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. o O (IHOR Terms of Service 1.0) O o .
11 years ago
Happy Raffling! BDIf you know of any events that we haven't advertised yet, PLEASE SUBMIT THEM HERE! It's only with your help that this community can grow to it's full potential~
If you haven't yet, please read our Terms of Service before submitting advertisements.
I figured it's about time I wrote up an official Terms of Service (TOS) for this group, defining what can and cannot be posted here. That having been said, while I may run this group, I don't consider it to be mine. It belongs to the raffle community. So if there's a particular objection to any of these terms, please make it known. If there's support for a change, I'll put up an interest poll/vote, and take it from there.
The following guidelines apply from the time this is posted onward. They may be changed at any time. Any changes will apply from the time of their public posting in a new IHOR journal. For this listing, "SUBMISSION" applies to any sort of raffle, contest, giveaway, and so on that is submitted to IHOR via the form, notes, shout box, or any other means for the purpose of advertisement.
- Money as a Prize
This is strictly against FA's TOS. Submissions of this nature will not be journal advertised and will be removed from our shout box as soon as they are discovered.
- Payed Entry Only
If there is no way to enter a submission other than by paying a fee or making a donation, then that submission is in violation of FA's TOS and is possibly illegal as well. Submissions of this nature will not be journal advertised and will be removed from our shout box as soon as they are discovered.
- Gift Entry Only
If the only way to enter a submission is with a gift of artwork or material goods to the raffle holder, then the prize is not truly "free" and are not accessible to anyone without the means to provide that entry gift. Submissions of this nature may be advertised in our shout box, but will not be journal advertised.
- Commissions
If the prize to a submission is something the winner then has to pay for after winning, then all that is being given away a chance to buy something. This is not "free." This applies to auctions, raffling off commission slots, calling for commission-split partners, and things of that nature. Submissions of this nature may be advertised in our shout box, but will not be journal advertised. HOWEVER, submissions of this type that include and actual FREE raffle as part of a draw-in for advertisement are acceptable.
- Reposting Requirements
Submissions that require reposting on FA via journal and/or image in order to enter are against FA's Spam-to-Win TOS update. Submissions of this nature will not be advertised until the repost requirement has been removed.
- Reposting Off-Site Work-Around
Submissions that require advertisement to enter, but allow for that advertisement to be somewhere other than FA, inherently exclude those who do not have access to an outside resource to advertise with. Submissions of this nature may be advertised in our shout box, but will not be journal advertised.
- Rewarding FA Reposting
Submissions that reward users with extra entries for advertising via journal or image on FA are considered to be "encouraging" spam according to FA's Spam-to-Win TOS updates. Doing so may result in the raffle holder and/or reposting users being suspended at FA admins' discretion. Submissions that do this WILL be accepted and advertised normally. HOWEVER, IHOR takes no responsibility for the potential consequences of this practice.
- No Purchase Necessary, Void Where Prohibited
Submissions that give extra entries for donations, gifts of art/goods/etc, or advertisements but still provide a means for people to enter for without doing so, are acceptable and will be advertised normally
The following guidelines apply from the time this is posted onward. They may be changed at any time. Any changes will apply from the time of their public posting in a new IHOR journal. For this listing, "SUBMISSION" applies to any sort of raffle, contest, giveaway, and so on that is submitted to IHOR via the form, notes, shout box, or any other means for the purpose of advertisement.
- Money as a Prize
This is strictly against FA's TOS. Submissions of this nature will not be journal advertised and will be removed from our shout box as soon as they are discovered.
- Payed Entry Only
If there is no way to enter a submission other than by paying a fee or making a donation, then that submission is in violation of FA's TOS and is possibly illegal as well. Submissions of this nature will not be journal advertised and will be removed from our shout box as soon as they are discovered.
