Terms of Service

These Terms are an agreement between you and Vigil ("Vigil", "we", "us") about your use of joinvigil.app and any Vigil app or service (the "Service"). By using the Service you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, our Community Guidelines and our Copyright Policy. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

The Service is in active development. It is offered as an alpha and then a beta, which means features will change, some will be added or removed, and the Service may occasionally be unavailable.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use the Service with the permission of a parent or guardian, who agrees to these Terms on your behalf.

You can't use the Service if we have previously banned you, or if the law where you live prohibits it.

Give accurate information when you sign up and keep it current. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, so keep your password secure and tell us right away if you think someone else has accessed it.

An account is for one person. Don't share it, sell it, or create accounts to get around a suspension. Your username and display name must not impersonate anyone or mislead people about who you are.

You can delete your account at any time from your account settings. See "Ending your use of Vigil" below for what happens to your content.

You can post field reports, photos, audio, video, comments, questions, answers and suggestions for locations ("your content"). You keep ownership of your content.

To run the Service, you give Vigil a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, adapt, publish, display and distribute your content in connection with the Service and its promotion. "Adapt" covers technical changes such as resizing images, converting formats and removing embedded location data. We may let our service providers exercise this license only to help us operate the Service. You also let other users view and share links to your content as the Service allows.

This license ends when you delete your content or your account, except for copies in routine backups for a limited period, copies we must keep to comply with the law or resolve disputes, and content other people have already shared outside the Service.

By posting, you confirm that:

• the content is yours, or you have the rights and permissions needed to post it and grant the license above;
• it is an honest account of what you experienced or recorded, to the best of your knowledge;
• people who can be identified in your media agreed to appear in it, where the law requires their consent;
• it follows our Community Guidelines and the law.

Vigil shows provenance on every field record. Your reports appear publicly with your display name, the date and time you give, and the place you describe. Don't post anything you aren't comfortable being public.

Field reports describe what people say they experienced. Vigil does not verify them and does not claim that any place is haunted or that any phenomenon is real. The reported breakdown on a location shows what people reported, not a conclusion.

A location appearing on Vigil is not permission to visit it. Many places are private property, closed at night, structurally unsafe, or protected by law. Each location shows an access status and, where relevant, a legal warning, but access and hours change and our information may be out of date.

You are solely responsible for where you go and what you do. Always follow posted rules, get the owner's permission where it's required, respect closing hours, and never disturb graves, remains or historic structures. Vigil is not responsible for injury, loss, fines or legal consequences that result from visiting any place.

Location pages are researched and drafted with the help of automated tools, then reviewed by Vigil editors before they're published. Every claim is meant to be backed by a cited source, but pages can still contain mistakes. Check the sources, and confirm access, hours and safety information with the place itself before you go.

If something is wrong or out of date, suggest an edit from the location page. Suggestions are reviewed before they change a location.

Field records, comments, questions and answers are published as soon as you post them. Anyone can flag content, and we may review, hide or remove any content, or limit, suspend or close any account, if we believe it breaks these Terms or our Community Guidelines, creates legal risk, or harms others. We may do this without notice, though we try to explain our decisions.

We don't review everything before it appears and we aren't responsible for content other users post. If you see something that breaks the rules, flag it.

• Break the law, or use the Service to plan or encourage trespassing, vandalism or anything dangerous.
• Post content you don't have the rights to, or that is false in a way meant to deceive, such as staged evidence presented as real.
• Harass, threaten or expose other people, including publishing someone's private information.
• Send spam, advertise without permission, or manipulate reactions, votes, follows or rankings.
• Access the Service with bots or scrapers, overload it, probe it for vulnerabilities without our written permission, or get around rate limits, bans or security measures.
• Copy large parts of the Service to build a competing product or dataset.

We respect intellectual property and respond to valid notices of infringement. See our Copyright Policy for how to report infringement or respond to a notice. We close the accounts of repeat infringers.

The Service links to sources, maps and other sites we don't control. We aren't responsible for their content or practices.

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. Deleting your account removes your profile and the content you posted from the Service, apart from the limited copies described in "What you post".

We may suspend or close your account if you break these Terms. The sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive (such as the license for content already shared, disclaimers, limits of liability and disputes) continue after your account ends.

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, Vigil disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We don't promise the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that any information on it is accurate or current.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Vigil will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service, including your visits to any place listed on it. Vigil's total liability for any claim about the Service is limited to one hundred US dollars (US$100).

Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

If someone brings a claim against Vigil because of your content, your conduct, or your breach of these Terms, you agree to cover Vigil's reasonable costs and losses from that claim, to the extent the law allows.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to its conflict of law rules. Any dispute about the Service will be resolved in the state or federal courts located there, and you and Vigil agree to those courts' jurisdiction. Before filing a claim, please contact us at legal@joinvigil.app so we can try to resolve it informally.

We may update these Terms as the Service changes. If a change is material, we'll give notice on the Service or by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

Questions about these Terms: legal@joinvigil.app.