The Terms of Use Agreement below governs your usage of the rankd.com website and all associated services and offerings.
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Acceptance of Terms
All services offered by rankd, including the rankd.com website ("Site"), are owned and operated by rankd and are accessible to you under the Terms of Use described below ("Terms of Use").
PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE BEFORE USING THESE SERVICES. BY ACCESSING THE RANKD.COM WEBSITE, USING ANY SERVICE PROVIDED BY RANKD, OR TAKING PART IN ANY OFFER PROVIDED BY OR ENDORSED BY RANKD, YOU AGREE TO BECOME BOUND BY THE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS THE SITE, USE ANY SERVICE PROVIDED BY RANKD, OR TAKE PART IN ANY OFFER PROVIDE BY OR ENDORSED BY RANKD.
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Service
rankd may offer to provide certain services, content, and/or offers described on the Site, ("Services"). Services include, but are not limited to, any service rankd performs for you, as well as the offering of any materials displayed, transmitted or performed on the Site or through the Services, including but not limited to items, comments, types of items, thumbs, ratings, rankings, and profiles ("Content"). rankd may change, suspend or discontinue any of its Services including any Content for any reason, at any time, including the availability of any feature or content. rankd may also limit certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability.
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Registration and Eligibility
Some Services on the Site are only available to registered users. Per the Terms of Use, rankd requires users to register to post and thumb comments, create and rate items, create profiles, and similar actions ("Participation"). Registration requires, at minimum: (i) a username, (ii) a password, (iii) a valid e-mail address, (iv) submission of a one-time verification code, and (v) indication of acceptance to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You agree to provide rankd with accurate and complete information, which includes updating your profile regularly to meet this requirement. Failure to do so is considered a breach of the Terms of Use, may result in immediate termination or suspension of your account on the Site, and/or access to any other Services or offers provided by rankd.
You may not register an account on the Site with a username that (i) matches the name of another person, with the intent to impersonate or cause any harm to that person; (ii) is a brand name, trademark, service mark, or similar in which you do not own the rights to; (iii) is offensive, illegal, vulgar, obscene, and/or attacks an individual or group. rankd reserves the right to refuse registration or terminate or suspend any account or group of accounts at its discretion and at any time, with or without notice. It is the responsibility of the registrant/account holder to maintain the confidentiality of the account password. Account sharing is strictly prohibited.
Users of rankd must be at least 13 years of age. If you do not meet registration eligibility, you may not register or attempt to register on the Site, and you must discontinue using rankd and all of its associated Services immediately.
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Conduct
As part of the Terms of Use, you agree not to use the Services offered by rankd for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms, or for any other purpose not reasonably intended by rankd.
Examples of Service abuse includes, but is not limited to, using the Services to:
- abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate, or intimidate any other users of the Site;
- transmit Content that is infringing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive or in violation of local, state, and/or federal laws, or the rights of any third party;
- for any purposes which are illegal;
- communicate or solicit in any way designed or intended to obtain the password or any other private information from another user of the Site ("Phishing");
- create or submit unwanted Content ("Spam") to any of the Site's users, partners/affilitates, or third parties referenced on the Site;
- violate copyright laws;
- submit any Content that references or links to affiliate programs, multi-level marketing schemes ("Pyramid Schemes"), or similar;
- with the exception of RSS feeds, you agree to not make use of any automated programs, scripts, robots, or similar mechanisms to access the Site for any purpose, without the express written permission of rankd. You also agree not to (i) take any action that places, or may place at the sole discretion of rankd, an unreasonable amount of load on our servers and infrastructure; (ii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site, in whole or in part; (iii) circumvent any measures used by rankd to prevent or limit access to the Site; or (vi) attempt to gain access to any systems or private information within, determined by reasonable and sound judgement, owned or operated by rankd, or in any way associated with the rankd Site, Services, or other offers;
- artificially and/or intentionally inflate or alter ratings, rankings, comment thumbs, number of items, or any other Service or component by (i) creating separate user accounts for the purpose of unnaturally altering rankd Services and/or Content; (ii) giving or receiving monetary or any other compensation in exchange for ratings or comment thumbs; or (iii) participating in any other individual or group effort to manipulate any Content on the Site;
- advertise or solicit the buying or selling of any products or services. You also agree not to use any information obtained from the Site to contact, advertise to, solicit, or otherwise interact with any user or third party without their prior, explicit consent;
- buy, sell, share, or otherwise transfer your account ownership and profile;
rankd may remove any Content, Service, or user account at any time and for any reason, at the sole discretion of rankd. Please report suspected or witnessed abuse of the Terms of Use Agreement to
.
