Two things we actually believe

Everyone is lovable if you get to know them. Not everyone is right for you, and no one is owed your time. But the assumption you arrive with changes what you find, and most dating apps are built to help you rule people out in under a second. This one is built to help you understand somebody.

Don’t just notice the differences — try to understand them. Your fingerprint and theirs will disagree somewhere; that is guaranteed, and it is the point. A difference tells you where someone’s life shaped them differently from yours. Ask about it before you decide what it means.

This is also the standard we hold each other to here. "I did not click with them" is always fine. Treating someone as less than a person because they are unfamiliar to you is not.

There are no bots here, and we intend to keep it that way

Soda City Crush launched with zero profiles. Not a hundred invented members to make the place look busy — nobody. Every profile you see is a person in Columbia who signed up, and there is no automated account, no AI-generated member, and no imported list anywhere in this product.

That only holds if it is patrolled, so:

Report anything that feels automated. In a conversation, the ⋯ menu has Report as a bot or fake as its first item. It takes one click and the reason is filled in for you.
Over-report rather than under-report. A wrong bot report costs a real person nothing — a human reads it. An unreported bot costs everybody the thing that makes this different.
What we look at: messages that answer a different question than the one asked, profiles that could be anyone anywhere, a fingerprint that does not match how the person talks, and pressure to move to another app or a payment.

If we ever add anything automated — a suggested opener, say — it will be labelled as such on the page it appears, not buried here.

How we treat each other.

One city, one small community. You will run into the people here at Soda City Market. These are the rules, and the reasoning behind them.

Last updated 8 September 2026 · Columbia, South Carolina

Be a real person Be decent Consent in conversation Not allowed A small-town note How we enforce

Be a real person

Use your real first name, recent photos that are actually of you, and your real age. The whole premise here is that you are met as yourself; a profile that misrepresents you wastes your time first and everyone else's second.

Photos should be recent, of you, and clearly show your face on at least one.
No photos of other people, celebrities, or images taken from elsewhere.
One account per person.
18+, no exceptions.

Be decent, especially when you are not interested

Most unkindness on dating apps happens at the exit. Nobody owes anyone a match, a reply, or a second date — but the way you decline is a choice.

Unmatching is fineYou never need a reason and you never need to explain. Silence is a complete answer.

A short "no thanks" is kinderIf you have been talking a while, one honest sentence beats vanishing. It is not required — it is just better.

Take the noWhen someone declines, that is the end of it. Asking again, or asking why, turns a no into an ordeal.

Not allowed

Harassment, threats, intimidation, or continuing contact after being asked to stop.
Hate speech or slurs targeting race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Asking members for money, investments, or financial help of any kind.
Promotion, recruiting, selling, or driving people to another platform or paid service.
Sexual content involving minors, or any content sexualising a minor — reported to the authorities, not merely removed.
Sharing anyone's private information: address, workplace, phone number, or messages.
Impersonating another person, including someone you know.
Content glorifying violence, self-harm, or illegal activity.

A note on how small this is

Columbia is not anonymous.

This is a single-city platform in a town where people share employers, classes, churches, and one very good farmers market. The person you are rude to at 11pm is someone's coworker. That is uncomfortable, and it is also the point: local accountability is a feature, not an accident. Behave the way you would if you expected to see them again, because you probably will.

How we enforce this

Reports are reviewed by a person. Depending on what happened, we may issue a warning, remove content, restrict an account, or remove it permanently. Anything involving a credible threat, money, or a suspected minor results in immediate removal, reviewed afterwards rather than before.

If you think we got it wrong

Email appeals@sodacitycrush.com with your username and what happened. We will look again. We are new at this and we will make mistakes; we would rather hear about them.

Reporting is confidential

We never disclose who reported an account. Blocking someone is silent — they are not notified.

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