Questions and answers

A social network for the Sri Lankan community in the UK and around the world — posts, groups, events, a marketplace, business pages and private messages, in one place. It is run independently and is not part of any other network.

No. Joining, posting, messaging, groups, events and the marketplace are all free. Advertising is the only thing that costs money, and only if you choose to buy it.

Go to the sign-up page, give a name, an email address and a password, then confirm the code we email you. You can also sign in with Google, which skips the password entirely.

To confirm you are a real person, to let you reset your password, and to send anything you have asked for. It is never shown on your profile and never sold.

Check the spam or junk folder first — that is where almost all of them are. If it genuinely is not there, ask for a new code from the same screen; the old one stops working when a new one is sent.

Thirteen, or older where your country requires it. Accounts belonging to under-eighteens start with extra protections switched on, including quiet hours overnight.

Use the forgotten-password link on the sign-in page. We email you a link that lasts one hour. If it has expired, just ask for another.

Yes. The button is on the sign-in and sign-up pages. It creates an ordinary account — you can add a password later if you want one.

Open your own profile and use the edit control on the picture. The same page changes your cover photo, your name and your About details.

Your display name can be changed whenever you like. Your @username is part of your web address, so changing it breaks existing links to your profile — see the article before you do.

You choose per post — everyone, friends only, or just you. The setting sits beside the post box, and you can change it after posting.

Block them. Open their profile and choose Block. They can no longer message you, see your posts, or find your profile, and they are not told.

A friendship needs both people to agree and works both ways. A follow is one-way and needs nobody's permission. You can have followers who are not friends.

Settings, then the account section. Deletion removes your posts, photos and messages. Some records we are legally required to keep — such as a safety report someone made — survive it.

Yes, under Your time here in Settings. You can set a daily limit, ask for a break reminder, and set quiet hours so the site stops emailing you at night.

Up to 8MB each, as JPG, PNG, WEBP or GIF. Anything larger is refused with a message rather than failing silently.

It is re-saved at up to 2048 pixels and stripped of its hidden data — camera, timestamp and GPS location all removed. Rotation is corrected so it appears the right way up.

Check it is under 8MB and one of the four accepted formats. A photo straight from an iPhone may be HEIC, which we do not accept — change the camera setting to Most Compatible, or send it to yourself first to convert it.

Yes, both, from the menu on the post itself. Deleting removes it for everyone.

You do. We do not claim it, sell it, or license it to anyone. You give us only the permission needed to display it on the site, and that ends when you delete it.

Only with the owner's permission. A photograph belongs to whoever took it — not the person in it and not the person who found it. This is where most people get into trouble without meaning to.

Yes. Use the camera button in the message box. The same 8MB limit and formats apply as everywhere else.

One tick means delivered to our server. Two means the other person's device has it. Read receipts, if you both have them on, add the time they opened it.

That friend is online now. You can switch your own dot off in Settings, and then you will not see anyone else's either — it works both ways on purpose.

Yes, from the menu on the message. It disappears for both of you and is marked as removed. It stays visible to us if the conversation is later reported, so unsending is not a way to erase abuse.

Yes, with the search box above your conversations. It only ever searches your own messages.

A message from someone who is not a friend goes to Requests, not your inbox. You can block or report from inside the conversation without ever answering.

Groups, then create. You choose whether anyone can join or whether you approve each member, and you can add other admins later.

We do not handle the money or the goods, so treat it like any classified listing: meet somewhere public, see the item before paying, and be wary of anyone rushing you. Report a listing that looks wrong.

You get points for joining and for inviting people who join. Invite someone with your link and you get 30 bonus points on top of the 10 for joining; they get 50.

Create an ad account from the Advertise page, build the ad, and it runs after a review. Everything is checked before it appears.

Not for being negative. We remove reviews that break the rules — abuse, lies about facts, or a competitor pretending to be a customer — and not otherwise. A directory where bad reviews quietly vanish is one no customer trusts.

Every post, profile, message and listing has a Report option in its menu. Tell us which rule it breaks. Reports about someone at risk are read before anything else in the queue.

A person reads it and decides. You are told what was decided. We do not tell the other person who reported them.

Yes, and a person reads every appeal. Use the contact form and choose Appeal a decision — it works when you cannot sign in, which is the whole point of it.

If you took the photo, use the copyright notice form — it is a formal process with a legal deadline attached. If you are in the photo but did not take it, report the post instead.

Responsibility for a post rests with whoever wrote it. What we are responsible for is acting when something is reported, which we do.

Refresh first, then try a different browser or your phone. If it happens on both, it is us rather than you — tell us through the contact form and say exactly what you were doing.

The contact form, choosing the topic that fits. You get an acknowledgement with a reference straight away, and a button to reply with more detail or a screenshot.

Never. Nobody at Ceylon Chat will ask for your password, your card details or a code we sent you. Anyone who does is not us — report them.