Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent in your jurisdiction, whichever is higher, to use Karma Willow. The service is not directed to children. If you are under 18, you represent that a parent or legal guardian has reviewed and accepts these Terms.

2. Your account

You may begin the ritual as a guest. To save or manage a filing across devices you may create an account by signing in with a link sent to your email address or with your Google account. You are responsible for activity that occurs through your account and for keeping your email account and sign-in method secure. Provide accurate information and keep it current. One person, one account, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

To protect the service and its users, we keep records of sign-ins and account activity, as described in the Privacy Policy. You can delete your account at any time from your file.

3. What Karma Willow is

Karma Willow is a symbolic ritual for emotional expression and entertainment. You write a wish, grievance, hope, or unresolved thought; you break a stylised willow wish-stick; a fictional messenger “carries it away.” The ritual has no supernatural effect. We do not grant wishes, alter events, or influence any person. See the Disclaimer.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to use Karma Willow to:

• threaten, harass, bully, or intimidate any person;
• reveal or compile private information about an identifiable person (full name in an identifying context, address, phone number, email, government or financial identifiers, precise location, private images, or similar), commonly called doxxing;
• incite, plan, coordinate, or celebrate violence, physical harm, disease, or death;
• organise retaliation, brigading, or a pile-on against a person or group;
• stalk a person or facilitate stalking;
• post hateful content that attacks people based on a protected characteristic;
• post sexual content involving minors or non-consensual sexual content of any kind;
• impersonate a person or organisation, or misrepresent your affiliation;
• target a minor;
• break the law, or ask others to;
• use scripts, bots, or multiple accounts to give belief, file reports, or otherwise inflate or manipulate counts on the service;
• try to gain access to accounts, data, or systems that are not yours;
• spam, scrape at scale, probe, or disrupt the service or its infrastructure.

The Community Guidelines give examples of what is and is not allowed and are incorporated into these Terms.

5. Prohibited content

Content that a reasonable reviewer would read as a genuine threat, an identification of a private person, a call for serious harm, hate, sexual content involving minors, or criminal coordination is prohibited whether filed publicly or privately, and may be removed or refused. Private filings are otherwise yours and are not screened for identifying detail.

6. Public and private filings

When you file privately, the content is visible only to you and is not published. When you choose to file publicly, you instruct us to display the wish text (without your identity) on the public wall, in share previews, and via a shareable link, and to let other users record a “Believe.” Public filings may be shown before or after review. You can later switch a public filing to private, archive it, or delete it from your file.

A person may give belief to a given wish once per day. Belief counts are a friendly signal, not a measure of merit or truth, and we may correct or remove counts that appear to be manipulated.

7. Content you provide

You keep ownership of what you write. For content you choose to file publicly, you grant Karma Willow a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for formatting, publish, publicly display, and distribute that content in connection with operating and promoting the service, including in share cards and social previews. This licence ends a reasonable time after you delete the public filing or your account, except for (a) copies retained in routine backups for a limited period and (b) anonymised or aggregated data that no longer identifies you or the filing. You grant no licence in private filings beyond what is needed to store and display them back to you and to run safety checks.

You represent that you have the rights to the content you submit and that it does not infringe others’ rights or break these Terms.

8. Moderation and reporting

We use automated checks and human review. We may refuse, label, hold, remove, or restrict a filing; ask you to remove identifying detail before publishing; or limit a feature, at our reasonable discretion, to enforce these Terms and protect users. Any user can report a public filing. Reports are reviewed; submitting knowingly false reports is itself a violation.

9. Intellectual property

The Karma Willow name, the “Department of Karma” styling, the messenger-cat mark, the interface, copy, and artwork are owned by Karma Willow or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable licence to use the service for personal, non-commercial purposes. Do not copy, resell, or create derivative products from the service.

10. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the service and delete your account at any time from your file; doing so deletes your wishes and account data as described in the Privacy Policy. We may suspend or terminate access, with or without notice, if you break these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the service or its users. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (ownership, licences already granted for public content, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, dispute terms) survive.

11. Paid features, billing, and refunds

Your first willow / first filing is free. We may later offer paid items such as additional filings, premium ritual themes, premium share cards, seasonal willow sticks, or a subscription. If we do, we will show pricing and terms before purchase, process payments through a third-party processor, and publish a billing and refund policy at that time. Except where the law requires otherwise, digital items are non-refundable once delivered. [Billing and refund specifics to be completed before launching paid features.]

12. Service availability

The service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not promise it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, and we may change or discontinue features.

13. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Karma Willow disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The service is not medical, mental-health, legal, financial, or religious advice. See the Disclaimer.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Karma Willow and its officers, employees, and agents will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, or emotional distress arising from or related to your use of the service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or (b) USD 50. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limits, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

15. Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold harmless Karma Willow from claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable legal costs arising from content you submit, your use of the service, or your breach of these Terms, except to the extent caused by our own misconduct.

16. Dispute resolution

We prefer to resolve disputes informally: contact us first and give us 30 days to respond. [Insert the agreed mechanism before launch, for example binding individual arbitration with a class-action waiver and a small-claims carve-out, or exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of a named location. Include any legally required consumer opt-out.]

17. Governing law

[Insert governing law and venue, e.g. the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.] Mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence still apply.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If a change is material, we will give reasonable notice (for example, a notice on the site or by email). Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms: [legal@karmawillow.example], [postal address placeholder].