zaadz
December 2008 
Zaadz Terms of Use
Brian
Hola. So, I’m working on our Terms of Use. I want to share my draft with you guys for feedback. Our legal counsel and I will be working on it this week. All thoughts/comments/feedback appreciated.
Here she is:
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Zaadz, Inc.: Terms of Use for Zaadz.com
Greetings. This is Brian, your friendly Philosopher & CEO here at Zaadz, Inc., welcoming you to www.zaadz.com on behalf of our entire team.
We’re happy you’re here and are working hard to create a powerful oasis for you—a place where you can surround yourself with other passionate souls committed to living at their highest potential and supporting others in the process of doing the same…and changing the world in the process.
Before I get into the requisite legal mumbo-jumbo, I want to start with what’s important: namely, that we create a mutual understanding of the intention that we (you and Zaadz, Inc.) are bringing to this relationship. We’re going to live up to our end and by participating on our site you commit to doing the same.
[Quick tangent: Why do all contracts have to be so lame? I mean, I understand you need to cover technical details but does it have to be in such an unpleasant/adversarial tone? …One of the main reasons I dropped out of law school (Boalt Class of 2000, baby!!)…But, I digress…]
Let’s start with the important stuff:
Rule #1. No a**holes allowed. Period. If you’re not here to inspire and empower yourself and others to live at your highest potential, (very pretty) please go find another social networking site that shares your intention. Thanks.
[Quick note: Long ago I realized that the type of people with whom I interacted greatly affected my overall well-being. As such, I now consciously choose to deal with people who “get it”—whether it’s my friends, my investors or my business partners. We hope you’re one of those people. If so, we’re thrilled to support you in the process of growth and love and service and creativity and all that good stuff. If not, it’s all good.]
Ahhhh. Now that we’ve gotten THAT out…
Rule #2. Let’s create a high center of gravity. (It’s really Rule #1 stated positively. :) Our society operates at a “center of gravity”—a level of awareness/consciousness/perspective—that is, tragically, rather low. We want to raise that.
We’re not always going to agree all the time (thank God!), but we can agree to disagree in a respectful manner. Again, we’re going to have a LOT of different vantage points in our community—which will create an amazing vibrancy provided that we all share the same intention: an intention of love, respect, and a genuine desire to discover our own truths in the process of supporting other members to discover theirs.
Simply put: be cool.
[If you want to get all angry and take your rage out, just hop in your car and flip people off and honk and stuff. (Well, please don’t do that either…but you know what I mean.)]
Are you an artist or content creator? Then you care most about this section:
Content. You own your content. We do not. It’s pretty simple. We don’t claim any rights to your content other than the ability to display it on our site as long as you keep it up. In the event Zaadz, Inc. ever wants to create an asset from the content our members created (like a book of art or stories or whatever), I'd like to make that a COLLABORATIVE process where our members are THRILLED to be part of it--it would lose 99.99999% (make that 100%) of it's magic if it wasn't a mutually beautiful creation. No?
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From here I’m going to let our legal counsel throw in the requisite (sigh) legal stuff.
Other significant issue we need to address (the big big one is the ownership of content) is nudity in pictures. I want to hear your thoughts on it.
Access: Public
From Claire in a tribe dialogue:
Sun, January 29, 2006 - 7:45 AM My suggestions for nudity on your site: tell people that if they are uploading photos with nudity, etc. they:
1. Need to know the people in the photos and should have up-to-date contact info for them–it goes without saying that the people need to be over 18
2. Need to have asked the people in the photos if they mind having those particular photos displayed online, specifically at your site.
3. Should mark photos as containing nudity and/or sexually explicit conduct, so people can avoid looking if they are easily offended.
I think this is the only way to handle online nudity, in any case, unless people in fotos are professional models. Allowing the upload of pre-processed porn is dumb because it violates copyright law and puts you at risk for the same sorts of legal issues the porn industry has to deal with. You can’t enforce the first two points very well, but providing the suggestion is a good way to remind people of something they should do anyway. I don’t even upload pictures of friends wearing clothes anywhere on the internet unless I know for sure they won’t mind. Privacy issues.
I most sincerely thank you for the content clause, surprisingly simple and effective. Now I know I need not fear sharing the gifts of my visions here.
Peace,
libramoon
I think ALL the creators of zaadz should post nude pictures of themselves on zaadz.com and all over the internet in SPAM-like fashion. I think this is the best way to get the word out about zaadz. Oh, and naked baby pictures don’t count… sorry Brian.
Ok, seriously, I think that nudity should be allowed (as long as the subject has given permission) with zaadz reserving the right to delete any pictures they consider obscene. But I think the character of the community will determine the content of the pictures. I rest my case.
