Welcome to “starsrite.com“. These terms of service are a contract between you and starsrite.com (and all it’s affiliates such as “icanrite.com”). By using starsrite.com (the “Site”), and or by creating your account and using the Site to post various content to the community, including stories, poems, books…etc., comments and messages, and or to access and view the content or other user content (together with the Site, the “Services”), you are agreeing to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to any of these terms, you can not use the Services.
starsrite.com is a creative and global community for our users to enjoy. It’s important to respect the values of the community, but remember that you have a right and a responsibility to help uphold those values too. If you see a post with the aim of upsetting a member of our community, please report it to us immediately.
Code of Conduct
- starsritecom is a global community with different opinions and values. That means that everybody is expected to be respectful to other users on the platform. Being patient and empathetic as we learn from the perspective of others is central to the power of storytelling.
- We believe in building trust through our words, actions, and behaviors. Fostering integrity creates a space for bringing out the best in all of us, especially when we can create bridges across different opinions and values.
- If you’re unable to resolve an issue yourself, please report any abusive or inappropriate behavior.
- By being compassionate with each other, we are committed to creating new avenues of empathy, care, and respect for others.
- Constructive comments are welcomed, as long as they are given in a respectful manner. You may read content that you don’t like or agree with, but we are a platform that celebrates diversity, encourages expression, and fosters a safe and creative environment.
- While working to keep our community safer, we try to consider language and context.
- We give opportunities for creators to grow, we enable change through our stories, and we amplify the stories which uplift others.
- At starsrite.com, we are excited to support the flourishing of the imagination, and, as a community, empowering expression and inspiring meaningful connection to those around us is the heart of why we exist.
- As a community and organization, we proactively assess our processes, behaviors, and practices to continuously become more inclusive. We uplift stories, moderate our community, change policies, and engage in transformative discussions at all levels with this in mind.
- We recognize that this is an ongoing process and are committed to continuously enabling change towards an increasingly inclusive community.
- Supported by the right people and the right tools, we are continuously self-reflective as a community, and as an organization. We honor the human rights of everyone who engage with and within starsrite.com. Through our policies, internal teams, and processes, we proactively take action towards preserving these rights as well as act and respond to unjust incidents in a timely manner.
- We are committed to keeping our community safe and want to make sure that the stories being told on starsrite.com do not contribute to real-world harm. We want our community to help us stop the spread of hateful ideas and groups that hurt others.
- It’s important to respect the values of the community, but remember that you have a right and a responsibility to help uphold those values too. If you see a post with the aim of causing harm to another user or community, please report it.
We will hold ourselves accountable for how well we meet these commitments, and we also seek your commitment. Please see below to view the steps we take to embody this Code of Conduct, every day at starsrite.com.
You Need to be 13
starsrite.com Services are only for people 13 years old and over. If we learn someone under 13 is using our Services, we’ll terminate their account.
Please note that some of our writers post Mature (17+) & Adult(18+explicit) sensual or erotic content on our site. However pornography, extreme sexual images or content are not permitted. Posts that contain pornography, extreme sexual images or content, will NOT be published, and will be removed when found, and the writer will be banned from the site.
You Need an Account
You can’t browse very much on the Site or use the Services without registering for an account. To get the most out of the platform, you’ll need to register, choose an account name, and set a password.
You’re responsible for all the activity on your account, and for keeping your password confidential. If you share your account information with anyone, that other person may be able to take control of the account, and we may not be able to determine who is the proper account holder. We will not have any liability to you (or anyone you share your account information with) as a result of your or their actions under those circumstances. If you find out that someone’s used your account without your permission, you should report it to us.
Your Content is Yours
Before posting any content on starsrite.com, it is important that you read and agree with all terms and conditions below. If your content does not comply with these terms and conditions it may be removed at any time.
You own all the rights to the content you create and post on our Services. Of course, if the content wasn’t yours to begin with, putting it on starsrite.com doesn’t make it yours. Don’t submit content you don’t hold the copyright for (unless you have permission, including to grant starsrite.com all the rights outlined in these terms).
When you post content to the site, we need the legal permission under applicable copyright laws to display that content to users of our Services. Legally this means you give us a nonexclusive license to publish your content on our Services, including anything reasonably related to publishing it (like storing, displaying, reformatting, and distributing it). You’ll need to decide how you want to license your story content to the community.
You’re responsible for the content you post. This means you assume all risks related to its publication and display, including someone else’s reliance on its accuracy and any claims relating to intellectual property or other legal rights.
starsrite.com is a free service and to continue to make it free you understand that we enable advertising on the Services, including in connection with the display of your content or other information. We may also use your Content to promote the Services. We will never sell your content to third parties without your explicit permission.
