Terms of Use

1. Who can use the site

Anyone can read. To have an account you must be at least 13 years old. If you're under 18, you need a parent's or guardian's permission, and they're agreeing to these terms for you too. Stories here are written for a general adult readership, and some deal with difficult or adult themes.

By creating an account, you confirm you meet the age requirement and agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't create an account. If you already have one, you can delete it at any time.

2. Your account

• You sign in with a link or code sent to your email address. There's no password, so keep your email account secure: anyone who can read your email can sign in as you.
• One person, one account. Don't create accounts to vote more than once, to dodge a suspension, or to pose as someone else.
• You can publish under your real name or pen names. Don't use a name that impersonates a real person or organization or misleads readers about who you are. We keep the link between your pen names and your account confidential. We disclose it only when the law compels us, and we'll tell you when that happens unless the law forbids it.

3. Your writing stays yours

You keep the copyright and every other right in what you post. We don't own it, and we never will.

To run the site, you give us a limited permission: a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, format and display your work on The Pollionian. That covers reader pages, lists, excerpts, the archive and the monthly contest, as your settings allow. The license covers only running the site. It ends for each work when you withdraw it or delete your account, except for copies in our backups, which are replaced over time (see the Privacy Policy). If you leave a story up when you delete your account, the license for that story continues so it can stay readable.

We will never sell your work, license it to anyone else, or use it to train AI, and we won't let any partner do so. AI touches your work only in the ways you allow in its settings.

You can publish your work anywhere else, at any time.

4. What you post

• It must be yours, and honestly labeled. Post only work you wrote, or have the right to post. When you submit, you declare how generative AI was used: not at all, for editing only (it pointed out problems or suggested fixes, but every sentence's words and ideas are yours), or, outside contests and daily practice, to generate the whole work. You confirm the declaration is true. Contest entries and practice answers must be your own writing. AI-generated work is labeled, shown only to readers who choose to see it, never ranked, and never earns.
• Follow the conduct rules. Don't post: spam or advertising; harassment or threats against a person; hate speech; sexual content involving minors; someone's private information; someone else's work posted without permission; written by ai but presented as human work; other illegal content.
• You're responsible for it. What you post is yours, legally as well as creatively.

Fiction can be dark, strange, violent or uncomfortable; that's allowed. We moderate for the rules above and for the law, never for taste.

5. Moderation

Readers can report work or feedback they believe breaks a rule. A moderator may remove it, restore it, or suspend the account behind it. A removed work stays visible to its author, who can still revise or withdraw it. A suspended account can still sign in, read, and manage its own work, but can't post, comment, vote or give awards. Every action is listed, with the rule behind it but without names, in our public moderation log. To appeal a decision, write to [email protected].

We can suspend or close accounts that break these terms. Accounts that repeatedly post others' work are closed (see the Copyright Policy).

6. Reading, votes and awards

• Read as much as you like for your own enjoyment. Don't copy, republish or sell anyone else's work without their permission.
• Votes count only when you've read to the end, one per account per story, under published ranking rules. Don't try to manipulate rankings or the contest.
• Awards are free for now and carry no money.

7. The monthly contest

Each month we set an exercise based on a public-domain classic. Entries are public; readers judge them in a blind vote, and the winner is decided by the published ranking rule. The prize is recognition, not money. You keep the rights to your entry like any other work.

8. Leaving

You can delete your account at any time; you choose whether your stories go with it. We may close the site or change its features. If we ever close it, we'll give notice so you can save your work first.

9. No warranties; limits on liability

This is a small, independent, non-commercial project, run in our spare time. The site is provided "as is", without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We don't promise it will always be available, error-free, or that work posted here is accurate or suitable for you. To the fullest extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or for lost data, profits or opportunities. Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the greater of $50 or what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Some places don't allow these limits, so some may not apply to you.

If you break these terms or the law and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it.

10. Changes to these terms

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we'll update the version above and ask you to agree again the next time you visit. If you don't agree, you can delete your account.

11. The law that applies

These terms are governed by the laws of Virginia and of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts there, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring it at home.

12. Contact

Joseph Michael Mercurio III. Email: [email protected]. The postal address for copyright notices is on the Copyright Policy.