Grow a Dandelion is a place for creative works in the Chinese and English languages, including original and transformative works in the forms of mathematical problems, writing, visual arts, music, and other media.

What We Believe

  1. Our goal is to build an online community for Chinese and English creators of mathematical problems, writing, visual art, music, and other creative arts for a youth audience of 8-18 years of age in order to promote creative explorations in youth.
  2. We do not sell the data that you post on, submit to or share on “Dandelion Education Sites” (“DE Sites” for short, namely growadandelion.ca and other future affiliated sites) to third parties, and we do not include or accept paid advertisements from third parties. Each of the DE Sites has Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy that explains what information we collect, how we use it and who we share it with; your use of any of the DE Sites is governed by that site’s Terms and Policy.

There are five parts to the Terms of Service (ToS):

  1. General Principles
  2. Age Policy
  3. Privacy Policy
  4. Content and Abuse Policies
  5. Assorted Specialized Policies

I. General Principles

A. The legalese: including where a lawsuit would be filed, when, and under what law

The ToS constitute the entire agreement between you and Dandelion Education Inc. (DE) and govern your use of the Grow a Dandelion service (hereinafter “Service”, “GaD” ). It takes the place of all prior agreements between you and DE concerning your use of the Service. It does not govern your use of other DE sites and/or projects including future affiliated sites, all of which will be covered under separate agreements hosted on each of the DE Sites.

The GaD ToS, the relationship between you and DE, and all disputes arising out of or related to it, shall be governed by the laws of Canada and specifically the Province of British Columbia, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

You and the GaD agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the City of Vancouver, BC, and to waive any objection to the laying of venue there.

DE’s failure to enforce any part of the ToS will not waive the DE’s ability to enforce it, and any waiver with regard to a specific instance shall not constitute a waiver of any other breaches of the ToS, even with regard to the same user.

If any provision of the ToS is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, you agree that the court should give effect to the party’s intentions as reflected in the provision, and that the other provisions of the ToS remain in full force and effect.

You agree that, regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of GaD or the ToS must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

B. You agree to the Terms of Service

  1. Grow a Dandelion hosts and shares content created for youth. Our Privacy Policy is a part of these Terms of Service and is contained in Section III of these Terms of Service. By submitting a work, comment, image, tag, item of information including personally identifying information like an email address, User Name, link, embedded image, audio file or video, or any other form of content (“Content”) to GaD, or by creating a User Account and/or by viewing any Content on GaD, you affirm, confirm and state that you comply with and assent to the ToS, which incorporates the GaD Privacy Policy.
  2. We may update the ToS as necessary. The updates will be made to the ToS page as they become available.  Please regularly visit the ToS page for updates.

Subject to amendments of the update process by DE, this is the only means by which the Terms of Service may be altered. The Terms of Service cannot be changed by, e.g., emails or oral communications with you.

C. Potential problems with the Service

  1. DE provides services, including Grow a Dandelion, on an “as is” and “as available” basis. DE does not warrant (that is, does not make a legally binding promise) that our services will meet your requirements; that our services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; or that the results you get from using the services will be accurate, reliable, or satisfactory to you. We will endeavor to provide the best possible service to users of the Service, but many things (e.g., possible outages, hackings, etc.) are not within our control and we cannot provide for all eventualities. In the event we learn of a breach of personally identifying information that users have submitted to the Service, we will notify affected users as soon as practicable.
  2. Any material you download, view, or otherwise access through the Service is at your own risk. You will be solely responsible for any damage or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.
  3. DE expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The ToS govern your use of the Service, and therefore no communication from anyone associated with DE will create any warranty that isn’t expressly stated in the ToS.
  4. You expressly agree that DE shall not be liable to you for any damages of any kind (even if DE has been advised of the possibility of such damages) resulting from the Service, including but not limited to your use of or inability to use the Service; unauthorized access to or changes in Content or information you submit; and the acts and statements of third parties who use the Service.
  5. You agree that DE shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of or limitation on your access to GaD. DE may change, end, or put on hiatus the Service, or parts of its Services, at any time.
  6. You agree that DE shall not be liable to you for any claim arising out of Content you make available, your use of the Service, your connection to the Service, your use of the ToS, or your violation of any rights of another.

In other words, DE is not liable to you for allowing you to post Content, download Content, use the Service, or interact with GaD. DE does not assume whatever legal risks you face by posting, viewing, or doing other things with Content.

