Gifthood Terms of Use

Last updated: [DATE]

Welcome to Gifthood (the "Service"), a community platform that helps neighbors give away and request free items, discoverable by approximate location. These Terms of Use ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Gifthood (the "operator," "we," "us"). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Community Rules, which are incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Who can use Gifthood

• You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of legal majority where you live, to hold an account and post. [Confirm minimum age and any minor-with-guardian policy.]
• You must have a valid atproto identity (such as a Bluesky handle). You sign in through your own identity provider; we never collect or store your password.
• You're responsible for activity that happens under your identity.

2. What Gifthood is — and is not

Gifthood is a listing and discovery service. We help people find each other; we are not a party to any exchange, gift, transaction, or meeting that results from using the Service.

• No sales, no money. Gifthood is for giving items away for free. Selling, trading, renting, bartering, or soliciting payment of any kind is prohibited.
• We don't vet users or items. We do not verify the identity, intentions, background, or trustworthiness of any user, and we do not inspect, test, or guarantee any item, its condition, safety, legality, or fitness for any purpose.
• We don't own your data. Your listings live in your own atproto data repository. We index public records to make them discoverable; we do not control or own them.

3. Your content and your data

• Ownership. You retain ownership of the listings and content you create.
• License to operate the Service. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to index, cache, reproduce, display, and distribute the public content you publish, solely to operate and provide the Service (including serving listing images and showing your content to other users).
• Your responsibility. You are solely responsible for what you post. You represent that you have the right to give away any item you offer and the right to post any content (including photos) you upload.
• Removal. Because your records live in your own repository, you control them there. We can decline to index or display content, but removing a record fully may require you to delete it from your own repository.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Post anything prohibited under the Community Rules, including illegal, stolen, counterfeit, recalled, hazardous, or unsafe items; illegal drugs, controlled substances, or drug paraphernalia; marijuana and any product containing THC (regardless of local legalization); prescription medications, prescription medical devices, or other items prescribed or fitted to an individual (such as prescription eyeglasses or hearing aids); weapons; alcohol, tobacco, or vaping products; used personal-care or medical items; or money substitutes.
• Offer over-the-counter medicine that is not factory-sealed and unexpired, or misrepresent its condition, seal, or expiration.
• Sell, trade, advertise, recruit, or use the Service for any commercial purpose.
• Use the Service for anything other than offering or requesting items — including seeking recommendations, advice, services, referrals, or general discussion.
• Harass, threaten, defame, or discriminate against others, or post hateful, abusive, or deceptive content.
• Misrepresent an item's condition, safety, or legality.
• Obtain a gift you intend to resell without disclosing that intent at the time you request it.
• Rehome an animal in violation of applicable law, sell or charge a fee for an animal, misrepresent an animal's health or history, or abandon an animal you are unable to place rather than surrendering it to a shelter, rescue, or veterinarian.
• Post precise location or another person's private information.
• Spam, post duplicates, scrape, or abuse the Service's infrastructure, or attempt to bypass safety, moderation, geographic, or access controls.
• Interfere with, disrupt, probe, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its systems.

5. Location and privacy

Gifthood is built to protect your location. We store and display only an approximate area (a coarse geographic cell roughly 1.2 km across), never your precise coordinates or address. You should never post your exact address or contact details in a public listing or note. Our handling of your information is described in our Privacy Policy.

6. Coordination, messaging, and meetings

Coordination of an actual exchange happens through Gifthood's in-app messaging. Any handoff or exchange is entirely between you and the other person, at your own risk. Users choose their own handoff method, whether a contactless porch pickup or an in-person meeting; we encourage keeping personal details private until you're comfortable sharing them and using good judgment about timing, location, and the person you're dealing with. We are not responsible for, and do not supervise, any communication, handoff, meeting, or exchange between users.

7. Safety, due diligence, and "as-is" items

All items are offered and accepted as-is, with no warranty of any kind.

• Givers must honestly disclose known defects, damage, or safety issues, and must not give away items they know to be unsafe, recalled, or illegal.
• Receivers are responsible for their own due diligence — inspecting items, checking recall status (e.g. via recalls.gov), and judging whether an item is safe to use. A giver may not know an item has been recalled or is past its safe life.
• Neither Gifthood nor any user makes any representation or warranty about any item's condition, safety, legality, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.
• Animal rehoming. Where an animal is rehomed, the person giving it must act with reasonable care in choosing a recipient, honestly disclose the animal's health and history, and comply with all applicable laws; the person receiving it is responsible for the animal's care. Gifthood does not screen recipients, verify homes, or assess any animal, and accepts no responsibility for any rehoming arranged through the Service.

8. Moderation and enforcement

We may, at our discretion and without prior notice:

• Decline to index, remove, or hide any listing or content;
• Stop displaying content from, or suspend or terminate access for, any user or identity that violates these Terms or the Community Rules, or that we believe poses a risk to the community;
• Report unlawful activity to the appropriate authorities.

Enforcement is primarily at the indexing layer: we cannot prevent anyone from writing records to their own repository, but we can refuse to index or display them. We aim to apply these rules fairly but do not guarantee any particular moderation outcome, response time, or process.

9. Third-party services

Gifthood relies on and links to third-party services and infrastructure (including atproto identity providers, the Bluesky relay and related network services, maps, and reverse-geocoding via OpenStreetMap Nominatim). We don't control these services and aren't responsible for their content, availability, or practices. Your use of them may be subject to their own terms.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY CONTENT OR ITEM IS ACCURATE, SAFE, LEGAL, OR RELIABLE. YOU USE THE SERVICE AND INTERACT WITH OTHER USERS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GIFTHOOD AND ITS OPERATOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROPERTY, INJURY, OR HARM, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, ANY ITEM OBTAINED OR GIVEN THROUGH IT, OR ANY INTERACTION OR MEETING WITH ANOTHER USER — WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY. [Confirm any aggregate liability cap with counsel; for a free service, a nominal cap such as USD $100 is common.]

Some jurisdictions don't allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Gifthood and its operator from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Service, your content, your interactions or exchanges with other users, or your violation of these Terms or any law or third-party right.

13. Changes to the Service and these Terms

We may modify or discontinue the Service, or update these Terms, at any time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date and, where practical, announced in the app. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

14. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or end your access as described in Section 8. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including content license to the extent of cached/indexed material, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification) will survive.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of [STATE/JURISDICTION — e.g. the State of Washington, USA], without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. [Confirm venue for disputes, and whether to include arbitration / class-action-waiver clauses with counsel.]

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at [CONTACT EMAIL / METHOD].

By using Gifthood, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to these Terms of Use and the Community Rules.