Terms of Use

Who runs this site

One Sentence at a Time (onesentenceatatime.com) is run by [OWNER: the operator’s legal name, and the country they’re based in]. You can reach us at hello@onesentenceatatime.com. How we handle personal data is in the Privacy Policy.

Who can use it

• You must be 13 or older to create an account.
• Teachers: you can write lines on your class’s behalf from your own account. Students under 13 must not create accounts.
• You don’t need an account to read the story or to report a line.
• One person, one account. Don’t use extra accounts to get around the rules, for example to write two lines in a row.

The rules

Each line is one sentence, and you can’t write two lines in a row. The site enforces both. Beyond that, don’t post:

• hate, or harassment of anyone;
• threats of violence;
• sexually explicit content, and never anything sexual involving a minor;
• personal information about other people, such as addresses, phone numbers or private details about a real person;
• links, email addresses or other contact details;
• spam or advertising;
• anything illegal, or anything you don’t have the right to share, like someone else’s writing.

The same rules apply to comments and to display names. Don’t pretend to be someone else, and don’t try to break, overload or automate the site.

Moderation

• We can hide lines and comments that break these rules, and suspend or ban accounts.
• Some words are refused when you write. If several readers flag a line, it’s hidden automatically until a person reviews it.
• A hidden line reads “This line was removed.” The lines written after it stay in the story.
• If we hide your line, we email you the reason, unless you’ve turned off notification emails. Reply to that email to appeal, and a person will take another look. If you didn’t get an email, write to hello@onesentenceatatime.com.
• Anyone can report a line, with or without an account, on the report page.

Your sentences

You keep the copyright in the lines you write. When you publish a line:

• You release it under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0), credited to your display name (or as an anonymous writer if you have none). Anyone may copy, share and adapt it, as long as they give that credit.
• You also give [OWNER: the operator’s legal name] a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and permanent licence to host, show, excerpt, adapt and distribute it: for example on share images, in emails, and in printed or digital collections of the story.
• You confirm that you wrote it, or have the right to release it this way.

Published lines stay published. You can’t edit or delete a line, because the lines written after it build on it. If you delete your account, your name comes off your lines and the lines stay without a name. Copies made before that, such as share images other sites saved, may still show it.

Personal information is the exception. If a line contains personal information about you or someone else, report it or email hello@onesentenceatatime.com, and we’ll replace it with “This line was removed.” We keep the original text in a private moderation log so a mistaken removal can be undone; ask, and we’ll delete that copy too.

Your comments

You keep the copyright in your comments and let us host and show them on the site. Comments aren’t released under CC BY 4.0, and they’re deleted if you delete your account.

Paid branches

Every line is free to write. Paid branches, where continuing a line costs money, aren’t offered. If that changes, we’ll update these Terms first, including what a payment buys and how refunds work.

Charity

Nothing on this site is a donation, and we don’t collect money for any charity. Our Literacy page links to Reading Is Fundamental so you can give to it directly. We aren’t affiliated with Reading Is Fundamental.

Copyright complaints

If a line copies your work without permission, send a notice through the report page (choose Copyright) or by email to hello@onesentenceatatime.com. Include:

• the work you believe was copied;
• the line’s number or link;
• how to contact you;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn’t authorised by the owner, their agent or the law;
• a statement that the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you’re the owner or allowed to act for them;
• your physical or electronic signature (your typed full name is fine).

We remove lines that infringe, and close the accounts of people who do it repeatedly. If your line was removed after a notice and you think that’s a mistake, reply to the removal email with a counter-notice.

Designated agent: [OWNER: DMCA designated agent’s name and address, once registered with the U.S. Copyright Office].

Your account

You can delete your account at any time from Settings; what happens to your data is in the Privacy Policy. We can suspend or close accounts that break these rules. We may change the site or stop running it.

No guarantees

The site is provided as it is. We work to keep it running and safe, but we can’t promise it will always be available, free of errors, or free of offensive lines written by other people. Lines and comments are written by the people who post them, not by us, and don’t reflect our views.

As far as the law allows, we aren’t liable for indirect losses, or for losses caused by what other people post. Nothing in these Terms takes away rights you have under the law where you live.

These Terms are governed by [OWNER: governing law and the courts that handle disputes].

Changes to these Terms

If we change these Terms in a way that matters, we’ll update the version and date at the top and let people know [OWNER: how: for example a notice on the site, or an email to account holders] before the change applies. Questions about these Terms go to hello@onesentenceatatime.com.