HELP & PRIVACY

Create an account or log in with your email. Enter the six digit code we send you; there is no password to remember. Returning members should use the same email to keep their profile, meals, reviews, and badges. Your sign-in stays on this device for up to 30 days unless you sign out or clear your browser cookies. On a shared device, sign out when you are done.

No. You can be part of GastroMob without being part of a chapter. Choose No chapter when making or editing your profile. You can still host or join meals, browse members, write eligible reviews, earn badges, and join any chapter’s public activities. Change your affiliation whenever you like; your profile, history, and contributions stay with your account.

The public meal calendar shows your chosen table name, restaurant, place, date, time, open chairs, and the note you write. It does not show your account ID, email address, or full legal name. A Table Starter reviewing your seat request can see your chosen name, city, food needs, and your profile answers about conversation, comfort, and boundaries. The host does not see your full legal name or email through the table calendar.

The Members view and member profiles are available to signed-in people with a table profile. They show your chosen table name, optional profile photo, city, chapter, introduction, activity totals, and badges. Choose Edit profile & intro in My profile to add, replace, or remove your photo, then save. Profile photos are visible only to signed-in members with a table profile. My profile has one optional questionnaire for your host and your introduction. The introduction connects your interests, favorites, and table answers. Choose Edit my intro to write it your way, or Rewrite my intro to review a fresh draft. A rewrite replaces your wording only after you choose Use this intro and save your profile. Changing answers refreshes an automatic intro, while your manual edits stay intact. Age range, allergies, comfort notes, and availability are optional. Allergies and food needs, comfort notes, and availability appear as shared notes alongside your intro only if you check their individual sharing boxes. These notes update independently of your intro wording. Anything you type into the intro itself is visible to members. Earlier answers are filled in for you to review. Existing automatic intros can be refreshed from answers already shared with members; host-only answers stay private.

Your meal total counts finished meals you hosted with a guest and finished meals you attended as a guest. Dates, places, fellow diners, and the names of people who gave you badges stay within that meal’s history.

Open Messages from your profile and choose New message, then select a member. You can also choose Message on another member’s profile. Conversations are visible to the two participants. They do not appear in the member directory or on public pages. This is not an end-to-end encrypted service. Keep sensitive information out of messages.

Use Block messages inside a conversation to stop messages in both directions. You can unblock someone from your inbox. Report a problem through the private help link in the conversation. Personal welcome and warning notes from GastroMob appear in your inbox and are also emailed to you.

In My profile → Account & notifications, turn on alerts for this device and choose messages, seat activity, meal reminders, or new local tables. New-table alerts are off until you opt in and choose a city or area. Your notification area is separate from chapter membership.

On iPhone or iPad, you may need to add GastroMob to your Home Screen and open it there before enabling notifications. Device permissions, focus modes, and connectivity can delay alerts. Your inbox and table activity remain available on the site; private message text is not included in phone notifications. Signing out disconnects this device’s alerts.

GastroMob can send private welcome or warning notes, ban an account, or delete it. A ban blocks sign-in and cancels open meals and seat requests. Account deletion removes the member’s personal profile, private messages, reviews, and uploaded account photos. Other diners keep their meal history with an anonymous “Deleted member” entry. Published restaurant menus can remain with the contributor’s account information removed. A privacy-preserving record of a banned email may remain to enforce a ban.

After the Table Starter finishes the meal, both the host and confirmed guests can open Past activity and choose Write a public review. On My profile, expand Past activity and open the meal. Only review meals you actually attended; the host’s attendance checkbox is not required to publish a review. You can publish one review per meal, with up to four optional photos. Your table name, review, and pictures appear publicly in Community and on the restaurant page. Your account details and fellow diners’ names are not added to the review.

New restaurants are added to Find food when the review is published. Repeat visits use the same listing, which can show both GastroMob and Share a Table visits. Contact GastroMob if a published review needs to be corrected or removed.

After a meal, tablemates can give each other badges in Past activity. Activity badges are earned automatically at 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 meals hosted, meals joined, reviews published, or photos published. Each activity badge shows your highest milestone. A host must finish the meal and record attendance before it counts.

Sign in with your member profile before posting a review or photo to Community. Member reviews publish immediately and count toward your badges. Guest reviews appear after approval. Only published reviews and photos count toward badges. Each published review counts once. Each photo in the review counts toward your photo badge. Earlier anonymous submissions cannot be linked by name alone.

Hosts can edit an upcoming meal’s place, time, note, or chair count. Confirmed diners keep their seats, and the changes appear in Your Table Activity. Open the meal’s details link for its current place and time.

Confirmed diners can send a late-arrival update until three hours after the start time. Updates are saved for the host even when email is delayed. Failed emails stay in a retry queue, and the organizer can review failures. For an urgent problem, use the help address above.

We use your email to sign you in and send updates about your meal. Your legal name and profile are kept in your account to support the table rules. To request access to or deletion of your Share a Table profile, email the address above from the account email and put “Share a Table data request” in the subject. We may need to verify that the account is yours before changing it.

Share a Table is for adults meeting at public restaurants. Everyone pays for their own meal. A confirmed seat is not a restaurant reservation, so the Table Starter should check that the restaurant can accommodate the group.

Past meals and cancelled or declined requests leave the main activity view after three days. They stay in My profile under Past activity, where you can search by restaurant, date, or status. Each result opens for details, reviews, and badges. Future active plans stay visible, however long ago you made them.

Open any restaurant menu and choose Want to try or Favorite whenever something catches your eye. Your saved dishes are in My profile, with search by dish or restaurant. Browsing picks stay on this device until you sign in to save them to your account.

Want to try stays private. Favorites are private unless you choose to show them to other members. Public menu totals count each person once per dish.

Anyone with a GastroMob account can contribute menu photos from a restaurant page. Check the extracted dishes and prices before publishing. A community menu is labelled “Unconfirmed by the restaurant” until an approved restaurant representative confirms it. Menus can change, so check current prices and availability with the restaurant.

Publishing a menu contribution counts toward your Helpful Mobster badge. Owners and authorized managers can claim their restaurant page to maintain and confirm the menu.