D. What you can’t do:

You agree not to use the Service (as well as the e-mail addresses and URLs of DE Sites):

  1. to make available any Content or work that violates the Content Policy;
  2. to impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a GaD or DE representative or volunteer, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity (fiction marked as such, including real-person fiction in first-person format, is not subject to this policy);
  3. to forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted to or through the Service or any DE Content, sites, servers, networks, or services (headers and identifiers are defined as information actually used or intended to be used to route or authenticate Content, and do not include Content that simulates identifiers as part of a story, such as a fictional e-mail exchange);
  4. to make available any Content that a court has ruled constitutes patent, trademark, trade secret or copyright infringement (please be aware of DE’s position on fanwork legality);
  5. to make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising (defined as solicitations for direct or indirect commercial advantage), junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation;
  6. to make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  7. to interfere with or disrupt the Service, any DE-hosted Content or sites, servers, Services or networks connected to DE sites;
  8. to create an account if you are a resident or national of any country to which Canada has prohibited transactions by mandating a trade embargo;
  9. to create an account if you are under the age of thirteen;
  10. to create an account if you are: between the ages of 13 and 16, and a resident or citizen of a country, including a European Economic Area country that states an age that is older than yours is required to consent to the processing of personal data without our obtaining written permission from a parent or legal guardian under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

A list of countries that apply the GDPR can be found here. Each user is responsible for knowing the laws of their own country.

  1. to use DE services to break any law that applies to you, including any rules or regulations having the force of law. Just by way of example, do not use the services to disseminate restricted technologies or violate laws governing the export of technical data. This provision is not intended to deal with matters subject to the Content Policy, but the Content Policy cannot cover every law in every country. As a general matter, GaD follows Canadian law. Content that is alleged to violate the law of a relevant jurisdiction will be dealt with according to the procedures established in the Abuse Policy.

E. Content you see through use of the Service:

  1. DE or users of its services may provide links to or content via sites that are owned or controlled by third parties, and may use such sites, including Twitter and Tumblr, to communicate information about DE and its family of sites. DE has no control over such sites or their terms of use or privacy policies, and you agree that DE is not responsible for and does not endorse their content, terms or availability.
  2. While we limit the types of embedded content visible or accessible via GaD-hosted Content, some of the content and/or works that you see displayed at GaD are not hosted on GaD or by DE. Such embedded content can include videos, tweets, images that are hosted by third-party sites, or audio files (“User-Embedded Content”). If you access a page that includes User-Embedded Content, the content file may share data with the hosted site as if you were on or at the hosted site. Although all visible Content, including embedded images or other works, must comply with our Content Policy, User-Embedded Content is not otherwise governed by these Terms of Use or the GaD Privacy Policy, and instead is covered by the Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy of the service that hosts the User-Embedded Content. GaD reserves the right to provide an indicator to users that User-Embedded Content is present on or visible via your Content.
  3. You understand that DE does not prescreen Content or review it for purposes of compliance with the ToS. This includes but is not limited to work information, a work’s content, text, graphics, comments, or any other material. Content, including User-Embedded Content, is the sole responsibility of the submitter. You understand that using GaD may expose you to material that is offensive, triggering, erroneous, blasphemous, objectionable, grammatically incorrect, or badly spelled.
  4. You recognize that DE does not endorse Content on GaD in any way, except when material appears as an official statement of DE. No committee members, officers, or directors of DE are acting in an official capacity when they post works, commentary, or other Content of the type generally provided by site users.
  5. DE is not liable to you for any Content to which you are exposed on or because of GaD.

F. Valid e-mail address:

  1. As part of your registration, you agree to provide an accurate and current e-mail address and to update the address as necessary. If your e-mail address is inaccurate or not current, GaD may suspend your account. Content provided by suspended accounts before the suspension will not be removed unless DE reasonably believes that presence/inclusion of said Content exposes GaD and/or DE to liability.
  1. We reserve the right to share your e-mail address with the owners and/or moderators of any event that you sign up for.

G. What we do with Content:

DE does not claim any ownership or copyright in your Content. Repeat: we do not own your Content. Nothing in this agreement changes that in any way. Running GaD, however, requires us to make copies, and backup copies, on servers that may be located anywhere around the world.

