Terms of Service

1. What VoteSmash is

VoteSmash is a structured deliberation platform operated by Civic Studio LLC ("we", "us", "the platform"). It lets groups come together around a question, submit claims, vote, and surface consensus.

By creating an account or participating in a tour, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use the platform.

2. Accounts

You may sign in with GitHub OAuth or email and password. You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure. One account per person.

We may suspend or remove accounts that violate these terms, disrupt tours, or impersonate others.

3. Tours and participation

A tour is a time-bounded deliberation session with a lead question, a claim phase, and a voting phase. Some tours are free. Others require a ticket.

A ticket is a purchase of access to a specific tour. It is not a deposit, stored value, or financial instrument. Ticket prices are displayed in USD.

By joining a tour, you agree to participate in good faith: submit genuine claims, vote honestly, and respect the structure.

4. Your content

When you submit a claim, survey response, vote, or action, you retain ownership of what you wrote. You grant VoteSmash a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to display, store, and use your submissions as part of tour results, analytics, and platform operations.

Tour results — including claims, vote tallies, and consensus outcomes — are visible to all participants and may be made public. Don't submit anything you wouldn't want attributed to you.

You may not submit content that is illegal, defamatory, harassing, deceptive, or that infringes on others' rights. We may remove content or restrict access at our discretion.

5. Prizes

In ticketed tours, a portion of ticket revenue forms a prize pool. Prizes are paid by the platform to eligible participants based on tour outcomes: survey completion, winning claims, and activity.

Prize distribution follows the percentages published on the About page at the time the tour is created. We reserve the right to withhold prizes in cases of manipulation, fraud, or terms violations.

Prizes are payments from the platform, not withdrawals of stored value. You are responsible for any tax obligations arising from prizes received.

6. Sponsorships

Sponsors may fund tours, topics, or lead questions. Sponsorship contributions are added to the prize pool and distributed to participants under the same rules as ticket revenue.

Sponsorships are subject to review and confirmation by the platform. We may decline any sponsorship at our discretion. Sponsorship is not an investment and does not confer ownership, equity, or governance rights.

7. Fair play

VoteSmash depends on good-faith participation. You may not:

• • Create multiple accounts to manipulate votes or outcomes
• • Coordinate with others to game consensus thresholds
• • Use bots, scripts, or automation to participate
• • Submit claims designed to deceive or manipulate rather than contribute
• • Interfere with the platform's operation or other users' experience

Violations may result in disqualification from prizes, account suspension, or removal.

8. Payments and refunds

Ticket payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store your card details.

Tickets may be refunded if a tour is cancelled before it begins. Once a tour has started, tickets are non-refundable. If a tour is terminated early due to platform error, we will offer a full refund.

9. Privacy

We collect the minimum data needed to operate the platform: your handle, email, avatar (from GitHub if applicable), and your participation history. We do not sell your data.

Claims, votes, and survey responses are stored as part of tour records. Aggregated results may be shared publicly. Individual votes are not publicly attributed unless the tour format requires it.

We use cookies for session management only. No third-party tracking.

10. Disclaimers

VoteSmash is provided as-is. We make no guarantees about uptime, availability, or the outcome of any tour. Consensus results reflect participant votes, not the platform's endorsement of any claim.

We are not responsible for the content of claims, the accuracy of votes, or decisions made based on tour outcomes.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising from your use of VoteSmash is limited to the amount you paid for the specific tour at issue, or $100, whichever is greater.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Material changes will be posted here with an updated date. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach us at admin@civic.studio.