The short version
Decide exists to help groups make decisions. Use it for that. Do not use it to harm people, break the law, or attack the service itself. If you see something on Decide that violates this policy, email [email protected] and we will look at it.
Who this applies to
This policy covers poll creators, voters, account holders, and anyone interacting with Decide through any channel we operate. By creating a poll or casting a vote, you agree to follow it.
Decide is operated by Contemplative Software LLC (in formation), based in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
What you may not do
You may not use Decide to do any of the following, whether in a poll's title, an option, a vote, a write-in suggestion, an uploaded file, a display name, or anywhere else content can appear.
Illegal content and conduct
- Post or solicit child sexual abuse material. We report this to NCMEC and to law enforcement.
- Promote or facilitate human trafficking, terrorism, or violence against any person or group.
- Sell or arrange the sale of regulated goods (firearms, drugs, prescription medication, stolen items) to anyone who is not allowed to buy them.
- Violate sanctions, export controls, or any applicable law.
Harm to other people
- Harass, threaten, defame, or stalk anyone. This includes creating polls about an identifiable person without their consent if the poll is designed to embarrass or harm them.
- Publish someone's private information (home address, phone number, government ID, financial details) without permission. This is called doxing and we do not allow it.
- Run polls intended to target or coordinate harassment against a person or group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or serious disease.
- Impersonate another person or a brand in a way meant to deceive.
Abuse of the platform
- Stuff ballots, manipulate vote counts, or evade the per-device cookie that limits voting.
- Run deceptive polls (push polls disguised as neutral surveys, fake giveaways, phishing pages, or polls used as a vehicle to trick voters into clicking malicious links).
- Send unsolicited bulk messages of any kind using Decide, or use Decide as a target for a spam campaign.
- Scrape, index, or otherwise harvest data from Decide at a scale or in a way that goes beyond what a reasonable human user would do.
- Use Decide to mine cryptocurrency, host generic file storage, or any purpose unrelated to decision making.
Attacks on the service
- Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any Decide system without our explicit written permission.
- Disrupt the service through denial-of-service traffic, abuse of API rate limits, or attacks on shared infrastructure.
- Reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract source code from client- or server-side code beyond what is permitted by law.
- Use the service in a way that interferes with other users' ability to use it.
Account abuse
- Share an account or sell access to an account. Each account is for one person.
- Create accounts to evade an earlier suspension or to abuse free quotas.
- Provide false information when signing up or being billed.
Security research
We welcome good-faith security research. If you find a vulnerability, please report it privately to [email protected] with enough detail to reproduce it, and give us a reasonable window to fix it before public disclosure. We will not take action against research that follows this approach and does not cause harm.
Reporting a violation
If you see content or behavior on Decide that violates this policy, email [email protected] with:
- The link to the poll, page, or content in question.
- A short description of what is wrong.
- Any context that helps us assess it (screenshots, etc.).
We aim to acknowledge reports within two business days. We will not share your identity with the reported party unless we have to by law.
What happens when someone breaks the rules
Our response is proportionate to the conduct. We may take any of the following actions, alone or in combination:
- Hide or remove the offending poll, option, vote, file, or display name.
- Warn the account holder.
- Suspend or terminate the account responsible.
- Apply temporary rate limits or extra verification to slow down abuse, especially from anonymous sources.
- Refer the matter to law enforcement, where the conduct may be criminal.
We act on reports and on automated signals. Severe or clearly illegal content may be hidden automatically and then reviewed by a person. Automated decisions are reversible, and we keep a record of the actions we take.
How we handle your IP address: we never build a record that identifies you by IP address. For abuse prevention we may use short-lived, non-identifying signals to slow down bad actors, and our infrastructure provider may throttle abusive traffic at the network edge. We do not ban people by IP.
Appeals
If you believe we got an enforcement decision wrong, write to [email protected] (or reply to any email we sent you) with the poll link or your account email. We aim to review appeals within two business days.
Copyright and other intellectual-property claims
If you believe content on Decide infringes your copyright, send a DMCA notice to [email protected] that identifies the work, the infringing material, your contact details, and the standard sworn statements required by the DMCA. We will respond, and we will terminate repeat infringers.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the service after a change means you accept the new policy. For privacy-specific terms, see our Privacy Policy.
Governing law
This policy is governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.