  1. You agree that we can make those copies and show your Content to other people. Specifically, by submitting Content, you grant DE a world-wide, royalty-free, nonexclusive license to make your Content available. “Making available” includes distributing, reproducing, performing, displaying, compiling, and modifying or adapting.

Modifying and adapting here refer strictly to how your work is displayed—not how it is written, drawn, or otherwise created. But because your Content may be transmitted over various networks, we may have to make changes to the formatting or display of your Content in order to adapt to the technical requirements of different networks or devices. Multimedia content may not display properly on all devices. In some circumstances, we may make changes to improve accessibility. For example, we may automatically convert html tags to our standard forms (e.g., changing “bold” html to “strong”). Or we may make special provisions for accessibility, such as allowing you to use nonstandard fonts but also providing an alternate format for those who cannot read such fonts. We may use an internal search engine whose results display relevant snippets from your Content.

User-provided tags are subject to organization, which is a process we call tag wrangling.

  1. Subject to the next paragraph of this policy, this license exists only for as long as you choose to continue to include such Content on GaD and will terminate within a reasonable time after you remove or DE removes such Content from GaD. We will always strive to make your Content unavailable to users as soon as possible should you choose to remove it. Though removed Content will not be publicly available, for legal and disaster recovery purposes we may retain backup copies for longer periods.
  2. You may provide Content to a part of GaD that you do not completely control. For example, you may decide to participate in a challenge run by another user. Or you may provide Content to a part of GaD where your Content can be deleted by other users, for example a Comments page. Where this is the case, by submitting Content to those parts of the Service, you agree to the rules for removing and retaining such Content on those parts of the Service.
  3. You acknowledge and agree that DE may preserve Content and may disclose Content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: comply with legal process; enforce the ToS; respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties; or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of DE services’ users and the public.

H. Data and Content Processing

GaD and DE exist to host Content by creative people like you. In order to host or share your works, as well as comments and whatever you put into your User Profile, we have to process certain data and information including personally identifying information that we collect from Users, and that each User inputs. In order to operate the site, host DE and user Content, and prevent technical issues and breaches, we need to process (e.g. collect, store, retrieve, disseminate, make available, and delete) certain data and information including personally identifying information, also known as “Personal Data”. Personal Data includes your username, your email address, your IP information and any personally identifying information you enter on GaD, including information that you put into your profile, a work’s notes or tags, into the body of a work or other Content itself.

By using the site, you consent to our collection, processing, retention and display of your Content as set forth and explained in these Terms of Use so we can operate, manage, display and share the creativity on GaD; if we believe that using, retaining and/or sharing that information is necessary to preserve the integrity of GaD and the Content that we host; for legitimate legal and/or accounting audit purposes; when we have a good faith belief it is required by law, such as pursuant to a subpoena or other legal process; or when we have a good faith belief that doing so will help prevent imminent harm to someone.

II. GaD Age Policy

This Age Policy covers GaD’s treatment of (a) users who are residents or citizens of the European Union and of the age where consent of a parent or legal guardian is required for the processing of personal data of children including email addresses and IP addresses, as well as certain uses of cookies; and (b) users who are under the age of thirteen (13) and residents or citizens of any other country.

In compliance with United States regulations regarding online privacy for children, GaD does not knowingly solicit or collect information from children under the age of thirteen (13). Children under the age of thirteen (13) are therefore not permitted to have an account or upload Content of any type to GaD. By submitting Content to GaD, you thereby confirm that you are thirteen (13) years old or older.

Asking a parent or legal guardian to upload Content does not constitute submitting Content under this policy. If you are under the age of thirteen (13) and not an Age-Barred Individual (as defined below), your parent or legal guardian may upload your Content through their account.

We as an organization have opted to protect teen users’ privacy. As a result, we cannot receive or host Content from individuals that we know are under the age of sixteen (16) and residents/citizens of the European Union, unless they are residents/citizens of the EU countries that allow the collection of Special Categories of Personal Data from those at a younger age and are old enough to consent to the collection of Special Categories of Personal Data in their own country. Any individual who is between the ages of 13 and 16 and a resident or citizen of a country, including a European Economic Area country, that states an age that is older than theirs is required to consent to the processing of personal data without our obtaining written permission from a parent or legal guardian under the GDPR (“Age-Barred Individual”) may not maintain accounts or submit Content. GaD Personnel may, in their reasonable discretion, hide and/or delete accounts held by and/or Content submitted by Age-Barred Individuals.

