These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, form the agreement between you and the Shovel team (we, us, our) covering shovel.one and everything we run on it (the Service). By creating an account, signing in, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
Shovel is a place to build imaginary worlds and write about them. People create universes, which are shared spaces for a single world or subject. Inside a universe, members write wiki pages together, publish posts, and connect shovels, which are standalone articles by a single author.
We may change these Terms. When a change is material we will give notice through the Service or by email before it takes effect, and we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the revised Terms. If you would rather not, you can stop using the Service and ask us to close your account.
You must be at least 14 years old to use Shovel. If the law where you live sets a higher minimum age for agreeing to terms like these on your own, you must meet that age instead. By using the Service you confirm that you meet this requirement and that you can enter into a binding agreement with us.
We do not verify age at sign up. If we learn that an account belongs to someone below the minimum age, we will close it and delete the personal data attached to it.
You may not use the Service if we have previously closed your account for breaking these Terms, or if your use would breach sanctions or export laws that apply to you.
Most of Shovel can be read without an account. You need one to write, comment, join a universe, or vote.
Sign in is passwordless. You can receive a single use magic link at your email address, or sign in with Google. There is no password to choose, which means whoever can reach your email inbox or your Google account can reach your Shovel account. Keep both secure, and tell us promptly if you think someone else has used your account.
You are responsible for what happens under your account. Do not impersonate another person, an organization, or Shovel itself, and do not pick a username or display name intended to mislead.
You may hold more than one account, but you may not use several accounts to evade a ban, to inflate likes, stars, or votes, or to make a discussion look busier than it is.
Shovel has no private universes and no private pages. Universes, wiki pages and their full history, posts, shovels, comments, and the usernames attached to them are readable by anyone on the internet, signed in or not, and search engines are allowed to index them.
Some settings restrict who may contribute to a universe, such as requiring membership or approval before posting. Those control writing, not reading. The only things we treat as private are your drafts, your unpublished wiki workspaces, your bookmarks, and reading lists, which are private unless you publish them.
So please do not put anything on Shovel that you would not want publicly attributed to you, and do not post other people private information. The Privacy Policy sets out exactly what is public and what is not.
You keep ownership of everything you create on Shovel: universes, wiki pages and revisions, posts, shovels, comments, and the images you upload. We claim no ownership of any of it.
So that we can run the Service, you grant us a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty free, sublicensable license to host, store, copy, adapt for technical purposes such as resizing and format conversion, publish, publicly display, and distribute your content, including through our content delivery network. This license exists only to operate, secure, improve, and promote the Service, and it ends for new uses when you delete the content or your account.
You confirm that you have the rights needed to post what you post, that it does not infringe anyone else rights, and that it does not break a law that applies to you.
Two things outlive deletion: routine backups may hold a copy for a limited period before they are rotated out, and anything you released under a universe license stays available to the people who already received it under that license. The next section explains why.
Every universe carries one Creative Commons license, chosen when it is created. Shovel offers four, all version 4.0: CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, and CC BY-NC-SA. All four require attribution. The full terms are at creativecommons.org.
Wiki pages, posts, and shovels linked to a universe are published under that universe license, and Shovel shows you which one applies before you publish. When you contribute, you release that contribution to the public under that license, and a Creative Commons license cannot be revoked. Deleting your contribution or your account removes it from Shovel, but it does not take back rights that other people already received.
A shovel that is not linked to any universe is not covered by a Creative Commons license, and all rights in it stay with its author.
A universe owner or sub owner may change the license. The change is announced to members and takes effect seven days later, so contributors have time to see it. It governs the universe from then on and changes how existing content is presented, but it cannot withdraw rights already granted under the previous license.
Attribution on Shovel is recorded per contribution: every revision, commit, post, shovel, and comment names its author. If you reuse material from a universe elsewhere, credit it as the license requires.
Wiki pages are collaborative. Anyone allowed to contribute may propose changes to a page you started, and reviewers may merge, revise, or revert them. Your name stays attached to the revisions you made, but contributing to a page does not give you a veto over it.
Depending on the universe settings and your permissions, a change you submit is either applied directly or opened as a proposal for review, where it may be approved, sent back for changes, rejected, or merged. Merged changes become part of the page history. They can be reverted by a later change, but they are not erased.
History has to stay legible, so we keep revision and commit records, including the author name and the edit summary, after the page itself has moved on. If you close your account we can detach your name from those records, but we do not remove the records. The Privacy Policy explains this in more detail.
Shovel is for building worlds and writing about them. Do not use it to:
Fiction that deals with difficult subjects is not the same as endorsing them, and we read context before acting. Presenting fiction as fact in order to deceive people is a different matter, and is not allowed.
Moderation happens in two places.
Inside a universe. The owner and any sub owners set the rules there, decide who may contribute, remove posts, revert wiki changes, unlink shovels, and ban people from that universe. A ban may be temporary or open ended and removes every ability to contribute to that universe, but it has no effect anywhere else on Shovel. These actions are written to a log the owner and sub owners can review. Universe rules belong to the universe, and we do not enforce them on its behalf.