In your use of the Services you may enter into additional terms and conditions and other agreements that alter or override these Terms of Service, such as when you enter a contest or join a special program. In case of any conflict or inconsistency, the terms and conditions of those additional terms and agreements would override these Terms of Service.
Guidelines
At starsrite.com, we set stories free with the goal of creating a safe and comfortable space for everyone to discover and create.
In order to create an inclusive and respectful space, we want to ensure our readers and writers know what type of content they will discover as well as content they can or cannot post!
Before you take off on your writing journey, please take a peek at the following guidelines:
- It’s important to respect and protect feelings, property, and personal information.
- You shouldn’t post anything you might regret in the future, or that your peers, family, or teachers might not want to see online.
If you come across any content that violates our guidelines, let us know by reporting it.
Age Rating Feature
starsrite.com is trying to make the online publishing experience as easy and as rewarding as possible. One of the unique features we have introduced is for writers to rate their own work by age level. Our “Age Rating” feature gives readers more insights as to what they will be expecting to encounter and be aware before they start reading a post or a chapter.
Our “Age Rating” system provides 5 labels which can cover most levels.
– E for Everyone (Content generally suitable for all ages. May contain minimal violence and or infrequent use of mild language.)
– Teens13+ (Content generally suitable for teens 13 years and older. May contain mild violence, suggestive themes, and / or infrequent use of strong language.)
– Mature17+ (Content generally suitable for 17 years and older. May contain intense violence, mild sexual content, and / or use of strong language.)
– Adult18+ (Content generally suitable for 18 years and older. May contain intense violence, explicit sexual content, and / or use of strong language.)
You also have the choice not to label your work if you choose not to. In this case the post or chapter will be labeled as: Rating Pending
Please be aware that the “Age Rating” is assigned by you, the writer and upon the writer’s your discretion. Therefore starsrite.com is not responsible nor accountable for the validity of the writer’s designation.
Marking your story Mature17+ or Adult18+ does not mean that it can contain prohibited content. Posts that contain prohibited content will be removed regardless of their rating.
Mature17+ & Adult 18+ posts are intended for an audience that is 17 or 18 and up respectively. There are restrictions on discovering Mature or Adult posts that help ensure they reach the correct audience. A post may be rated Mature or Adult if it contains any of the following:
- Sex scenes
- Self-harm themes or scenes (including suicide and eating disorders)
- Graphic depictions of violence; including but not limited to: sexual, verbal, emotional and physical abuse.
If you feel that your story fits these guidelines, but may include parts that aren’t appropriate for younger readers, please rate your story accordingly.
What We Remove
The following are not allowed prohibited on starsrite.com. This is not a complete list, and we have the right to remove any content that we find inappropriate. Any content that could put our community at risk will be removed. starsrite.com has the right to close any account or remove content without notice. We do not accept any posts which feature pornography, extreme sexual images or content. Posts that contain references to pornography, extreme sexual images or content are not allowed, will NOT be published, and will be removed when found, and the writer will be banned from the site
Content & Media on starsrite.com
Media includes images, videos, gifs, and sound clips. To help keep starsrite.com a safe space for everyone to create and discover content, we may remove content & images that don’t follow our Guidelines. The following content & Media is not allowed, and will be removed:
- Media containing full exposure of any private parts, such as genitalia, breasts, and buttocks.
- Media displaying sexual intercourse, or any other sexual act, regardless of whether private parts are visible.
- Media displaying self-harm or suicide.
- Images of people posted without their consent, except for public figures and celebrities.
- Any other media starsrite.com deems unfit in our sole discretion.
- Pornographic Content. We consider content to be pornographic when it exists solely for the purpose of sexual stimulation.
- illegal or extreme sex acts. We explicitly prohibits any content which describes illegal or extreme sex acts including, but not limited to, bestiality, necrophilia, incest or child sexual exploitation and abuse material. Such content will be removed.
- Glorification of Sexual Violence is not allowed. We classify non-consensual sexual acts to include rape, sexual assault, kidnapping for sexual purposes, or sexual slavery. The content cannot be encouraging or promoting of non-consensual sex acts.
Self-Harm on starsrite.com
If you are struggling with eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, thoughts of suicide, or other challenges, please reach out to someone or a support group or helplines in your area or country. Keep in mind that reading about self-harm and suicide can be upsetting or triggering. That’s why we want to remind you that:
- Content that encourages or gives instruction on self-harm will be removed.
- Content that contains lots of description on self-harm, and stories that glorify or do not “tell a story” might be removed.
- We want to encourage healthy discussions about these issues, so content about recovery, survival or that portray the negative consequences of self-harm are acceptable.
Violence
There are many forms of violence that can be harmful to our community. We will remove any content or accounts that are intended to shock or disgust our community.
