Post History

You have a slight misunderstanding here, I'm afraid. Companies like Lloyds Bank and British Airways are both part of highly regulated industries (banking and aviation). Those industries have their own specific set of regulations, regulators, ombudsmen, professional bodies, etc, which often _require_ companies operating in these industries to take certain steps, such as publishing a complaints procedure and responding to complaints in specified timeframes.

Codidact doesn't operate in such an industry, so there is no professional body or mediator applicable to us. We don't have a complaints procedure as such; complaints are received and dealt with by our community team, and there is no public body to refer to in the event that a user disagrees with their decision. However, that doesn't mean we're anti-community or averse to complaints — here's what we _have_ done.

We're incorporated as a Community Interest Company, which is a special type of private company that functions like a precursor to a full registered charity. (We do still have aspirations to register as a charity, but the process is complicated and expensive, which are resources we don't have right now). The legislation around CICs _requires_ our directors, and by extension anyone acting on their behalf, to act in the best interests of the communities we serve. That kind of built-in accountability is exactly why we chose to incorporate in this way.

We also have aspirations to build an [Arbitration & Review Panel](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/277346) composed of community members, and to include community members on our board of directors. These will both act as further checks and balances: including the community on the board will mean the community has a _fundamental_ say in how the company operates, and while there's no _public_ body to refer to should a user disagree with a decision we make, the A&R panel will provide an alternative independent body to serve that function. Both of these initiatives are somewhat stalled at the moment, likewise due to a lack of resources, but they both very much remain on our list of longer-term plans.

In the short term, we're still very much committed to doing right by our communities. That doesn't mean we'll agree with every complaint, or uphold every appeal, but we're here to do good for the folks here on our network, and it's going to remain that way. I and the rest of our community team will be happy to answer any questions you have about this — either here, or feel free to drop into our [Discord](https://discord.gg/bv2aaGa) to chat more directly.