Terms of Service

Starsown is a free browser game. These are the rules for using it. They are meant to be short and readable, and they mean what they say.

1. What Starsown is

Starsown is a game in which you generate ("sow") procedurally created worlds into a shared public registry, and can then claim, stake, like, and share them. It is provided free of charge by an independent individual operator. It is not a company, a platform, an investment, or a financial product of any kind.

2. Who may use it

You may explore Starsown without an account. To create an account you must be at least 13 years old. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use Starsown only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. You may not use Starsown if you have previously been banned from it.

3. Your account

• Provide an email address you actually control, and keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what happens under your account.
• One person, one account. Creating additional accounts to get around daily limits is not allowed.
• Tell us at justin.l.black@gmail.com if you believe someone else is using your account.
• You may delete your account at any time from your profile page. Your worlds remain in the registry, disconnected from you, and your username is reserved for 30 days before anyone else may claim it.

4. Fair play

Sowing is limited to a set number of worlds per day, per person, so the sky grows at a human pace. That limit is the game. Accordingly, you agree not to:

• use bots, scripts, automation, or any other means to sow, claim, stake, or like worlds;
• create multiple accounts, cycle guest identities, or use proxies or VPNs to exceed daily limits;
• attempt to predict, brute-force, or mine seeds for rare worlds outside of normal play;
• probe, scrape, overload, or interfere with the site, its API, or its database;
• attempt to gain access to accounts, data, or systems that are not yours.

Security researchers acting in good faith are welcome; please follow /.well-known/security.txt rather than the paragraph above.

5. House rules for names and words

Usernames and bios are visible to everyone, so:

• Bios are plain words only: no links, no markup, no hypertext. This is enforced by the software, and it is also the spirit of the thing.
• No impersonation of other wanderers, of Starsown itself, or of anyone real.
• No slurs, harassment, sexual content involving minors, threats, or content that is illegal where you or we are.
• Usernames may be reclaimed if they are used to impersonate, to squat, or to break these rules.

We may remove or change a name or bio that breaks these rules, with or without notice.

6. Worlds, claims, and stakes

• Worlds, claims, stakes, likes, crowns, and wanderer numbers are features of a game. They are not property, not securities, not tokens, and have no monetary value.
• They cannot be bought, sold, transferred, traded, or exchanged for money or anything of value, inside Starsown or outside it. Attempting to sell them is a breach of these terms.
• There is no purchase mechanism in Starsown, and nothing in it costs money.
• Stakes are a free draw. When more than one wanderer stakes an unclaimed world, one is selected at random after a waiting period. Staking costs nothing and can win nothing of value. It is a game mechanic, not a wager, a lottery, or gambling.
• A license, not ownership. Claiming or winning a world gives you a personal, non-transferable license to hold it, name it, and show it within Starsown, for as long as your account exists and you keep to these terms. Starsown, its registry, and every world in it remain ours. A license ends when your account is deleted (the world returns to the sky, unclaimed) and may be ended under these terms, for example after a ban.
• Sown worlds are intended to be permanent, but we may correct, merge, reassign, or remove registry entries where needed to fix bugs, reverse abuse, or comply with the law.

7. Your content

You keep ownership of anything you write: your bio, the names you give worlds and moons, the titles of systems you save, and the names and notes of your constellations. By posting it you give us permission to display it within Starsown for the purpose of running the game. The names you give worlds and moons become part of the registry's history, so that permission is lasting for them: they stay after your account is deleted, with no link to you, as the privacy page says. You are responsible for what you post, and you confirm you have the right to post it.

8. Our content

The Starsown name, the site, its code, its generation engine, and its visual design belong to the operator. You may freely share links to worlds, and screenshots of worlds, including publicly and commercially: that is what the game is for. You may not copy the site's code, reproduce the generation engine, or present Starsown or its worlds as your own product.

9. Availability

Starsown is provided as is and as available, with no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. It is a free game run by one person. It may be slow, break, lose data, change its rules, or go offline permanently, with or without notice. Do not rely on it for anything that matters.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the operator will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, worlds, progress, or goodwill, arising from your use of Starsown. Because Starsown is provided free of charge, total liability for any claim relating to it is limited to one hundred United States dollars (US$100). Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate an account that breaks these terms, abuses the service, or endangers other wanderers, and in serious cases without warning. You may stop using Starsown or delete your account at any time. Sections 6 through 12 survive termination.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If we do, the date at the top changes, and significant changes will be announced in the game rather than quietly edited in. Continuing to use Starsown after a change means you accept the updated terms.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Texas, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring them elsewhere.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms, reports of rule-breaking, or anything else: justin.l.black@gmail.com.