III. GaD Privacy Policy

A. Who runs GaD

GaD is a project of Dandelion Education Inc.(DE), which is committed to creator privacy. For more information about how you can support DE, please see the DE Website. This Privacy Policy governs GaD.

B. This ToS, including the Privacy Policy, applies only to GaD

This Privacy Policy covers GaD’s treatment of personally identifying information submitted to us, and which we collect when you use our services in the course of ordinary communications. Each site or Service hosted by DE has its own Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. DE or users of its Services may provide links to or content via sites that are owned or controlled by third parties, and may use such sites, including Twitter and Tumblr, to communicate information about DE and its family of sites including GaD. DE has no control over such sites or their terms of use or privacy policies, and you agree that DE is not responsible for and does not endorse their content, terms or availability. If you follow links off GaD, you should review those sites’ privacy policies, which may be different, and for which GaD takes no responsibility.

C. About possible changes:

If these Terms of Service and/or this Privacy Policy change at any point in the future, we will post the policy changes to the Grow a Dandelion. Such changes will be used only for information provided by those who have visited, used, or accessed the Service after the effective date of such policy changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at the GaD site periodically to review the policies.

D. GaD adherence to the ToS:

If you feel that this Service is not following its stated information policy, please contact GaD personnel.

E. What we will do:

  1. Any information you include in your work, comment, profile, update, excerpt, or other Content, including information about your religious views, political views or your sexual identity, or any personally identifying information such as your email address, location, or account User Name for other sites will be accessible by the general public. If you save the Content in Draft form, it will be accessible by certain GaD personnel.
  2. We may collect personally identifying information such as your IP address and e-mail address when you request a GaD invitation, register for a user account with GaD, visit any of the sites and services that are part of the DE family of sites, or use any of GaD’s Services. We may use third-party services to store, process, or transmit data, or perform other technical functions related to operating the Service. These services may include spam detectors, backup services, icon hosting, and e-mail services. We cannot guarantee other services’ performance. We or the services we use may store or process your personally identifying information in data centers which may be located anywhere in the world.
  3. We will use your email address internally for purposes of managing GaD and maintaining site integrity. We may occasionally send emails to you from GaD about your Content and account, GaD, as well as news that we reasonably believe to be of interest to our registered users; we will send you your invitation to register for GaD via email as well. By creating and maintaining a User Account on and with GaD, you consent to receiving such emails. We reserve the right to send you notice of complaints raised against you, or alleged violations by you of the Terms of Service, as well as to reply to any email message you send to GaD and/or its personnel. If you choose to participate in an event, the event maintainer(s) may have access to your e-mail address for purposes of communicating with you.
  4. We collect, process and retain the following data for the following reasons:
    1. E-mail Addresses: We collect email addresses of and from those who communicate with us via email and any Content or Personal Data included in emails to us. We need this information so we can respond to you, and so we can handle complaints about the Service and any users who may have violated the Terms of Use or other policies, and for other legal and accounting/audit reasons including maintaining the integrity of GaD and the Content that we host;
    2. User-Specific Information: We collect information about what pages users access or visit including your interactions with integral GaD features such as Comments, Updates and the tags that you “favorite”, as well as referral information (i.e. data about what site you are coming to GaD from) and whether there are errors in displaying Content to you. We need this information to maintain the integrity of the site, the Service and the Content that we host; to provide you with the Content that you are seeking, and for other legal and accounting/audit reasons.
      1. You consent to our collection, processing, retention and display of your Content, including personal data, when you upload a work that is available to the general public. We need such consent because your purpose in and reason for uploading Content to GaD is for that Content to be visible to the general public.
      2. You consent to our collection, processing and retention of your Content, and personal information connected therewith, including display to you and certain GaD personnel when you upload a work in “Draft” form. We need such consent because your purpose in and reason for uploading such Draft Content to GaD is for that Content to be accessible to you at a later date. In order for that Content to be available to you, it also needs to be accessible to those on the GaD team who have access to our servers, and to DE, GaD administration and Legal committees if necessary to enforce these Terms of Service and maintain the integrity of the Service.
      3. You consent to our collection, processing, retention and display of personal information and Content you submit for inclusion on your Profile Page. We need such consent because your purpose in and reason for including information in your Profile is for that Content to be visible to the general public.
      4. You consent to our collection, processing, retention and display of text that you submit as Comments, as well as your personal information associated therewith. We need such consent because your purpose in and reason for submitting a Comment is for that Content to be visible to the general public.
  5. IP Addresses: we collect and process the IP addresses of GaD visitors, including registered users. We need this information so we can provide you with the Content that you are requesting, to allow you to submit Comments, Content and Profile information, and for other legal and accounting audit reasons including maintaining the integrity of GaD and the Content that we host. Certain IP information may be collected by the server for log purposes and used for limited technical assessments of the Service.
  6. Logs: We collect and process Logs of server interactions, as well as event logs. We need this information for legal and accounting/audit reasons, including maintaining the integrity of GaD and the Content that we host.
  7. Cookies: We use cookies to collect and store visitors’ preferences; customize web pages’ content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends; and record activity at GaD in order to provide better service when visitors return to our site. Cookies must be enabled for GaD to function properly with your computer. GaD has no access to cookies set by other sites.
  8. If for any reason you terminate your user account with us, we will destroy active records containing your Personal Data as soon as reasonably possible. “Reasonably” here means no more than thirty business days from the termination of the account; however, we may have to retain some information for a longer period as legal records or for auditing purposes. If we terminate your service, we may retain enough information to prevent you from signing up for the service in the future. If you delete Content from GaD, it will not be recoverable.
  9. If we receive a complaint about a violation of someone’s intellectual property rights, we reserve the right to disclose the information provided by the rightsholder or the rightsholder’s representative to the subject of the complaint. If we receive a complaint about other matters, such as plagiarism or harassment, we will follow the Abuse Policy, which explains what information provided by the complainant may be disclosed to the subject of the complaint.