Hate Groups/Extremist Content
We are committed to keeping our community safe. We value diversity and storytelling, so we want to make sure that the stories being told do not contribute to real-world harm. The following guidelines have been developed in order to maintain a positive community. You are not allowed to make physical threats of violence or threats of death towards any individual or group of people. We will not allow stories or individuals that glorify, praise or romanticize current real life violent hate groups, figures, or extremist organizations with violent or hateful intentions. This includes:
- Groups that express a violent mission.
- Organized hate groups.
- Terrorist activity.
- Single event mass shooters/murderers.
Talking About Others
Sharing opinions on stories and the quality or style of writing is ok. We aim to create a safe community for everyone, so be kind, respectful, and please treat others as you would want to be treated, so don’t post any content that:
- Bashes a user purely for personal reasons.
- Reveals any personally identifying information about other people, including private messages, photographs/videos. Due to the fictional nature of stories and the chances of real names being used coincidentally, we are unable to remove a work for having the same or similar name to a real person. Only if there is additional identifying information, such as the city you reside or your work/school, is there a violation of our content guidelines.
- Actively promotes violence or hatred. The promotion of hatred on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation, or content that is intended to bully, threaten, or harass others, is also strictly prohibited. General expressions of opinions are allowed, but they cannot be violent in nature or encourage others to attack icanrite.com community members.
Spam
Any content that advertises products or services unrelated to, or not sanctioned by starsrite.com is not permitted and will be removed.
Our Rights in the Services
We reserve all rights in the Sites’ and the Services look and feel, and in our content. You may not copy or adapt any portion of our code or visual design elements (including logos) without express written permission from icanrite.com or as set out in this clause. Please do not use our logo or trademarks in any way that might suggest we endorses a particular product or service, or you have a business relationship with us.
Please do not alter, stretch, condense, embellish, add sparkles to, or otherwise change our logo in any way.
We may change, terminate, or restrict access to any aspect of the Services, at any time, without notice. We can remove any content you post or submit for any reason. We may access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce the Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect the rights, property or safety of the Services, its users and the public.
How We Deal with Copyright Issues
starsrite.com has adopted a policy toward copyright infringement on the Services in accordance with the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”). While our policy is based on the US law we apply this same policy globally to all jurisdictions in which our Services are available. We reserves the right to remove content alleged to be infringing without prior notice, at our sole discretion, and without liability to you or anyone else. In appropriate circumstances, we will also terminate a user’s account if the user is determined to be a repeat infringer.
We sometimes come across websites that have illegally scraped content from starsrite.com. When we find these sites we do our best to have them shutdown. In order to act on behalf of our users we need to have your legal permission to do that so we ask for it here when you sign up. You authorize us to act as your agent to issue take down notices under the DMCA and/or any other similar legislation that allows for the submission of requests to Internet service providers and any other person involved in the illegal posting for the removal of infringing or allegedly infringing copyright materials that are contained in or displayed on such service providers platforms and/or services.
Things You Should and Shouldn’t Do
Many people use the starsrite.com platform. We expect all of them to behave responsibly and help keep this a nice place. Please review the Code of Conduct (which is part of these Terms of Service), which is designed to ensure that everyone understands what our community is all about and the values we treasure, to create a safe, fun and caring environment for story lovers. Without restricting what’s in the Code of Conduct, don’t do any of these things on the Services:
- Don’t break the law. Don’t take any action that infringes or violates other people’s rights, violates the law, or breaches any contract or legal duty you have toward anyone.
- Don’t harm anyone’s computer. Don’t distribute software viruses, or anything else (code, films, programs) designed to interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or equipment on the Site (whether it belongs to Wattpad or anyone else).
- Don’t try and damage or disrupt starsrite.com. Don’t try to interfere with the proper workings of the Services. Don’t bypass any measures we’ve put in place to secure the Services. Don’t try to damage or get unauthorized access to any system, data, password, or other information. Don’t take any action that imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure, or on our third-party providers. (We determine what’s reasonable.)
- Don’t scrape starsrite.com. Don’t use any kind of software, device or method (whether it’s manual or automated) to “crawl”, “spider” or otherwise remove any content from any part of the Site or Services. Don’t make any use of the Site, content or Services that may have the effect of competing with or displacing the market for the Site, or the Services.
- Don’t steal any content without permission. Don’t change, translate, reproduce, distribute or otherwise create derivative works of any content unless you get explicit consent from the author of that content.
- Don’t steal starsrite.com valuable intellectual property. Don’t take apart or reverse engineer any aspect of the Site or Services in an effort to access things like source code, underlying ideas, or algorithms.
- Don’t make any commercial use of starsrite.com. starsrite.com is for your personal and non-commercial use only. Don’t sell access to the Site or Services in any way. Don’t use the Site or Services for the purpose of advertising any goods or services. The only exception is that you may advertise the sale of your content in e-book or published book form on third party platforms or bookstores.