As a user of rankd, you are solely responsible for your actions and interactions with other users of the Site. rankd may monitor and/or arbitrate disputes between you and other users, but is not obligated in any way to do so.
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User-generated Content
By uploading, submitted, posting, or otherwise disclosing any Content to the Site, whether for public or private display, for inclusion into the Site, you assert that you own all rights to the Content and you agree that the Content will be subject to the Creative Commons Public Domain License, viewable in full at http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/. This term does not apply to Content owned or appearing on third party sites, partners, or affiliates, or Content created and published by rankd.
Items are unique entities that represent a person, place, or thing. Items can only be created by registered users of rankd.com and are depicted by an icon, provided by the creator. Such items are published instantly on the rankd.com website. rankd makes every effort to ensure that items are not offensive, inaccurate, misleading, or illegal. Items are governed by the rankd.com Terms of Use. All items and associated content, with the exception of registered trademarks and copyrighted images, become the property of rankd. rankd reserves the right to modify, temporarily suspend, or permanently remove items deemed to be inaccurate, misrepresenting, offensive, illegal, duplicate, or in violation of any of the rankd.com Terms of Use. rankd may change icons for items that are blurry, inaccurate, misrepresenting, or for any other reason to enhance the rankd Services and/or user experience.
All ratings, rankings, comments, and comment thumbs are the opinions of the users of rankd.com, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the creators or operators of rankd, or its affiliates, partners, or suppliers. Such submissions are governed by the The First Amendment to the United States Constitution which protects the right to freedom of speech from government interference. Ratings and rankings are automatically calculated using a series of online and offline processing mechanisms and algorithms which attempt to amalgamate all data, implicitly and explicitly, submitted by the users of rankd to provide aggregate, summarizing, bottom-line information about any given category or topic. Calculations of ratings, rankings, comment weighting, or user influence ("User Karma") are not performed by humans, nor will rankd ever devise its mechanisms for performing such calculations to do so with any bias, partiality, or unfairness. While rankd may give affiliates, partners, and other third parties some control over certain aspects of its website, such as advertising components, such parties cannot alter, reset, remove, or in any way change ratings, rankings, comment weighting, or User Karma. rankd will not acknowledge any request or demand to alter, reset, remove, or in any way change a rating, ranking, comment content, comment weighting, or User Karma from any persons or parties.
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Copyright Infringement
rankd will make every effort to promptly respond to all copyright and other intellectual property infringement claims. rankd will investigate and act on notices of such activity using reasonable and good-faith judgment, and in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and other applicable intellectual property laws. In some cases, Content may be removed immediately, and without question, upon receipt of DMCA abuse notices while the issue is investigated. rankd may choose to re-publish the Content if such Content is not considered unlawful or in violation of rankd or third party terms, at the sole discretion of rankd and in compliance with local, state, and federal laws. rankd will terminate access to repeat offenders of any kind.
Reporting copyright infringement must be done via written, electronic communication, with the subject "Copyright Infringement Notice", and to be sent to
. rankd may choose to post your notification, modified or in its original form and with potentially personally-identifying information, to websites like chillingeffects.org or other public websites which aggregate such notices. You may be liable for damages, which include any costs incurred during report investigation and/or processing, including legal fees) if you materially misrepresent that an activity is infringing your copyright. rankd will make reasonable attempts to contact the owner or administrator of the affected site or content, if we have removed Content in response to a copyright infringement notice.
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Privacy
By agreeing to the Terms of Use, you also agree to the Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy"). Please read the latest version of the Privacy Policy for more information regarding the privacy of your information.
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Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless rankd, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, customers, vendors, officers, and employees from any liability, damage, or cost (including legal fees) from (i) claims or demands made by third parties due to or arising out of your access to the Site, use of the Services, violation of the Terms of Use by you, or the infringement by you, or any third party using your account rankd account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.