Across the Service. We may remove content, limit features, or suspend or close accounts that break these Terms or the law, or that put the Service or the people using it at real risk. Where it is reasonable to do so we will tell you why, and you can reply to us.
Shovel does not yet have a report button. Until it does, please tell us about content that breaks these Terms by writing to legal@shovel.one, or by choosing Report a problem in the account menu. Those messages reach us and we read them.
If you believe something on Shovel infringes your copyright, write to legal@shovel.one with enough for us to act on: identify the work, give the address of the material you are complaining about, explain why you believe it infringes, tell us how to reach you, and confirm that you are making the complaint in good faith and that you are the rights holder or are authorized to act for them.
We will review it and remove or restrict material where the complaint is well founded. If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake, write to the same address with your reasons and we will reconsider. We may close accounts that infringe repeatedly.
The Service itself, including its software, design, and the Shovel name and logo, belongs to us or to our licensors and is protected by intellectual property law. These Terms give you no rights in it beyond using the Service as intended.
Do not copy, modify, or build derivative works from the Service, and do not use the Shovel name or logo in a way that suggests an endorsement or affiliation that does not exist, without our written permission.
If you send us an idea, a bug report, or any other feedback, we may use it freely and without owing you anything for it. You can send feedback anonymously, and when you do we do not attach it to your account.
Shovel depends on other companies for hosting, its database, image storage and delivery, email, sign in with Google, analytics, and browser push. What they do with data is set out in the Privacy Policy.
The Service also shows material we did not make, such as embedded videos and links posted by users. We do not control it, we are not responsible for it, and opening it may bring you under that third party own terms and privacy policy.
Shovel is free to use and early in its life. Features arrive, change, and are withdrawn. We may modify or discontinue any part of the Service, and we may set or adjust limits such as upload sizes, rate limits, and how many drafts you can keep.
We do not promise a level of uptime, and there are no service credits, because there are no fees. If we ever shut the Service down we will give reasonable notice and, where we can, a way to take your writing with you.
Nothing on Shovel costs money today. If we ever introduce paid features we will say so clearly in advance, and we will not begin charging for something you already have without telling you first.
You can stop using Shovel whenever you like, and you can ask us to close your account and delete your personal data by writing to privacy@shovel.one. The Privacy Policy explains what is deleted and what remains.
We may suspend or close your account if you materially break these Terms, if the law requires it, or if leaving it open would put us or other people at real risk. Unless it would be unreasonable to do so, we will tell you why.
If you own a universe and your account closes, ownership may need to pass to another member so that the universe and everyone who contributed to it are not stranded. Where we can, we will ask you first.
Sections that should outlast the agreement do so, including the licenses granted under Your content and the rights you grant and Universe licenses, and the sections on disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law.
The Service is provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and noninfringement.
We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or free of error, or that anything on it is accurate, complete, or reliable. The content on Shovel is written by the people who use it. It is fiction, opinion, and work in progress, and it is not advice of any kind. You rely on it at your own risk.
Nothing here excludes a warranty or a right that the law where you live does not allow to be excluded.
To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, nor for lost profits, lost data, lost goodwill, or the cost of substitute services, arising from or connected with your use of the Service, even if we had been told such damages were possible.
Shovel is provided free of charge. To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability for all claims relating to the Service in any twelve month period is limited to the greater of what you paid us in that period and one hundred thousand Korean won.
These limits do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for willful misconduct. If you are a consumer, nothing here affects the rights your local law gives you.
If a third party brings a claim against us because of what you posted or because you broke these Terms or the law, you agree to defend us and to cover the reasonable costs, damages, and legal fees that follow. We will tell you about the claim promptly, let you run the defense where the law permits, and cooperate with you.
This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own wrongdoing, and it does not apply where the law where you live does not permit it.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea, without regard to conflict of laws rules.
Before starting formal proceedings, please write to legal@shovel.one. Most problems are settled faster that way, and we will make a genuine attempt to resolve the matter with you.
If that does not work, disputes will be heard by the courts of the Republic of Korea, with the Seoul Central District Court as the court of first instance.
If you are a consumer, this section does not take away the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and it does not stop you bringing a claim in your local courts where the law gives you that right.
These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service, and they replace anything said on the subject before.
If a provision turns out to be unenforceable, it is narrowed to the smallest extent needed, or dropped, and the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce a provision straight away, we have not given up the right to enforce it later.
You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent. We may transfer ours to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, and we will give notice if that happens.
Neither of us is liable for a failure to perform caused by something genuinely beyond our control, such as an outage at a provider we depend on, or a natural disaster.
We may send you notices by email or by posting them in the Service. Notices to us go to legal@shovel.one.
These Terms are published in English and Korean. The two are meant to say the same thing. If they conflict, the English version governs, except where the law where you live requires otherwise.
Shovel is operated by the Shovel team. Questions about these Terms, copyright complaints, and reports of content that breaks them go to legal@shovel.one. Anything about personal data goes to privacy@shovel.one.
Questions about these documents go to legal@shovel.one. Anything about your personal data goes to privacy@shovel.one.