I think Yahoo’s profile pages offer the best existing model of what Zaadz should consider. Anyone can look at any person’s Yahoo profile as long as it’s not listed in the “adult” section. If you click through to somebody’s profile, you’re asked to click a button saying you’re over 17 and that you accept that the following profile might contain objectionable material.
I guess, under this scheme, anytime you upload a picture to your profile, to finish the process you would click a button indicating whether or not the picture has nudity.
Also, on a related concept, how do you feel about profanities in profiles? If Zaadz scans profiles upon creation for a dozen or two explicit words, it might bring up a dialog box asking the user to make it an adult profile.
Please note that this comment contains not one original idea. There may well be an even smarter approach than what Yahoo uses. I think if an alternate approach is conceived, it ought to be judged in comparison to Yahoo’s approach, so that we can see what is lost and what is gained.
Well I’m no lawyer, but thought I would offer some feedback.I just came across this pic in someone’s profile: Nude pic
in fact that’s the first nudity I’ve seen on the site so far, and actually I hadn’t even thought about this topic until you mentioned it in this blog (not thought like as in ever, I mean just regarding this site, not that I think of nudity all the time when not here, I mean… oh shut up flex! *oops*)
Personally I see no problem with that pic, even for a younger person.It’s more artistic than porn.
Anyway hope that helps, would be interested what you think of that pic as well Brian (and anyone else who wishes to comment) - Acceptable/unacceptable/blah?
yep. ownership of content and censorship (e.g. nudity) are big legal issues.
but thank goodness there are already some companies out there who partially succeeded in addressing these. take for example Flickr. since the beginning they’ve embraced Creative Commons. and i’m sure Zaadz will do the same, or better.
as for the nudity, again, Flickr set the standard by empowering it’s members to do the actual “policing.” i’m not sure how effective this is, but as a frequent Flickr user myself, i rarely see offensive photos out there. unless i actually look for them.
so yeah, i’m sure you guys are on top of these things already. i just want to share my two cents on these topics.
Hi Brian,
Glad to see your brand name permeating the Tribe subconscious like a benign virus.
My take on the issue of appropriate content, as it pertains to Zaadz, and based on all the threads I have read on tribe about the issue, as well as the experience I have had in other communities, is:
1_You are creating a different kind of community. It is not solely the ‘networking’ and ‘socializing’ as core benefit. You are building Zaadz under the vision of a particular outlook to change society. You are not an ideologized(ing) entity promoting one set of values, but and engine of enlightenment promoting those fundamental and universal civic ones which generate trusting cohesion among your members. With this said, I think that the nature of the minds (seeds) you are attracting -and the content they bring along with them, will naturally ascribe to the core values of the site.
2_ The subjectivity of all content will always be a bone of contention between differing views. What one user sees as pornography another will deem as art (Maplethorpe). There is no way around this. My suggestion is that you invest the most on a strong UI and back-end development which will alleviate the subjectivity by channeling the users and their exposure to content based on their exist-‘stance’ in your community.
3_ Use a smart UI. Learn from related content providers. Spirit companies get around the legal issues associated with age and content by granting access to their online experience contingent upon the user cricking a ‘statement of age/disclaimer’ feature right at the onset, when they arrive to the site. This information about the user would purportedly and truthfully be part of the profile in Zaadz. Now, combine this feature with the one you get in some online communities such as www.gaydar.co.uk, where, due to the nature of their constituency, it is a given there will be certain kind of nudity. The way they get around not exposing new visitors to the site to that kind of material, is through membership. If you are a member, you agree to the TOU. In addition, truly x-rated content is only visible to those members with a ‘premium’ subscription.
Also, members are required to ‘Label’ (no ‘flag’) their profile with a color dot that clearly denotes the sort of content one is about to see within the profile. Most people accurately follow this and it is very efficient.
4_Membership types. I would seriously consider getting your members accustomed to the fact that at some point in time, Zaadz site might not be free in all of its functionality (if that is your intent). It has been widely accepted by many Tribe members when the “advertising’ issue (fiasco) burst into discussions, that given relevant benefits, many members would happily pay for a premium version of the site. Perhaps, even if you charge a very low, but simblolic fee ($1 - ‘seed’ money) initially and people value the online experience you have built so far, many members would gladly pitch in, especially if they are true believers.
If you develop a good UI, people will feel at home and will germinate along with your vision.
Peace,
Fz
I very much like rule #2. Go for it, guys.
CalmEagle
GENIUS feedback.
Hey: quick FYI: we’ve got a little think tank going on over here. ;)
Fair enough. Consciously so.
(you look like a nice guy, though. ;)