F. What we will not do:

  1. DE will not provide any third party with any of your personal information or any of the information we collect, except as provided under our Terms of Service. We will not use your personally identifying information to market third party products and services to you via GaD.
  2. We will not sell, trade, or rent your personally identifying information. Except as provided under this policy, we will not disclose your personally identifying information to any third party without your prior consent unless we (1) are legally compelled to do so, (2) have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order, or legal process served on DE, or (3) are cooperating with law enforcement authorities. As to (3), we will cooperate with all investigations conducted by law enforcement authorities within Canada when legally required to do so. Cooperation with law enforcement authorities from other countries and cooperation when it is not legally required are at our sole discretion. Our discretion looks favorably on freedom and justice, and unfavorably on oppression and violence.
  3. Unless legally prohibited, we will attempt to notify you any time we disclose your personally identifying information to a third party. In some cases, the information we have, such as an IP address, may be insufficient for us to notify you.

IV. Content and Abuse Policies

We recognize that there is no such thing as a popular abuse policy. By their nature, abuse complaints are unpleasant at best. And policy needs to be applied by people, which always complicates matters. We have tried to set out clear procedures to minimize and channel the inevitable conflicts.

The Content and Abuse Policy covers procedures, spam and commercial promotion, threatening the technical integrity of the site, copyright, plagiarism, personal information and fannish identities, harassment, illegal and inappropriate content, and ratings and warnings.

GaD does not prescreen for content. Complaints are investigated only when they are submitted through the appropriate channels and with the appropriate information.

A. Procedures

  1. Submitting a complaint

Complaints may be submitted to the GaD administration. Except in the case of copyright complaints, a complainant may submit a complaint via the GaD administration email. Depending on the nature of the complaint, anonymity of the complainant may hinder our ability to examine and/or verify the complaint. In order for personnel to follow up on any allegation, the exact location (URL) and nature of the alleged violation must be supplied in the original complaint. Repeated unverified complaints from the same source may be subject to summary rejection.

  1. Treatment and investigation of complaints

Only people who need to know about a complaint will be informed about it. The details of any individual complaint are confidential and must be used only in resolving that complaint.

The subject of a complaint may also be among those who need to know about it. Only information provided in the complaint will be passed on. The complainant has complete control over what information is submitted to GaD administration, and can submit a complaint pseudonymously. (Legal names and other information sufficient to identify a person in the physical world will never be disclosed as part of a standard abuse complaint. For further clarification, please refer to our privacy policy.)

In general, the GaD administration will only communicate with the subject of a complaint if there appears to be a violation of site policy, or if personnel need more information to resolve the issue.

The GaD administration records the IP address from which each complaint is submitted, to prevent misuse of the system and/or Service.

