authors may hide replies on their stories, and moderators can hide unsafe comments after review. Reports are private. Blocking hides another account’s comments for you and stops direct interaction. Comments, reactions, follows, and “been there too” never earn reward points. New conversation activity closes with the October cutoff, while published threads stay readable.
One account, one vote per story.
Posting requires only an available alias and acceptance of the rules. An alias is not a password. Optional verified email recovery is available; without recovery, a lost session may mean permanent loss of access. Voting is disabled until the token launches and the owner authorizes verified launch configuration. After launch, voting requires a signed Robinhood Chain wallet and at least USD $1 in the designated token, checked server-side with a fresh verified USD price. This is a holding requirement, not a payment. You cannot vote on your own story. You may remove a vote before the cutoff. Multiple accounts, purchased votes, automated voting, and coordinated manipulation are prohibited. A wallet or $1 holding does not prove unique humanity. One wallet is permanently bound to one account per network and can maintain one vote per story. Suspicious votes can be excluded after human review, with the reason recorded.
Milestones add up.
At 25 verified votes, a story earns 1 point. At 100, it earns 3 more. At 250, it earns 6 more. At 1,000, it earns 15 more. That is 25 cumulative points at 1,000 votes. Thresholds are awarded once, with eligibility changing if votes are removed or excluded. All approved stories and eligible creators count, not just the top ten.
Final results come after review.
Open story and comment reports, pending stories and comments, vote flags, and appeals must be resolved before finalization. We recompute from active verified votes on approved stories, then lock an audited snapshot. Withdrawn or rejected stories have no eligibility before finalization. Removing public content after finalization does not silently rewrite the snapshot. Tied point totals receive equal weight per point. Story votes and stable account IDs break display ties only.
Rewards are not yet funded.
There is no verified pool, promised payout, launched token, or purchase flow. Voting opens only after verified token configuration and approval. If separately verified funding is introduced later, the specification is: creator verified points divided by total verified points, multiplied by the final verified distributable pool. It is not a cash estimate or guarantee. No paid action is required to participate.
Future rounding and claims rules.
Any future pool uses integer smallest units. Round each proportional allocation down, then distribute residual units in descending fractional-remainder order, with stable account ID breaking ties. Zero total points means no allocation. Expenses must be separately documented and verified before defining a distributable pool. No expense, claims deadline, treasury receipt, or payout can be created in this release. A funded program requires separately published terms, a claims deadline, and an approved dispute process before activation.
Edits, withdrawals, and wellbeing.
Pending or rejected stories can be edited and resubmitted. Published stories cannot be silently edited; withdraw them or request review. You can request account deletion and export your data. This is a community space, not crisis care. If you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. Confidential support resources are available at findahelpline.com.