Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance

These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern your use of PocketOuting, on the web and in our iOS and Android apps (together, the “Service”), operated by PocketOuting (“we”, “us”). By creating an account or using the Service you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to hold an account, and old enough in your jurisdiction to enter a binding contract, or else have a parent or guardian’s permission and supervision. You may not use the Service if we have previously suspended or removed your account. Individual events may set their own age requirements, which the host is responsible for enforcing at the door.

3. Your account

You sign in with an emailed magic link or with Google. Anyone with access to that mailbox or Google account can reach yours, so keep it secure and tell us promptly if you think someone else has gotten in. Give accurate information, keep it current, and do not impersonate another person or create an account on someone else’s behalf without permission. You are responsible for what happens under your account.

4. What the Service is — and is not

PocketOuting is a place to publish, find, and organize events. The events themselves belong to the people who host them. We do not organize, sponsor, inspect, supervise, or verify events, venues, hosts, or guests, we make no promise that any event will happen as described or at all, and we are not a party to any agreement between a host and a guest. We may change, suspend, or discontinue features at any time.

5. Your content

You keep ownership of everything you post — event details, photos, comments, group content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, adapt for display, and distribute that content solely to operate, promote, and improve the Service, for as long as you keep it posted and for a reasonable period afterward while it clears our backups. If you post an event publicly, that license includes showing it publicly and letting search engines index it.

You promise that you have the rights to what you post, including permission from people recognizable in photos, and that it does not infringe anyone’s rights or break the law. We may remove content that violates these Terms, but we have no obligation to monitor or screen anything.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Post anything unlawful, hateful, harassing, threatening, defamatory, sexually explicit, or that exploits a minor.
• Promote illegal activity, violence, weapons or drug sales, or events that break local law, permits, or venue rules.
• Spam, run scams, sell fake tickets, or list events you have no intention of holding.
• Harvest other users’ contact details, scrape the Service, or use bots or automated access without our written permission.
• Attempt to break authentication, access data that is not yours, probe or overload our systems, or evade rate limits or a suspension.
• Reverse engineer, resell, or white-label the Service.
• Use another person’s contact information to send invitations they have not agreed to receive.

7. If you host an event

Hosting comes with obligations that are yours, not ours:

• Describe the event accurately — time, place, cost, age policy, what is included, what guests should expect.
• Hold the rights and permissions you need: the venue, permits, licenses, insurance, and compliance with local law.
• Take reasonable care for the safety of your guests, and handle admission and any age limits yourself.
• Use guest information — names, RSVPs, contact details, ticket data — only to run that event. Do not sell it, add people to unrelated marketing, or reuse it for another event without their agreement.
• Honor what you promised your guests, including any refund policy you set.

8. Invitations, email, and SMS

When you invite someone by email or text, you confirm that you have their contact details legitimately and a reasonable basis to think they want an invitation from you, and that you will comply with anti-spam and text messaging laws, including the CAN-SPAM Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Message and data rates may apply to recipients. Anyone can stop texts by replying STOP, unsubscribe from the link in an email, or adjust notifications in Account settings. We may throttle or block invitations that look like spam, and repeated abuse costs you your account.

Texts we send you about your own account are a separate matter, and you control them. PocketOuting only sends them after you tick the SMS consent box in Account settings; they are automated transactional messages about event invitations, event updates, RSVP activity, reminders, schedule changes, and your account. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help.

9. If you attend an event

Events on PocketOuting bring you into contact with people we have not vetted, at places we have not inspected. Use the same judgment you would with any invitation: check who is hosting, tell someone where you are going, and meet publicly when you do not know the host. You attend at your own risk. To the fullest extent the law allows, you release us from claims arising out of any event, any interaction with another user, and anything that happens before, during, or after an event.

10. Tickets and payments

Where ticketing is available, payments are processed by Stripe and are subject to Stripe’s terms. The host, not PocketOuting, is the seller: the host sets the price and refund policy and is responsible for delivering the event, for tax, and for handling refunds and disputes. We may charge a service fee, which will be disclosed at checkout before you pay. Chargebacks, fraud, or abuse of ticketing may result in cancelled tickets and a suspended account. Tickets are personal to the buyer and may not be resold except where the host allows it.

11. Groups

Group owners and organizers control membership, group content, and the events a group publishes, and are responsible for them. Being removed from a group, or a group being deleted, may remove your access to its content.

12. Reporting, moderation, and suspension

You can report an event, a photo, or a user from within the app. We review reports at our discretion and may remove content, limit features, suspend, or terminate an account that breaks these Terms or creates risk for other people — with notice where practical, and without it when the situation calls for speed. You can stop using the Service at any time and delete your account from Account settings.

13. Third-party services

The Service uses and links to things we do not control — maps and address search, sign-in providers, payment processing, email and SMS delivery, ticket links and venue sites posted by hosts. Their terms and privacy policies govern your use of them, and we are not responsible for their content or conduct.

14. Mobile apps and notifications

We grant you a personal, revocable, non-transferable license to use our mobile apps on devices you own or control. Your use is also subject to the rules of the app store you installed from. Apple and Google are not responsible for the apps or for support, and are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms with the right to enforce them against you. If you turn on push notifications you agree to receive them for the events, invitations, and updates you have opted into; you can turn them off in Account settings or in your device settings.

15. Our intellectual property

The Service — its software, design, and the PocketOuting name and logo — belongs to us and our licensors. These Terms give you permission to use the Service, not any ownership of it. Stock imagery offered inside the app is provided under its own open licenses and remains the property of its creators.

16. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, that notifications, emails, or texts will arrive, or that any content on the Service is accurate. Some jurisdictions do not allow these exclusions, in which case they apply to you only as far as the law permits.

17. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or loss of goodwill, arising out of your use of the Service, any event, or any interaction with another user. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or one hundred United States dollars.

18. Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold harmless PocketOuting and its officers, employees, and agents from claims, damages, losses, and reasonable legal fees arising out of your content, your events, your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of anyone’s rights.

19. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to conflict of laws rules. Before filing anything, email us at support@pocketouting.com and give us thirty days to resolve the dispute — most things end there. Otherwise you and we agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York, United States, except that either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court. Nothing here takes away a consumer right your local law gives you and does not allow you to waive.

20. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms and will move the date at the top when we do. Material changes get notice in the app or by email before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the new Terms; if you do not, delete your account.

21. General

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about the Service. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest stays in force. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — content license for backups, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, and disputes — do.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms go to support@pocketouting.com.