- Gift Entry Only
If the only way to enter a submission is with a gift of artwork or material goods to the raffle holder, then the prize is not truly "free" and are not accessible to anyone without the means to provide that entry gift. Submissions of this nature may be advertised in our shout box, but will not be journal advertised.
- Commissions
If the prize to a submission is something the winner then has to pay for after winning, then all that is being given away a chance to buy something. This is not "free." This applies to auctions, raffling off commission slots, calling for commission-split partners, and things of that nature. Submissions of this nature may be advertised in our shout box, but will not be journal advertised. HOWEVER, submissions of this type that include and actual FREE raffle as part of a draw-in for advertisement are acceptable.
- Reposting Requirements
Submissions that require reposting on FA via journal and/or image in order to enter are against FA's Spam-to-Win TOS update. Submissions of this nature will not be advertised until the repost requirement has been removed.
- Reposting Off-Site Work-Around
Submissions that require advertisement to enter, but allow for that advertisement to be somewhere other than FA, inherently exclude those who do not have access to an outside resource to advertise with. Submissions of this nature may be advertised in our shout box, but will not be journal advertised.
- Rewarding FA Reposting
Submissions that reward users with extra entries for advertising via journal or image on FA are considered to be "encouraging" spam according to FA's Spam-to-Win TOS updates. Doing so may result in the raffle holder and/or reposting users being suspended at FA admins' discretion. Submissions that do this WILL be accepted and advertised normally. HOWEVER, IHOR takes no responsibility for the potential consequences of this practice.
- No Purchase Necessary, Void Where Prohibited
Submissions that give extra entries for donations, gifts of art/goods/etc, or advertisements but still provide a means for people to enter for without doing so, are acceptable and will be advertised normally
If you're spending money on the winner's behalf rather than just giving it to them directly, there shouldn't be any issue with FA's rules, strange as that may be. That having been said, your raffle does still fall under the "Gift Entry Only" section, since design artwork is required to enter. ^^ It's still welcome to shout-box advertisement, just won't be going up in a journal.
It's not explicitly against the rules as I remembered it to be, though. It's under the Code of Conduct, worded as "gambling and games of chance (incl. raffles involving the exchange of real money)," which is vague and could be interpreted either way as to if that includes money as a prize as well or just as an entry. I wouldn't personally consider it gambling if you haven't lost anything by not winning. However, the section has been used against raffle holder offering cash prizes for free when they come to admin's attention.
Perhaps this section should be allowed with the same disclaimer as the "Rewarding FA Reposting" section?
Good job, theta!
I dont remember seeing that on the ToS ._.
And I see a lot of other people have caught on to the "loophole" as well.
loophole being the optional tickets
And what about the gambling thing?
Does this mean we cant sell raffle tickets anymore?
As for the gambling thing, technically it's always been against FA's TOS to sell raffle tickets though the site. Mostly this is because gambling laws vary from place to place and FA can be held legally accountable if some city/state/country/etc. decides to get involved.
FA's rules, as they were when this was written, have not changed. They have been clarified, and enforcement ramped up, but the rule itself has not changed. Event holders who violate those rules do so at their own risk.
So long as IHOR itself is not entering, it's advertisement is not being encouraged. As we advertise only with journals, only watchers will receive those advertisements. And since everyone who watches this group has done so with the explicit knowledge that our journals will advertise raffles, those journals cannot be considered spam. As such, IHOR is protected from damage in these cases by multiple paths.
Artists giving extra entries are getting raffles shut down and some suspended, and users posting for that reason are getting warnings as well as their journals removed.
As for "encouraging" people to follow the rule by excluding them from advertisement on the group? Seeing as they generally won't know they were excluded unless they submitted to the forum themselves (Only about 1/40 raffles that get posted are), or I take the time to inform them as mentioned above (Something I don't really have the free time to do, not to mention I'm getting tired of being snipped at for trying to cover their asses. =P ). Overall, that seems to me to be more of a punishment of our users than the raffle holders. I think it'll just be better in the long run to let those ones go up anyways.