Subject to obligations of confidentiality about specific complaints, the GaD administration may release statistics about general trends, such as the number of plagiarism complaints made and the actions taken by the admin, in public to facilitate discussions of policies, procedures, and trends in complaints.

When the GaD administration determine that Content needs to be removed for reasons other than violation of the Age Policy by Age-Barred Individuals, the admin will identify the nature of the problem with the Content, and set a deadline for voluntary removal of the Content. An administrator may also hide Content from other users where appropriate. If the original poster does not remove the Content within the deadline, the Archive will remove the Content. In addition, we may remove Content immediately, without waiting for a response, if we are contacted by a legitimate law enforcement agency or if we determine that the Content is threatening to an individual or reveals an individual’s personal information without consent. In such cases we will inform the original poster as soon as possible. The original poster will then have the option to resubmit with the violating Content removed.

The GaD administration may also determine that tags need to be added to or edited in an item of Content. For more information, please see the ratings/warnings section.

If Content violating the ToS is posted with invalid contact information, it will be removed without prior notice.

If the complainant requests notification of the resolution of the complaint and provides contact information, we will notify them.

  1. Submitting an appeal

The complainant or the original poster may appeal a decision to the GaD administration as a whole. During the appeal, the original decision will remain in effect. We will attempt to resolve appeals as speedily as possible, but please remember that the GaD administration is entirely comprised of volunteers. The admin’s decisions are final unless overturned by itself at its sole discretion.

  1. Account statuses

“Account status” refers to the existence of warnings on an account and whether that account has been suspended, temporarily or permanently.

The GaD administration may issue warnings when it determines that a violation of the ToS was minor or unintentional. More serious, intentional, or repeated violations of the ToS will trigger suspensions. A suspension will generally be for a defined period of time, such as a month. The admin may also permanently suspend users when it determines that such action is justified. Permanent suspensions for violations other than spam, violation of GaD’s Age Policy by Age-Barred Individuals, or threatening the technical integrity of the site require a majority vote of the admin. The admin’s discretion will be informed by the nature of the violation and the response of the user, including the user’s decision to voluntarily remove, modify or edit the Content that violates the ToS.

A user whose account has been permanently suspended for reasons other than age may not rejoin under another identity.

Where possible, we encourage users to try mediating disputes before contacting GaD administration. We provide tools for registered users to control Content that is uploaded in their own spaces. For example, users are able to delete comments on their own stories. If you are unable to resolve the problem on your own, you can file a complaint with GaD administration.

In some cases, objectionable Content may have already been deleted before the GaD administration acts. We appreciate good faith attempts to resolve disputes, and in most such cases will close the complaint with no further action. However, we reserve the right to consider individual circumstances, including whether the poster has engaged in a pattern of such conduct. In such cases, if we verify that the original Content violated the ToS, we may still decide to warn or suspend the original poster.

Penalties apply to users, not to screen names/pseudonyms. Penalties are not retroactive: a suspended user’s nonobjectionable Content will not be automatically removed unless the user is an Age-Barred Individual. Suspended users retain the right to delete or Orphan their fanworks by contacting GaD administrators.

B. Spam and commercial promotion

Promotion of commercial products or activities is not allowed except in the Biography section of the user profile (which is displayed on the right side bar of published posts). Repeated identical or nearly identical posts in multiple places, e.g., a large number of identical comments promoting a website, will also be considered spam regardless of commercial content.

Anything we determine is spam will be removed immediately. Users may be permanently suspended for spam the first time they post spam content.

In general, unsolicited commercial activity is not permitted on GaD except in the Biography section of the user profile. GaD administration has discretion to decide that a content-related offer was mistakenly disseminated and issue a warning instead of a suspension.

Any spam- or commercial activity-related penalties may be appealed using the ordinary appeal process.

We may use automated means to filter out spam. If you submit Content that is erroneously caught in a spam filter, please notify GaD administrators.

C. Threatening the technical integrity of the Service

Conduct that threatens the technical integrity of GaD, e.g. attempts to hack the Service or spread viruses through it, will result in an immediate account suspension and deletion of any Content that is hazardous to the operation of the Service or to users’ computers. Users may be permanently suspended for threatening the technical integrity of GaD the first time they do so. Such suspensions may be appealed using the ordinary appeal process.

Uploading technically misnamed files or Content—e.g., non-image files with an image file extension used to disguise their actual format—constitutes a threat to the technical integrity of the site.

