Terms of Service

1. Agreement

By creating an account, signing in, or using Forthwith, you agree to these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree, do not use Forthwith.

2. What Forthwith is

Forthwith is a public participation network. Verified people and accountable organizations publish posts, declare positions, connect to subjects, and use tools to participate and take action together.

Most public posts remain readable without an account. Some features require an account and identity verification.

Forthwith is designed for more accountable participation. We do not promise that the service is completely safe, error-free, or free of harmful content.

3. Who may use Forthwith

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract where you live.

Each person may maintain one contributing account. You may not create duplicate accounts, impersonate another person, or misrepresent your identity.

4. Accounts and verification

When you sign up, you create an account applicant record. You become a member after you finish required verification steps, including identity verification through our provider (currently Stripe Identity).

Identity verified means we have evidence that you are a real, unique human. It does not mean you are honest, expert, trustworthy, or representative of any group.

You are responsible for your sign-in credentials and for activity on your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else accessed your account.

5. How you appear in public

Members choose how each post appears: identified (linked to your profile), pseudonymous (linked to a stable pseudonym), or publicly anonymous (generic public author presentation).

Publicly anonymous does not mean anonymous to Forthwith. We still know which account published the post for accountability, safety, and legal requirements.

You must not use a participation mode to evade moderation, harass others, or violate these terms.

6. Your content

You keep ownership of content you publish. You grant Forthwith a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, and adapt your content as needed to operate the service, including public pages, search, feeds, and backups.

That license continues for content that remains public after you delete your account, only as needed to preserve discussion integrity, moderation records, and legal obligations described in our Privacy Policy.

You represent that you have the rights to post your content and that your content complies with these terms and applicable law.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Break the law or encourage illegal activity.
• Harass, threaten, dox, or abuse others.
• Post spam, malware, or deceptive content.
• Attempt to bypass verification, moderation, security, or rate limits.
• Scrape, crawl, or access the service through unauthorized automated means.
• Misuse contact tools, representative data, or polls to send unsolicited messages or manipulate participation.
• Upload or share child sexual abuse material or content that exploits minors.

8. Moderation and enforcement

We may review content, restrict visibility, remove content, suspend accounts, or take other action to protect people, comply with law, and enforce these terms.

You may flag content you believe violates our rules. We provide status appropriate to your role. We do not guarantee every flag will result in removal.

You may appeal certain moderation decisions where the product provides an appeal path.

9. Third-party services

Forthwith uses third-party providers for authentication, identity verification, payments, hosting, email, analytics, and embedded content. Their terms and privacy practices also apply when you use those features.

Links and embeds to external sites are not controlled by Forthwith. We are not responsible for third-party content or practices.

10. Disclaimers

Forthwith is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Public posts, positions, poll results, and member counts are participation signals, not proof of truth, consensus, expertise, or demographic representativeness.

Representative contact tools use reviewed catalog data. Forthwith does not guarantee delivery, response, or accuracy of contact information.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Forthwith and its operators will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill.

Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of (a) amounts you paid us in the twelve months before the claim or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations. In those cases, our liability is limited to the maximum permitted by law.

12. Suspension, deletion, and survival

You may request account deletion in settings. Deletion starts a grace period before completion. Some public posts and integrity records may remain as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate access if you violate these terms, create risk for others, or where required by law.

Sections that by nature should survive termination (including licenses for retained content, disclaimers, liability limits, and dispute terms) will survive.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page and update the last updated date.

If changes are material, we will provide additional notice where appropriate. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms.

14. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Except where prohibited, you agree that disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Texas, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms: support@forthwith.me