Terms of Service

The fine print for operating a Crowdstack.

Thanks for choosing Crowdstack! We hope you love it. Here are the contractual terms, explained as simply as possible.

Terminology

"We", "us", and "our" refers to Crowdstack, Inc. and its related entities, including Social Strata, Inc. "Service" refers to our Crowdstack service, which we provide to you. When we say "you" or "your", we are referring to you, as a customer using our Service. When we say "User", we are referring to your members and visitors, the people posting content and interacting on your Crowdstack site. The "Selected Plan" is the particular plan type you selected for the Service. "Content" is the data and content generated by you and your Users via the Service. This Terms of Service is the "Terms".

Basics

  1. This is a living document that we will update from time to time. You understand that, when you use the Service, you are agreeing to the latest version of the Terms. If there are major changes, we will notify you.
  2. You must be at least 13 years old.
  3. You and your participants using our platform must abide by our Unacceptable Use Policy (UUP). You accept the penalties associated with any violations of that UUP.
  4. If you are looking to add or remove features, or change your Selected Plan, you will be able to choose from amongst the currently available plans listed on our Pricing pages. You can change your plan via your Crowdstack site administrative control panel.

What's Yours, What's Ours

  1. You own all of the Content, but authorize us to access it for the purpose of operating the Service on your behalf. You can download your member data anytime via your Service admin control panel and request an export of all Content (for a fee) anytime before your Service ends. Note that you have no right to private messages or direct messages, since those are considered protected speech; thus, such conversations will not be included in any data exports. In addition, you
  2. We will never prescreen or manage the Content on your site. We have no role in the day-to-day activities on your Crowdstack site. However, if we suspect violations of our UUP, we have the right to investigate and take action, as described in the UUP. In addition, if required while offering customer support, you allow us to access your Content to make it possible for us to help you.
  3. We own the software that powers the Service. We are granting you a limited license to use our Crowdstack software only via the Service we provide to you. If and when you cancel Service, you have no rights to our software (you can't take it with you). You also may not resell or otherwise offer our services to others, unless you have received express written permission to do so.
  4. This may sound obvious, but if you are using a domain that we own (such as crowdstack.app or crowdstack.io) for your Crowdstack site, you cannot take the domain with you when you cancel the Service.
  5. It's important that we know who our customer is so we can provide the best possible support (and deal with issues related to Content ownership properly). Thus, you are not allowed to resell our service and you must be the lawful owner of the Content for which Service is provided.
  6. We may want to list you as a customer on our site or other marketing materials. You authorize us to list and/or market your organization name and/or logo on marketing materials, for as long as you use the Service.
  7. You and we are partners in each other's success. We've made our pricing for our current plans flat fee so you can grow with fixed costs. We depend on the "powered by" graphic that is displayed on all Service pages/emails to draw more customers our way and reduce our marketing costs. Without this, we'd have to charge you more for the Service. Thus, we require that the "powered by" branding not be removed.

Chat Usage Limits

If you are on a service/plan with chat features, there are limits on the number of concurrent chat participants. That limit is 500 (though some legacy plans - "Fullstack Enterprise" and "Complete" - have a limit of 1500).

Fees

You'll be paying us in advance for the Service we provide you. The fees you pay us are never refundable (unless we decide to cancel your service), however. We may apply a sales tax, depending on where you are based. View our current list of taxable jurisdictions.

Premium Memberships

Some Services include an optional Premium Membership service. If you enable the option for your Service, then you agree to abide by the Crowdstack Pay Terms for Providers.

Plan Changes

When you upgrade from a free or trial plan to a paid plan, we will charge your credit card immediately and your billing cycle begins that same day. For other upgrades or downgrades, the change will happen immediately upon request, with any prepaid amounts credited toward the change total. Note that when you upgrade to a "Fullstack Enterprise" plan, the plan change will happen immediately, but the transfer of your Service to one of our dedicated environments will happen within 7 business days (and there may be some scheduled downtime when we perform the transfer).

Changes to the Service or Fees

We are continuously improving the Service -- adding new features, adjusting existing ones, fixing bugs, and more. Sometimes the changes we make may fundamentally alter the way things work. Occasionally, some features may even be removed, especially if we discover they are not being used very often.

Some new features will only be available for certain plans. The plan differences are viewable on our Pricing pages.

A fundamental goal of ours is to make sure you enjoy fixed costs for our Service. If we ever need to increase our fees, though, we will provide you at least 45 days' notice (and any such change would only ever apply after your current paid-through date).

Cancellation / Termination / Suspension

Hopefully, we have a very long relationship, but we understand there may come a time when you (or we) may need to cancel your Service.