D. Copyright and Trademark

Please be aware that DE believes that transformative fanworks are legal; therefore, complaints based merely on the existence of fanwork based on copyrighted content or mentioning trademarks will not be pursued.

If you believe that your content has been reproduced in whole or in part, without transformative use (transformative use is defined by DE as adding something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the source with new expression, meaning, or message), please follow our procedures for reporting copyright infringement.

The report must clearly and specifically indicate the exact location (URL), nature, and extent of each instance of allegedly infringing content, as well as the exact copyrighted material that is being infringed, as well as full and complete contact information for the copyright holder and/or an authorized agent.

Epigraphs and short quotations, including quotations from song lyrics and poetry, are allowed. Content that is set within or draws on an existing work is allowed. Reproductions of entire copyrighted works—whether songs, poems, transcripts, or other material—are not allowed without the consent of the copyright owner.

E. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an often-contested and fuzzy concept, and no definition will satisfy everyone. Our aim is to be transparent and fair in resolving disputes.

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or concepts without properly attributing those words or concepts to their original source. Simply finding and replacing names, substituting synonyms, or rearranging a few words is not enough to make the work original to you. Deliberately writing a work using the same general idea as another work is not plagiarism, but citation is always appreciated. Generally, quotes from the source material (canon) on which the Content is based will not constitute plagiarism, nor will obvious allusions (“Use the Force, Luke!”). However, when in doubt, cite. Be aware that the GaD administration may decide that your citation is not sufficient to render the work your own; a mere nod to another author whose work you are presenting as your own may result in a judgment of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a violation of the ToS and will incur the penalties described in the Abuse Policy. As with all Content that violates the ToS, plagiarized Content must be removed. Depending on the type and amount of plagiarized Content, this might entail removing an entire piece of Content, removing only the plagiarized portions from a longer work while leaving the original material, or adding citations.

If you believe a work posted on GaD plagiarizes another work, please report the work to GaD administration. In order to allow us to investigate, please provide a link to the work on GaD, relevant excerpts, and a specific citation of the original material (for example, a URL or a book edition and page number).

F. Personal information and onsite identities

  1. DE is committed to protecting the privacy of our users, including the separation many users choose to keep between their legal, “real life” names and their onsite pseudonyms. Unauthorized disclosure of a user’s personal information and/or data which is included within the definition of Special Categories of Personal Data violates the Terms of Service. For these purposes, “personal information” may include legal names and other information sufficient to identify a person in the physical world that they have not voluntarily shared on GaD itself. “Personal information” may also include the identity of the creator of an anonymously submitted work. GaD reserves the right to delete, hide, mask or otherwise make unavailable to the general public any personal information and/or data which is included within the definition of Special Categories of Personal Data.
  2. If you are a resident or citizen of the European Community, you can request that DE assemble the data about you that it has in our archive, and provide a copy in electronic format to you; we agree to provide such data to you within a reasonable time.

G. Harassment

Harassment is any behavior that produces a generally hostile environment for its target. This includes activities such as bullying and hazing by groups of people as well as personal attacks by individuals. Not everyone agrees about what is offensive and unacceptable. Individual users are encouraged to try to resolve problems on their own before contacting the GaD administration.

Harassment is not allowed. Users engaging in this behavior may be warned, suspended, or permanently suspended as described in the general abuse procedure.

When judging whether a specific incident constitutes harassment, the admin will consider factors such as whether the behavior was repeated, whether it was repeated after the offender was asked to stop, whether the behavior was targeted at a specific person, whether that target could have easily avoided encountering the behavior, whether the behavior would be considered unacceptable according to normal community standards, etc. Additionally, making complaints that are both (a) repeated and (b) baseless, particularly those targeting a specific user, can be considered harassing behavior and may be deemed a violation of the ToS.

While these complaints will be reviewed on a case by case basis, in general, threatening Content will be considered harassment, while Content that is merely annoying will be allowed. Please note that most statements like “X is a terrible actor and should die!” are not death threats. Writing a story where X dies as part of the plot is also not usually a death threat. Content that is harder to avoid (such as comments on the target’s works) will be judged more strictly than Content that is easily avoidable (such as stories).

The behavior of the original poster (the complaint subject) may also affect the admin’s determination. If the original poster repeatedly contacts the subject of the Content about the Content after being told to stop, harasses the subject, or requests that others harass the subject, the Content may be considered part of a general pattern of harassment and be removed. Please use your best judgment both when producing Content of this type and when reporting it.

