Help on 'Terms of Service'

Republic is here for one and all as a place to just relax and chat. The name
of the game is to enjoy yourself. Unfortunately some people may feel the need
to use Republic to insult and offend others, or - worse - to post illegal or
harmful content. By using this service you are explicitly accepting the below
terms, for this and any future uses of the program.

Where we refer to _"we"_, we mean the administrators of Republic, with
character names Jarel and Pling. Where we refer to _"you"_, we mean you, dear
reader. A user account on Republic is called a _"character"_.

Eligibility
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1. You must be at least 18 years old to use Republic. If we have reason to
believe you are under 18 then we will remove your access to this service.

Content
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2. Although Republic is a place where freedom of speech is largely permitted,
the following types of content are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN throughout
Republic including through direct messages:

    a. Terrorism, human trafficking, sexual abuse (of adults or children),
    grooming, assisting or encouraging suicide, threats to kill, hate speech,
    harassment, stalking, encouraging self-harm, threatening communications,
    domestic/intimate partner violence, controlling or coercive behaviour,
    violence against women and girls (VAWG), pornographic content,
    non-consensual sexual images (including deepfakes), pornographic,
    sexually explicit content, drugs & psychoactive substances,
    firearms/knives and other weapons.

    b. Any message or content intended to direct the recipient to a source of
    the types of content in (a).

    c. Any message or content intended to cause non-trivial psychological or
    physical harm.

    d. Any message or content which incites, encourages or supports activity
    which is illegal under the laws of any part of the United Kingdom.

    e. Anything which is illegal under the laws of any part of the United
    Kingdom.

3. Republic provides many ways to communicate. Keeping things on the right
channels is a part of etiquette which is expected on here. Spamming users on
public channels such as rooms or shouts is strongly discouraged.

4. We provide this service free of charge as volunteers. To protect all users
of Republic from illegal, harmful, or simply annoying, content we may:

    a. Remove any content that users have added to Republic.

    b. Suspend you, ban you permanently, or reduce your access to the service
    in other ways.

Reporting
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5. We encourage you, where possible, to deal with inter-personal issues (that
do not involve otherwise prohibited content) through discussion or the tools
available to you within Republic. You can block specific types of
communication from a user, or their complete existence, using the suite of
`block` commands.

6. You may report a complaint over a specific piece of content, or a general
complaint, by:

    a. emailing republic@republic.snowplains.org

    b. directly messaging the administrator (Jarel)

7. The individual responsible for content safety, reporting and complaints is
Margaret Patterson (Pling). This is also the individual responsible for any
complaints about the resolution of a prior report or complaint. Email
republic@republic.snowplains.org.

Enforcement
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8. If we are made aware or become aware of content which is prohibited or
illegal, we will remove that content and take other appropriate action as
soon as possible.

9. Any admin active on Republic at the time of the report will initially
review complaints or content suspected to be prohibited or illegal, and
take action.

10. We will review complaints in line with these terms of service and any
relevant legislation. Only if the complaint is manifestly unfounded will it
be disregarded.

11. If the prohibited content is available to other users on Republic, for
example through the conference system or on a profile, we will obscure or
remove it.

12. The further action we take against you for violating these terms of
service may include any of the following:

    a. an informal warning

    b. restricting your access to post to sections of the conference system

    c. temporarily or permanently banning access to your character

    d. temporarily or permanently banning access to your IP address

    e. deleting your character

Identity
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13. You may change your character name on Republic. Your original name will
be reserved for you to return to, and is always visible to other users as
part of your profile as a permanent identity.

14. We may remove or disable characters of users who have not accessed
Republic for a long period of time.

Claims
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15. Where a contract exists between you and us, you have a right under the
Online Safety Act 2023 to bring a claim for breach of contract if we remove,
restrict or limit content or service access other than in accordance with
these terms of service. Our liability is limited to the amount received as
payment from you for the service relating to the month where the alleged
breach occurred. You are reminded that Republic is provided free of charge.

16. Except where a right exists under the Online Safety Act 2023, we will not
be liable to you or anybody else for any damages, including any general,
special, incidental, or consequential damages, arising out of use or
inability to use the program, or arising from the actions of you or other
users of the program. This includes, but is by no means limited to, the fact
that any statement made by any user of the program is not necessarily our
view, nor supported by us.

© 1998 - 2025 J. Patterson.