  1. You may cancel your Service at any time, for any reason. The earliest effective date for cancellation will be the day after your paid-through date, since we do not offer refunds. You must cancel via the Billing section of your Service administrative control panel.
  2. We may also cancel your Service at any time for any reason, but we will always provide you with at least 30 days' notice, if we do so. A pro-rated refund may be provided, however, if we initiated the cancellation.
  3. If you are on a free plan or you are no longer paying a recurring fee for your Service, we may suspend/cancel your account immediately, if your Crowdstack is inactive for more than 90 days. We define inactive, in this case, as having had no posts, replies, or comments in the past 90 days.
  4. If your payment is 10 days' past due, we will cancel your Service for nonpayment.
  5. Once Service is canceled, we will delete your Content within 14 days. Member data is downloadable anytime via your Service administrative control panel, but other Content is only available by request as a downloadable export file that we will generate for you (for a fee). Thus, please request a Content export prior to the effective date of your cancellation to ensure availability of your data.
  6. If we determine that you are violating our UUP, we may also suspend your account immediately, but we will provide you with up to 10 days to correct the issue, if that is possible.

Uptime and Response Times

We offer an extremely reliable Service, as well as rapid response to your support inquiries. After all, the better we serve you, the happier you will be, the longer you will remain with us, and the more you will refer us to others. We value the relationship we have with you and understand that we must continuously earn your trust and satisfaction.

While we strive for 99.9% uptime for the Service, only customers on the "Fullstack Enterprise" or "Complete" plan are covered by our Service Level Agreement (SLA). Those customers are covered because they are in their own dedicated environments, whereas all other customers are in a multi-tenant ("shared") environment, where one issue may impact a greater swath of customers. The SLA also guarantees customer support response times.

Security and Privacy

We know that you are entrusting us with your data. We protect it by implementing hardware redundancies, by keeping backups, so that we can restore data in the event of catastrophic incidents, and by utilizing secure data centers. You can read more about our Security and Privacy Policy.

Note that off-site backups are stored in data centers in the same country where your Crowdstack is hosted. However, if your data center is in the European Union, it may be any other European Union country.

Note that under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), we are a “service provider”, not a “business” or “third party”, with respect to your use of the Service. That means we process any data you share with us only to provide the Service. We will not retain, use, disclose, or sell any of that information for any other commercial purposes.

Customer Support

We pride ourselves on providing outstanding support for all of our customers. Please contact us anytime at [email protected].

Our free support is limited to answering questions about features/functionality, troubleshooting technical issues occurring with the Service, and resolving issues related to the performance of the Service. More complex troubleshooting/assistance may require Professional Services, for which an hourly fee will apply. Please note our Holiday schedule, as well, when support response times may be a little slower than usual.

Communication

You authorize us to contact you electronically via email and/or text messages, so long as such communications are strictly related to service we are providing you. By providing/submitting your phone number, you are agreeing to receive text messages from us. You can opt out at any time by texting "STOP."

Legal Provisions

  1. Liability

    You understand and agree that we shall not be liable to you or any other third party for any direct, indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special, or punitive damages, including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses from your use of the Service (or your inability to use it), even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

  2. Indemnity

    We aren't responsible for any bad actions taken by you or your Users on the Service and thus you indemnify and hold us and any of our related parties (subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, employees, partners, related entities or licensors) harmless from any claim or demand, including attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising from actions taken on your Crowdstack site.

  3. Disputes

    If a legal dispute arises, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost-effective means of resolving it quickly. Accordingly, you and we agree that any controversy or claim at law or equity that arises shall be resolved by arbitration, in a court of law, or as otherwise mutually agreed upon in writing by the parties. Before resorting to these alternatives, we encourage you to contact us directly to seek a resolution.

  4. Force Majeure
    We shall be excused from performance hereunder to the extent that performance is prevented, delayed or obstructed by causes beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to, acts of God (fire, storm, floods, earthquakes, etc.), civil disturbances, disruption of telecommunications, power or other essential services, or interruption or termination of service by the service provider being used by us operate the Service, or any malicious or unlawful acts of any third party.
  5. Independent Contractors
    We and our personnel, in performance of the Service, are acting as independent contractors and not as your employees or agents.
  6. Waiver
    The failure by us to enforce our rights under the Terms at any time for any period shall not be construed as a waiver of such rights.
  7. Assignment
    We reserve the right to transfer the Terms or any right or obligation under the Terms without your consent. If that happens, a new company/entity may assume ownership of of the Service. That said, if we transfer such rights to an unrelated third party, we will provide at least 30 days' notice. You may assign ownership of your account to anyone else, using the "change owner" functionality built into the Service, unless you are on a plan that is not paying us recurring fees, in which case you have no right to assign ownership without our express written permission.
  8. Governing Law / Venue
    The Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Wyoming, without regard to conflict of law principles. You and we irrevocably consent to the nonexclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in the State of Wyoming.
  9. Entire Agreement / Severability
    These Terms constitutes the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between us and you for the Service, and supersedes all prior proposals and all other agreements, oral and written, between us relating to the Service, unless an alternate agreement was signed between the you and us for Service, in which case that will always take precedence over these Terms. In the event that any provision of the Terms shall be determined to be illegal or unenforceable, that provision will be eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.
Last updated June 9, 2021.
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