Terms of Use

Welcome to OkayToSay. By accessing or using our website, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. Please read them carefully.

1. About OkayToSay

OkayToSay is a community-driven platform that tracks the meaning and social acceptability of words and phrases over time. Our service allows users to search for terms, view community assessments, contribute votes and explanations, and submit new terms for community review.

Important: The scores and assessments displayed on OkayToSay reflect aggregated community opinions, not definitive judgments. Language acceptability varies by context, speaker, audience, region, and time. Our platform aims to surface this nuance, not to dictate what anyone should or shouldn't say.

2. User Accounts

To participate in voting, commenting, or submitting content, you must create an account. When you create an account, you agree to:

• Provide accurate information
• Maintain the security of your account credentials
• Accept responsibility for all activity that occurs under your account
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, you represent that you have your parent or guardian's permission to use the service.

3. User-Generated Content

What You Can Contribute

OkayToSay allows you to submit:

• Votes on term acceptability (calibration votes)
• Context information about when and where terms may be appropriate
• Comments and explanations supporting your perspective
• New terms for community review
• Alternative terms as suggested replacements
• Tags to categorize terms

Your Responsibilities

When contributing content, you agree to:

• Provide honest, good-faith assessments based on your genuine perspective
• Not submit false, misleading, or spam content
• Not harass, threaten, or attack other users
• Not post content that is illegal, defamatory, or infringes on others' rights
• Not attempt to manipulate scores through coordinated voting, multiple accounts, or automated systems

Content License

By submitting content to OkayToSay, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute your contributions as part of operating and improving the service. You retain ownership of your original content.

Content Moderation

We reserve the right to remove content that violates these terms or community guidelines, and to suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly violate our policies.

4. Optional Demographic Information

OkayToSay may ask for optional demographic information (such as age, region, or background) to help provide more nuanced data about how language acceptability varies across different groups.

• All demographic fields are voluntary
• You control whether demographic information is displayed with your comments
• This information helps improve data quality but is never required to participate

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the service for any illegal purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the service
• Interfere with or disrupt the service or servers
• Scrape, crawl, or collect data from the service without permission
• Impersonate any person or entity
• Use the service to promote hate speech, violence, or discrimination

6. Disclaimers

No Professional Advice

OkayToSay provides community-generated information about language use. This is not professional, legal, HR, or communications advice. Always use your own judgment and consider your specific context when deciding what language to use.

Accuracy of Information

Community scores and explanations reflect user opinions at a point in time. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any content. Language norms change, and reasonable people can disagree.

"As Is" Service

The service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, OkayToSay and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses resulting from:

• Your use or inability to use the service
• Any content obtained from the service
• Unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data

8. Intellectual Property

The OkayToSay name, logo, and original site design are our property. User-generated content remains the property of its respective contributors, subject to the license granted above.

9. Third-Party Services

OkayToSay may integrate with third-party services (such as authentication providers or social platforms). Your use of such services is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies.

10. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms of Use from time to time. We will notify users of material changes by posting the updated terms on this page with a new "Last Updated" date. Your continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

11. Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the service at any time, for any reason, including violation of these terms. You may also delete your account at any time.

12. Governing Law

These terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with applicable law, without regard to conflict of law principles.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms of Use, please contact us through our website.