Terms of use

These terms are the agreement between you and us when you use Storycrest. Please read them. Using the site means you accept them.

Who we are. Storycrest is run by Philip Carden, a New Zealander living in Haarlem in the Netherlands. "We" and "us" mean that; "you" means the person using the site. Write to privacy@storycrest.org about anything here.

Storycrest is in beta

Storycrest is invite-only and unfinished. Things will change, break, and occasionally be withdrawn. We may change or stop any part of it, and we may end the beta, without notice.

Be careful with work you cannot afford to lose. Keep your own copy of anything that matters to you. We back the database up and we take care with your writing, but this is early software and you should not rely on it as your only copy.

Your account

You need an account, and an invitation, to use Storycrest. You must be at least 16 years old.

Give us an email address that reaches you, keep your password to yourself, and tell us at security@storycrest.org if you think someone else is using your account. What happens under your account is your responsibility.

One person, one account. Don't let someone else use yours, and don't make an account for someone who isn't allowed one.

There's no charge for Storycrest while it is in beta. If that ever changes we will tell you first, and nothing you have already written will be held behind a payment.

Your stories and other content stay yours

You own your stories and other content: anything you write, upload or add to Storycrest, such as research, notes, sources and images. Nothing here transfers any ownership of it to us, and we make no claim on it.

To run the product we need your permission to do the obvious things with your stories and other content: store it, back it up, show it to you, carry it between the people you share a story with, and display it to anyone you publish it to. That permission is limited to doing what you ask of Storycrest, and nothing beyond it. It lasts as long as you keep the work on the site, and ends when you delete it — except for backups that have not yet cycled out, and for copies other people were entitled to keep while you were sharing with them.

We don't train anything on your stories and other content, and we don't sell it or give it to anyone who would. If that ever changes it will be something you are asked about first, not something buried in an update to this page.

What you import is your responsibility. When you import a file or a Google Doc, you are telling us you have the right to put that work here.

What you share with other people

A story is private until you share it. If you add collaborators, they can read and — depending on the role you give them — change the story. You can remove someone's access at any time, and it takes effect at once, but you cannot unsee what they have already seen or undo a copy they have already made. Share with people you trust.

If you publish a story, you are making it visible to anyone who can reach it.

What you may not do here

Don't use Storycrest to:

• post anything unlawful, or anything that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark or privacy;
• post sexual content involving children, or anything that sexualises a real child, in any form, fictional or otherwise;
• threaten, harass or incite violence against a real person;
• break into, overload, probe or disrupt the service, or try to reach parts of it or accounts that are not yours;
• scrape it, automate it, or resell access to it;
• upload malware, or use an import to try to break the importer.

Writing fiction about difficult things is not on this list, and is not what it is for. Storycrest is a place for stories, including uncomfortable ones. The line is between a story and using the site to do real harm.

If you break these rules we may remove content, suspend your account, or close it. Where it is reasonable to do so we will tell you why and give you a chance to reply first; where the content is unlawful or someone is at risk, we may act immediately.

Reporting something

Tell us at contact@storycrest.org if you see something here that breaks these rules, or if something of yours has been posted by someone who had no right to post it. Say what it is and where, and we will look into it.

Feedback you send us

Feedback is any idea, suggestion, bug report, request, sketch or comment you give us about Storycrest, however you send it: in the app, by email, in a call or in person.

• It belongs to us. You assign it to us now, with all rights in it, including any invention, design or copyright it contains or helps us make. Where the law doesn't allow an assignment of something not yet made, you will assign it when it is made.
• If we ask, you will sign the papers we reasonably need to protect it, such as a patent filing, at our cost.
• You waive any moral rights in it, as far as the law allows.
• We owe you nothing for it, and we don't have to use it.

Your stories and other content are never feedback, even if you send them to us with a bug report. This is about ideas for the product, never a claim on them.

Ending it

You. You can stop at any time. Delete your stories, or write to privacy@storycrest.org and ask us to close your account. We will delete what we hold about you as the privacy policy describes.

Us. We may suspend or close your account if you break these terms, if we are required to, or if we shut down the service. Unless you have broken the rules in a way that makes it unsafe to wait, we will give you reasonable notice and a way to get your writing out.

You can take your writing out at any time: Export, in a story's menu, gives you the story as a Word or Markdown file, or as a Google Doc. If you cannot reach your account, ask us and we will get you a copy of your stories.

What we promise, and what we don't

We will run Storycrest with reasonable care and skill, which is what the law requires of us and what we would do anyway.

Beyond that, the site is provided as it is. We do not promise that it will be available without interruption, that it will be free of faults, or that it will never lose data. We do not promise that it will suit a particular purpose you have in mind.

If something goes wrong

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not let us limit.

Subject to that: we are not liable for lost profits, lost business, or lost or corrupted data beyond what a reasonable person would have foreseen, and our total liability to you, for everything, is limited to the amount you have paid us, which while Storycrest is free is nothing.

This matters more than usual here, because the product is free and in beta. Keep your own copy of your work.

Changes to these terms

We will date every change and keep the earlier versions. If a change materially affects you we will tell you in the app, in your notifications, at least 14 days before it applies, and say the date it applies from. Using Storycrest from that date means accepting it. If you don't accept a change, you can say so in the app: from that date your stories can still be read and exported, but nothing more can be written in them or shared, and you can ask us to close your account. You can accept the change at any time.

• 2026-09-20 — first version.
• 2026-10-10 — how to take your writing out, now that Export exists, under "Ending it".
• 2026-10-10 — the permission you give us over your writing is limited to doing what you ask of Storycrest; it used to say "running and improving Storycrest", under "Your writing stays yours".
• 2026-10-23 — feedback about the product belongs to us, so ideas you send us can be protected; it used to say feedback came "without strings" and was not confidential, under "Feedback you send us". Applies from 13 November 2026.
• 2026-10-23 — what you own, the permission you give us and our promise not to train on it now cover your stories and other content (research, notes, sources, images), not only what you write; the section was "Your writing stays yours". Applies from 13 November 2026.
• 2026-10-23 — how you are told of a change: in the app, at least 14 days before it applies, where it used to say "and by email"; and what declining a change does, under "Changes to these terms". Applies from 13 November 2026.
• 2026-10-25 — you must be at least 16 years old to use Storycrest, where it used to say 13, under "Your account". Applies from 25 October 2026.

The rest

These terms, together with the privacy policy, are the whole agreement between us about Storycrest.

If any part of them is unenforceable, the rest still stands.

Not enforcing something once doesn't mean we've given it up.

You may not transfer your account or these terms to someone else. We may transfer them if the service moves to another company, and we will tell you if that happens.

These terms are governed by the law of The Netherlands, and the courts of The Netherlands have jurisdiction, except that if you live in another country you keep the protections of your own consumer law.

Contact

contact@storycrest.org