Terms of Service

Inside A Wandering Mind (IAWM) is a place for creative writing, art, articles, videos, and other works.

0. Goals and Direction

1. We aim to provide as much freedom as possible to writers of IAWM.

2. We do not sell any data that you post on, submit to, or share on IAWM, and we do not include or accept paid advertisements from third parties.

1. Table of Contents for TOS

I. General Principles

I.A. General Terms

Agreement: Inside A Wandering Mind (IAWM) operates a platform for people to create, share, discuss, and collaborate on writing, artwork, research, games, and other creative or intellectual work. These Terms of Service (TOS), together with IAWM's Publishing Guidelines, Privacy Policy, and other policies expressly incorporated into these Terms, govern your use of IAWM's website, accounts, community spaces, and other services operated by IAWM. By creating an account, submitting works, accessing the website, or otherwise participating in IAWM, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to these terms.

Entirety of Agreement: These Terms of Service constitute the agreement between you and IAWM concerning your use of IAWM and its services. The IAWM Constitution governs the internal organization and leadership of IAWM and is not intended to replace these Terms of Service. IAWM's Publishing Guidelines, Community/Discord Rules, Privacy Policy, and other policies may establish additional requirements for particular parts of IAWM. Where applicable, those policies are incorporated into these terms. These terms govern your use of IAWM and do not necessarily govern your use of third-party services used by IAWM, such as Discord, WordPress, Google Forms, or other external platforms. Your use of those services may also be subject to their respective terms and policies.

Third-party services: IAWM may use third-party services, including communication platforms, website hosting, forms, storage, and other services. Your use of those services may also be governed by their respective terms and policies. These Terms apply to your use of IAWM and do not replace the terms of third-party services.

Severability: If any provision of these TOS is found by a court or other competent authority to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.

No waiver: IAWM's failure to enforce any provision of these TOS in a particular instance does not waive IAWM's ability to enforce that provision in the future.

I.B. Updates to the Terms of Service

IAWM may modify these TOS when reasonably necessary to reflect changes to the organization, applicable law, or community practices. Significant changes may be announced through the IAWM website, Discord server, or another appropriate communication method. Updated TOS become effective when posted or on the effective date specified in the updated version. Your continued use of IAWM after the updated TOS take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated terms to the extent permitted by applicable law.

I.C. Potential problems with IAWM

IAWM provides the website on an "as is" and "as available" basis. IAWM does not guarantee that it will meet your requirements, remain uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, or that Work or information available through the website will always be accurate, reliable, or satisfactory.
IAWM may experience technical problems, maintenance, interruptions, loss of data, or other circumstances that affect the availability of the website. IAWM does not guarantee that Content will always be preserved or available.
Content backups: IAWM is not intended to function as a personal storage or file-recovery service. You are responsible for maintaining your own copies of important work that you submit to IAWM.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, IAWM shall not be liable for damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the website, including loss of Work, interruption of access, unauthorized access, or actions of other users. IAWM may modify, restrict, suspend, discontinue, or terminate all or part of the website at any time when reasonably necessary.

I.D. Work Access

IAWM or its users may provide links to websites, services, or other resources operated by third parties. IAWM does not control those third-party services and is not responsible for their content, availability, terms of use, or privacy policies. You should review the policies of third-party services before using them.
Some work displayed through IAWM may originate from or be hosted by third-party services. Such work may be subject to the terms and privacy policies of the service that hosts it.
Work submitted by users does not necessarily represent the views of IAWM or its leadership. Unless specifically identified as an official IAWM statement, Work should be understood as the work or expression of its respective contributor.
IAWM is not responsible or liable for any work created or submitted by users that you are exposed to.

I.E. IAWM's Use of Work

IAWM does not claim copyright ownership of original work created by its contributors. You retain ownership of your original work.

