Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use valueAFRIK. By creating an account, you confirm that you meet this requirement and that all information you provide is accurate. One account per person — you may not create an account on behalf of someone else, or maintain more than one account, without our permission.

[ STILL NEEDS BUILDING ] 13 is confirmed as the intended minimum (matching the Facebook/Instagram standard), but nothing at registration actually asks for or checks a date of birth yet — this clause is an honor-system promise until an age field and check exist at signup.

2. Your account

You're responsible for the activity on your account and for keeping your password confidential. Let us know immediately if you suspect unauthorized access. We strongly recommend turning on two-factor authentication in Settings → Security. We may suspend or terminate your account as described in Section 10.

3. The Service

valueAFRIK lets you:

• Build a profile ("Roots") describing your languages, heritage, and interests.
• Post to your Wall, join and post in Communities, and co-author Bridge Posts with another member.
• Follow other members and message them.
• Use live video, audio calls, live sessions, and Culture Sprint once they launch. These features are coming soon and are not currently available (see Section 8).
• Earn Bridge Score points for cross-cultural engagement on the platform.

valueAFRIK is currently in an active-development / early-access phase. Features may change, and we may add, modify, or remove functionality as the platform evolves.

4. Your content

You own the content you post to valueAFRIK — your Wall posts, comments, Bridge Posts, messages, photos, and anything else you create or upload ("Your Content"). By posting Your Content, you grant valueAFRIK a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and display it solely to operate and provide the Service — for example, showing your post to your followers, or a message to its recipient. This license ends when you delete the specific content or your account, except where a copy needs to persist for someone else's own record (like the other side of a message thread or a Bridge Post) or where we're required to retain it.

You're solely responsible for what you post and for having the rights to post it. Don't post anything you don't have the right to share, or that violates someone else's intellectual property or privacy.

5. Acceptable use

valueAFRIK exists to connect people across cultures in good faith. When using the Service, you agree not to:

• Harass, bully, threaten, or demean anyone, including on the basis of heritage, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or any other protected characteristic — this cuts directly against what the platform is for.
• Post hate speech, incite violence, or share illegal content.
• Impersonate any person or organization, or misrepresent your affiliation with one.
• Spam, or use the Service for unsolicited advertising or bulk messaging.
• Harvest or scrape data from the Service, or use automated means (bots, scrapers) to access it without our permission.
• Circumvent another member's block of you, or attempt to contact someone who has blocked you through another account.
• Upload malware, or attempt to disrupt, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the Service or other members' accounts.
• Infringe anyone's intellectual property, privacy, or other legal rights.

Violating this section may result in content removal, warnings, suspension, or permanent termination of your account, at our discretion and depending on severity.

6. Reporting and moderation

You can block another member at any time, which stops them from messaging you (and from calling you, once calls launch). You can report content or a community for review. Our moderators (and, within a Community, that Community's own owners and monitors) may review reported content and remove content or restrict access that violates these Terms. Community owners and monitors have moderation authority within their own Community, on top of — not instead of — the platform-wide rules in these Terms.

7. Bridge Posts and shared content

A Bridge Post is co-authored with another named member — each of you writes your own half. Because it's inherently a shared piece of content, deleting your account doesn't remove your half from the other participant's copy of the post; it remains visible to them as part of their own record of that exchange, consistent with Section 4.

8. Live sessions and calls

Live video, audio calls, live sessions, and Culture Sprint are coming soon and are currently disabled. Nothing in this section applies to you until we turn them on, and we will update these Terms before we do. Once they launch, audio and video is expected to be transmitted through LiveKit, a third-party real-time media service, only while a session is active; valueAFRIK does not plan to record or store call or live-session audio/video. The same conduct rules in Section 5 will apply during a live or call session as anywhere else on the Service.

9. Third-party services

Some features depend on third-party services we don't control — signing in with Google or Facebook, and (once live video and calls launch) LiveKit. Your use of those features is also subject to that provider's own terms, and we're not responsible for their availability or conduct.

10. Termination

You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Danger zone — this is immediate and permanent, and can't be undone. We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the Service. Where practical, we'll try to give you notice first, except where immediate action is needed to protect the Service or its members.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We don't warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that content posted by other members is accurate, safe, or lawful. valueAFRIK is not a substitute for professional advice of any kind.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, valueAFRIK and its team won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service, even if we've been advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you've paid us in the past twelve months (currently nothing — the Service is free) or a nominal amount.

[ NEEDS INPUT ] A lawyer should confirm this section is enforceable in whatever jurisdiction you settle on in Section 15 — liability limitations are treated very differently place to place, and some jurisdictions don't allow certain limitations at all.

13. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless valueAFRIK and its team from any claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Service, Your Content, or your violation of these Terms.

14. Intellectual property

The valueAFRIK name, logo, and the design and code of the Service are owned by ZeelotWeb and protected by intellectual property law. These Terms don't grant you any right to use our branding except as necessary to use the Service normally. If you believe content on valueAFRIK infringes your copyright, contact us using the details in Section 17 with enough detail for us to locate and review it.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Franklin County, Ohio.

[ NEEDS REVIEW ] This reflects Ohio as ZeelotWeb's current base, but a lawyer should still confirm it — including whether mandatory arbitration or a class-action waiver should be added, and whether Ohio venue holds up given that valueAFRIK's users are international.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll let you know — for example, by email or an in-app notice — before they take effect. Continuing to use valueAFRIK after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

17. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Contact ZeelotWeb, the company behind valueAFRIK — this opens in a new tab, so valueAFRIK stays right where you left it.

valueAFRIK is a product of ZeelotWeb, based in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

[ NEEDS INPUT ] A full registered street address (not just city/state) if you want a complete formal notice here — some businesses intentionally keep this at city/state level for privacy and use a registered agent's address for anything requiring a full mailing address; that's a call for you to make either way.