- Don’t post anything of phonographic nature. At starsrite.com we do not accept any posts or images which feature pornography, extreme sexual images or content. Posts that contain references to pornography, extreme sexual images or content will NOT be published, and will be removed when found, and the writer will be banned from the site
Deleting Your Account
You can permanently delete your account. If you close your account, it will first be deactivated and then deleted. When your account is deactivated, while it is not viewable on starsrite.com, all of your comments and message board posts to the community will remain except that they will be anonymized. For a few months after deactivation it is still possible to restore your account if it was accidentally or wrongfully deactivated, including re-associating your comments and message board posts to your profile. After that, we permanently delete your account from our systems, except that your anonymized comments and message board posts will remain on the Services.
We may suspend or terminate your account or cease providing you with all or part of the Services at any time and for any reason we deem appropriate. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you by the email address associated with your account or the next time you attempt to access your account.
Disclaimers, Limitations of Liability and Indemnification
Each of the subsections below only applies up to the maximum extent permitted under applicable law. Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties or the limitation of liability in contracts, and as a result the contents of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in this section is intended to limit any rights you may have which may not be lawfully limited.
No warranty. Your use of our Services and any content is solely at your own risk and discretion. They are provided to you “as is” and “as available”. That means they don’t come with any warranty of any kind, express or implied. starsrite.com specifically disclaims any implied warranty of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, availability, security, title or non-infringement, and any warranties implied by any course of dealing or performance.
Responsibility for Content. All content, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person who originated such content. We may not monitor or control the content posted via the Services and we cannot take responsibility for such content. We do not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any content or communications posted via the Services or endorse any opinions expressed via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive.
Release. When you use the Services, you release starsrite.com from claims, damages, and demands of every kind — known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed — arising out of or in any way related to (a) disputes between users, or between users and any third party relating to the use of the Services and (b) the Services.
starsrite.com liability to you. starsrite.com won’t be liable to you for any damages that arise from your use of, or in connection with, the Services and any content. This exclusion includes: (a) where the Services are hacked or unavailable, (b) all types of damages (direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary), whatever the type of claim or loss (breach of contract, tort (including negligence), breach of warranty, or any other claim or loss), (c) any lost profits, data or revenues, or (d) any conduct or content of other users or third parties on the Site or the Services. In no event shall Wattpad’s liability for damages be in excess of (in the aggregate) one hundred US dollars ($100.00).
Your liability to starsrite.com. If you do something that gets us sued, or break any of the promises you make in these Terms of Service, you shall compensate us for any liabilities, losses, claims, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and costs) that arise from or relate to your use or misuse of the Services. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to this clause, in which case you agree that you’ll cooperate and help us in asserting any defenses.
Third party websites. The Site and Services may contain links to other websites; for instance, stories, user profiles, and other posts may link to other sites. When you access third-party websites, you do so at your own risk. We don’t control or endorse those sites.
Serving Ads
We make the Services available without charge. To be able to continue to do so, we display third party advertisements and promotions on or in connection with the Service. Since the advertising we provide is based upon information provided by third parties, we will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred by you as a result of any advertisements. Your interactions with advertisers found on or through the Service, including, without limitation, all reliance upon advertising, all commercial transactions and legal obligations associated with such advertisements, are solely between you and the advertisers.
General Terms
Changes. Our Terms of Service may change from time to time. If they do, we’ll let you know about any material changes, either by notifying you on the Site or by sending you an email. Please note that your continued use of the Services after any change means that you agree with, and consent to be bound by, the new Terms of Service. If you disagree with any changes in the Terms of Service and do not wish to be subject to the revised terms, you will need to close your account and/or stop using the Services.
Entire agreement. These Terms of Service (including any document incorporated by reference into them) are the whole agreement between starsrite.com and you concerning the Services, and these Terms of Service supersede and replace any prior agreements between starsrite.com and you regarding the Services.
No waiver and severability. If starsrite.com doesn’t exercise or enforce a particular right or provision under these Terms of Service, that doesn’t mean we’ve waived that right or provision. If any provision of these Terms of Service is held to be invalid or unenforceable, then that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions of these Terms of Service will remain in full force and effect.
Choice of law and jurisdiction. We at starsrite.com encourage you to contact us if you’re having an issue, before resorting to the courts. In the unfortunate situation where legal action does arise, these Terms of Service shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the United Sates of America, without regard to principles of conflicts of laws. You agree that any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Service will take place in the courts of the United States of America.
Assignment. These Terms of Service are personal to you. You can’t assign them, transfer them, or sublicense them unless you get starsrite.com prior written consent. starsrite.com has the right to assign, transfer, or delegate any of its rights and obligations under these Terms of Service without notice and without your consent.