Terms

Last updated July 29, 2026

The Island is an independent app for Roosevelt Island neighbors. It is not operated by or affiliated with RIOC, and it is free. Using it means agreeing to what’s on this page.

Your account

Keep your sign-in to yourself and your details accurate. An invite, a building, a confirmed location, and a “Verified Islander” badge are all signals from neighbors — they are not a background check. A badge means someone vouched for a person, not that we screened them.

Deals between neighbors

Anything arranged here — buying and selling, a sublet or a room, help offered or asked for, a booking — is an agreement between the two neighbors. The Island is not a party to it. We are not a broker, a landlord, an agency, or an employer. We hold no money, take no cut, and do not inspect goods, apartments, prices, or people. If something goes wrong, it is between you and them.

Do your own checking before money or keys change hands, and follow the rules that apply to you: your building’s sublet policy, your lease, and the tax and employment rules that come with paying someone for work. There’s a short note about that last one wherever paid help is arranged — it’s general information from neighbors, not legal or tax advice.

Meeting in person

Events, meetups, lending, pickups, viewings, and help at someone’s door all happen off the app, and you take part at your own risk. Events listed here are run by the organizations named on them — RIOC, the library, the parks, the nonprofits — not by The Island; we list them, we don’t organize or supervise them, and details can change or be wrong, so confirm with the organizer before you go. Meet in a lobby or somewhere public when you can, bring someone if it helps, and trust your read of a situation over anything a listing says.

What neighbors post

You’re responsible for what you post and you keep ownership of it — you give us permission to show it in the app to the neighbors it’s meant for. Nothing is screened before it appears. Posts, listings, comments, and profiles are written by neighbors and may be inaccurate; so may content mirrored from clearly labeled outside sources, and so may live transit, weather, and restaurant information. We may remove anything, at any time.

Behavior — no tolerance

There is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive neighbors. Don’t harass, threaten, or hate on anyone; don’t post sexual, violent, or illegal content; don’t spam, scam, impersonate, or scrape; don’t post someone else’s private information; don’t use the app for anything against the law or against your lease.

Every post, listing, comment, and profile has a ⋯ menu with Report and Block. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours. Content that breaks these terms is removed, and the account behind it may be removed with it — without warning, if it’s bad enough. Blocking needs nobody’s approval and takes effect immediately. See Privacy for how both work.

No promises, and the limit of what we owe

The Island is provided as-is, by neighbors, with no warranty of any kind. We don’t promise it will be available, accurate, or free of mistakes. To the fullest extent the law allows, The Island and the people who run it are not liable for anything that happens between neighbors, at a meetup or event, or because information here turned out to be wrong — including lost money, property, or opportunity. Some places don’t allow limits like this, so where that’s true, this applies only as far as it legally can. If you cause a claim against us by breaking these terms, that’s on you, not us.

Ending it

You can delete your account and everything in it at any time from your profile page, under Delete account. We can suspend or remove an account that breaks these terms.

Changes, law, contact

These terms may change; the date at the top says when they last did, and continuing to use the app means the new version applies. New York law governs them. Questions, or something that needs a human, go through Feedback.