License to IAWM: By submitting work to IAWM, you grant IAWM a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, display, distribute, archive, and otherwise make that work available as reasonably necessary to operate and promote IAWM. This includes making technical copies, displaying work on the IAWM website, and sharing or promoting published work through IAWM's official channels.
No transfer of ownership: The license described above does not transfer ownership of your work to IAWM. You remain free to use, publish, modify, distribute, or license your work elsewhere unless you have separately agreed otherwise with another contributor.
Editing and formatting: IAWM may format, proofread, or make reasonable editorial changes to work in accordance with the Publishing Guidelines. Changes that substantially alter the meaning or creative direction of a work will be, where practical, be discussed with the contributor.
Removal of Content: Contributors may request to remove their work from IAWM. IAWM will make reasonable efforts to honor such requests. Works may remain in backups or records for a reasonable period, and IAWM may retain or disclose work where reasonably necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce these TOS, or protect the rights and safety of IAWM or others.
Collaborative Content: When work is created by multiple contributors, IAWM may display the names or other credits provided by those contributors. Contributors are responsible for determining their own arrangements regarding ownership and credit.

I.F. Regulations

You agree not to use IAWM or its associated services:

to make available any work that violates the Publishing Guidelines
to impersonate any person or entity, including an IAWM representative, leader, contributor, or other member, or to falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
to submit Work that infringes another person's copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy, or other legal rights;
to submit another person's personal or private information without appropriate permission;
to upload malicious software, code, files, or other material designed to interfere with, damage, or limit the functionality of IAWM or another person's equipment;
to interfere with or disrupt IAWM, its website, Work, servers, networks, community spaces, or other services;
to circumvent reasonable restrictions placed on your account or access to the Service;
to use IAWM for unlawful purposes or to violate laws applicable to you;
to use IAWM to deliberately harass, threaten, bully, or target another person; or
to otherwise use IAWM in a manner that materially interferes with the rights, safety, or reasonable use by other members.

I.G. Registration and accounts

Account information: Where registration requires personal information, you agree to provide information that is reasonably accurate and current. You should update information when necessary to maintain the operation of your account.
Account security: You are responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your account credentials. Do not intentionally provide your password or account credentials to another person.
Account ownership: Your IAWM account is personal to you. You may not sell, transfer, or intentionally provide your account to another person.
Public identity: IAWM may allow contributors to use a display name or pen name publicly. Use of a public name does not remove the requirement to provide information reasonably necessary for account administration where applicable.

I.H. Age Policy

IAWM is a student-oriented organization and may be used by contributors of different ages.

IAWM does not knowingly permit use of any feature in a manner prohibited by applicable age or privacy laws.
Certain third-party services used by IAWM may have their own minimum age requirements. Users must comply with those requirements when using those services.
Where applicable law requires parental or guardian consent for the collection or processing of a minor's personal information, IAWM will follow the requirements applicable to that situation.
IAWM may restrict, suspend, or remove an account or Work when reasonably necessary to comply with applicable age or privacy requirements.

I.I. Abuse and complaints

IAWM does not necessarily prescreen all Work for violations of these TOS. Complaints may be reviewed when submitted to IAWM leadership through an appropriate communication channel.

Submitting a complaint: Complaints concerning Work, account behavior, harassment, copyright, privacy, or other violations may be submitted to an IAWM Leader or another designated administrator.
Treatment of complaints: IAWM may review complaints and relevant information in accordance with these TOS, the Privacy Policy, and other applicable policies.
Resolution of complaints: When IAWM determines that Work or conduct violates these TOS or another applicable policy, IAWM may request changes, hide or remove Work/articles, issue a warning, restrict access, suspend an account, or take other reasonable action.
Penalties: The appropriate response to a violation may depend on its severity, frequency, circumstances, and the user's conduct. Not every violation will necessarily result in the same penalty. When Work is hidden from public view, IAWM may identify the nature of the problem with the Work and set a deadline for voluntary removal/changes for the violating material. If the creator does not remove or make appropriate changes to that material within the given deadline, IAWM may permanently remove the Work. We may determine that we need to remove Work to resolve a threatened or pending lawsuit or to mitigate other liability. If so, we will remove the Work.
Appeals: A person affected by a moderation decision may request that an IAWM Leader review the decision. IAWM may establish additional procedures for appeals as the organization develops.

II. Questions and contact

Questions concerning these Terms of Service, Publication Guidelines, moderation, accounts, or other matters relating to IAWM may be directed to an IAWM Administrators or emailed directly to inside.a.wandering.mind@gmail.com.
IAWM Administrators: Cody Nguyen and Tristan Chiu

This text is an adaptation of the Archive of Our Own (AO3) Terms of Service licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (Note: Modifications have been made to the original text for IAWM. Not endorsed by or affiliated with the Organization for Transformative Works or Archive of Our Own.)