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Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL RANKD OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY (I) WITH RESPECT TO THE SITE, THE SERVICE OR ANY CONTENT FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES (HOWEVER ARISING), OR (II) FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF (IN THE AGGREGATE) $100. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
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Termination
rankd may terminate or suspend any number of user accounts, items, comments, ratings, comment thumbs, or other Content, limit access of any kind, or cease operation of any or all of its Services at any time, with or without notice or liability, and for any reason. Such actions can often, but not always, be the result of a violation of the Terms of Use. Upon termination, your access to the Services provided by rankd, and any other offers, will be immediately disabled. If you wish to terminate your account on rankd, simply discontinue using the Services. All provisions of the Terms of Use which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
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Disclaimers
You acknowledge and agree that rankd has no control over, and no duty to take any action regarding (i) which users gain access to the Site or use the Services; (ii) the effects that Content on the Site may have on you or your business; (iii) how you interpret or make use of the Content; or (iv) what actions you may take as a result of exposure to the Site and/or its Content. You release rankd from all liability for you having acquired or not acquired Content through the Site or the Services. The Site and its Services may contain, or direct you to sites containing, information that you may find offensive or inappropriate. rankd makes no representations concerning any content contained in or accessed through the Site or Services. rankd will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of material contained in, or accessed through, the Site or Services.
THE SERVICE, CONTENT, AND SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
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Third Parties
Links to third party websites or resources may be submitted by users and appear on the site. Since rankd does not have control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that rankd is not responsible for their availability, or the accuracy and subject matter of the such third party content, nor does rankd necessarily endorse or explicitly advertise third party links or resources posted by users of the Site. rankd is not directly or indirectly responsible or liable for any damage or loss caused or said to be caused by, or in connection or reliance on, the content, goods, services, or similar existing on a third party website.
All brand names, logos, trademarks, service marks, slogans/taglines, and other property for which rankd or its users do not own the rights to are the property of their respective owners, and are not affiliated with rankd in any way, unless otherwise noted.
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Changes to Terms of Use
rankd reserves the right, at any time and for any reason, to alter or replace the Terms of Use at any time. If such alterations constitute an adverse, material affect to the Terms of Use, rankd will post a public announcement on the Site and may notify registered users by e-mail. What constitutes an "adverse, material affect" will be determined by rankd, in good faith and with reasonable judgment. In the event of such alterations, you are responsible for reviewing all alterations to the Terms of Use. By using or continuing to use the Services constitutes your acceptance to the Terms of Use, as modified.
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Miscellaneous
No partnership, agency, venture, or employment is created as a result of the Terms of Use, and you waive your right to all authority to bind rankd and/or its affiliates, in any respect, whatsoever. The failure of either party to exercise any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder. rankd shall not be liable for failure to perform its obligations hereunder, where such are caused by issues beyond rankd's reasonable control.
If any provision of the Terms of Use Agreement is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited to the minimum extent necessary, or removed at last resort, so that the Terms of Use shall otherwise remain in full force and effect. The Terms of Use cannot be reassigned, transferred, or sub-licensed by you except with the prior, written consent of rankd. rankd may transfer, assign, or delete the Terms of Use and its rights without any consent.
The Terms of Use Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with laws of the State of Massachusetts, as if made within Massachusetts between two residents thereof, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Superior Court of Middlesex County and the United States District Court for Middlesex County. Notwithstanding the foregoing sentence, but without limiting the right for rankd to seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction, any disputes arising with respect to the Terms of Use shall be referred to an arbitrator. The arbitrator shall be selected by joint agreement of the parties. In the event the parties cannot agree on an arbitrator within thirty (30) days of the initiating party providing the other party with written notice that it plans to seek arbitration, the parties shall each select an arbitrator and selected arbitrators shall jointly select a third arbitrator to resolve the dispute. The written decision of the arbitrator shall be final and binding on the parties. The arbitration proceeding shall be carried on and heard in Boston, Massachusetts using the English language. In any action or proceeding to enforce rights under the Terms of Use, the prevailing party will be entitled to recover costs and legal fees. Both parties agree that the Terms of Use is the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding of the parties and supersedes and cancels all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of the Terms of Use, and that all modifications must be in a writing signed by both parties, except as otherwise provided herein.
