Terms of Use

Welcome to StoryForage! These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the StoryForage platform (“we,” “us,” or “our”), including our website, services, and any associated content. By creating an account, uploading content, or using StoryForage in any way, you agree to these Terms.

1. Eligibility

You must be 13 years or older to use StoryForage.

2. User Accounts

• Provide accurate and complete information during registration
• Keep your login credentials secure
• Accept full responsibility for activity under your account

3. Author, Contest, and Feed Content

By uploading or posting content — including book uploads, contest entries, and Feed posts, comments, or photos — you confirm that:

• You own or have the rights to distribute the content
• It doesn't infringe third-party rights
• You grant us rights to store, display, and deliver your content

Writing contests may be judged, community-scored, or run as a collaborative “Telephone” chain where a story is passed between multiple writers in turn. Some contests award real prizes (including gift cards); prize eligibility, value, and delivery are set by the contest's rules at the time you enter, and you're responsible for any taxes owed on a prize you receive.

4. Community Features

You agree not to post anything defamatory, hateful, explicit, or misleading — whether in a book, a contest entry, a Feed post, or a comment. You can block another user to stop seeing their posts and prevent them from interacting with yours.

5. Moderation

Any book can be reported directly from its page. Once a book has been reported 3 times, it automatically pauses for human review — its Author Fund payout eligibility is paused for that book while a real person looks at it, before anything further happens. If review finds no violation, it's unfrozen and cleared. If review confirms a violation of these Terms, the book is removed from the platform and any further payout tied to it is forfeited. If an author has multiple books confirmed to violate these Terms, we may delete the account entirely — a decision made case by case, not automatically.

For anything not covered by in-app reporting — Feed posts, comments, contest entries, or anything else — report it to outreach@storyforage.com.

6. Payments & Refunds

Payments are processed via Stripe. Author payouts follow our posted Payment Information policy. Refund eligibility depends on what you bought:

• Book and chapter purchases are refundable if requested within 7 days of purchase and you've read less than 10% of it — request one directly from your payment history in Account settings, where you'll see immediately whether it qualifies. Outside either of those, it's not eligible.
• Subscriptions (BookDragon, Storyforager) are not refundable. Canceling or downgrading takes effect at your next billing date and can be done anytime from Account settings — there's no lock-in, so there's no refund need.
• Contest credits are not refundable. Buying one requires deliberately adding it to your cart and completing checkout — it's not something that happens by accident.

7. Advertising

StoryForage is supported in part by advertising served through Google AdSense. By using StoryForage, you agree to the display of ads, which may be personalized based on your activity as described in our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the content of third-party advertisements or the sites they link to.

8. Intellectual Property

Platform UI, branding, and code are owned by StoryForage. Don't copy, modify, or redistribute without permission.

9. Termination

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate our terms or community guidelines. Users can request account deletion anytime.

10. Limitation of Liability

We do not guarantee that the platform is error-free or always available. We are not liable for damages related to your use of StoryForage.

11. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. Continued use means you accept the new version.

Questions? Contact us at outreach@storyforage.com