A special note on RPF (real-person fiction):

Writing RPF (real-person fiction) never constitutes harassment in and of itself. However, Content that advocates specific, real harmful actions towards real people is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, death threats and requests for readers to harass specific people. If you find Content that you believe contains harassing or threatening material, please contact the GaD administration. As Real-Person Fiction is fictional, generally GaD policy will be that Content in RPF that would be deemed Personal Data and/or Special Categories of Personal Data (e.g. full names, usernames on social media services, city of residence, birth date) will not be considered as such. However, if information that is accurate, non-public and not that of the User is included (i.e. non-public phone numbers, residential addresses, email addresses or hotel room numbers) the work can be removed from public view by the GaD administration in its sole discretion.

H. Illegal and inappropriate Content

Grow a Dandelion is a place for works intended for children and youth. Content may not be uploaded to DE’s servers if it contains or links to sexually explicit material; warez, cracks, hacks or other executable files and their associated utilities; trade secrets, restricted technologies, or classified information; or if it consists entirely of actual instruction manuals, technical data, recipes, or non-creative work. Uploading such Content is a violation of the ToS.

We may determine that we need to remove Content to resolve a threatened or pending lawsuit or mitigate other liability. If so, we will remove the Content. Unless said Content or data otherwise violates the ToS or was submitted by an Age-Barred Individual, removal for such reasons will not lead to a suspension.

If you believe Content violates a specific law, you may report it to us. Please, however, read our Offensive Content Policy below.

I. Offensive Content Policy

As provided in part I.E.3 of the Terms of Service, DE is not liable to you for any Content to which you are exposed on or because of the Service.

Unless it violates some other policy, we will not remove Content for offensiveness, no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may personally find that Content to be.

J. User Icons and Usernames

User icons and usernames should be appropriate for general audiences. They should not contain graphic depictions of violence or explicit sexual content.

K. Tags

All visitors will see GaD categories, tags, languages, and progress the creator has selected.

  1. Categories

It is our policy to defer to creators’ categorizations, but we reserve the right to recategorize a work in the situations described above.

A recategorization decision is appealable through the ordinary appeals process.

A recategorization of a work will not result in suspension of a user’s account, unless it is a repeated pattern for a single user, in which case it may be treated as grounds for a suspension. Moreover, if a creator unilaterally reverses a recategorization, without agreement from the GaD administration, that will be treated as grounds for a suspension.

  1. Tags

It is our policy to defer to creators’ categorizations, but we reserve the right to manually recategorize GaD tags. A manual recategorization or removal of a tag will not result in suspension of a user’s account, unless it is a repeated pattern for a single user, in which case it may be treated as grounds for a suspension. Moreover, if a creator unilaterally reverses a manual recategorization or removal, without agreement from the admin, that will be treated as grounds for a suspension.

  1. Languages
    • GaD uses the following language tags:
      • English
      • 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
      • 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
    • As a rule, the creator controls the language tag.
    • Please note that the language tag you choose for your work will determine how the displayed Word Count for the post is calculated. The Word Count of an English post is approximately the number of spaces, returns, tabs, or other spacing characters following a non-spacing character (including alphanumerical characters and other symbols). The Word Count of a post with one of the Chinese language tags is approximately the number of non-spacing characters in the post.
  2. Progress
    • GaD uses the following progress tags:
      • Complete
      • Incomplete
    • As a rule, the creator controls the progress tag.

V. Assorted Policies

A. User next-of-kin

Registered GaD users may designate a user next-of-kin. A next-of-kin agreement allows the transfer of Content maintenance in the case of a user’s permanent incapacitation or death.

Both parties to the agreement must be registered users of GaD.

GaD’s role in this agreement is only to act as a facilitator. If the person designated as the user next-of-kin activates the agreement by sending a message to GaD, GaD will not do any independent investigation to confirm the necessity for the transfer.

A user next-of-kin agreement is confidential and accessible only by designated members of the GaD administration, who may only use it for purposes of implementing the agreement.

B. Deleting Data

  1. Deleting Your Account:

Deletion of an account is a way for a user to withdraw their consent for GaD to continue hosting their Content.

  1. If you delete Content, such Content will be unrecoverable via the Service.

Material in this ToS has been drawn from ArchiveOfOurOwn.org.

Last modified: May 5th, 2020