About the Our Towns, Our Stories Site
The Our Towns, Our Stories website invites youth to share stories and perspectives on issues of public concern in their communities using journalistic tools such as investigating, documenting, publishing, and circulating content and media. As educators, we believe that youth have an important voice in their communities and deserve to be represented in local news and public forums.
Please email us at writingourfuture@nwp.org if you have any questions or concerns.
About our terms of use
The National Writing Project (NWP), as host (“Host”), offers these Website services (the “Services”) to you subject to the terms and conditions of use (“Terms”) contained herein. By accessing, creating, or contributing to any of the community Website sections at and under the subdomain writingourfuture.nwp.org (“Website”), and in consideration for the Services we provide to you (“Participant”), you agree to abide by these Terms.
The Hosts retain the right to revoke membership to the Website if the terms of use are not met.
Please read the terms carefully before joining, posting to, or creating any content.
Disclaimer
Content on this Website expresses the research and opinions of the Service Participants, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hosts or any of the Hosts-related partners. The administrators of this Service do not typically edit participants’ posts or other content and cannot confirm the accuracy or reliability of their submissions. Each Participant is solely responsible for the information, analysis, and/or recommendations contained in their submitted content.
Moderation policy
The Hosts are hosting these Services to support youth writing by providing a safe and supportive environment for youth sharing and publishing. We intend for content posted in this forum to be authored by youth and young adults 13+ years old, and to meet basic standards of respect and accuracy in tone and content. Community Guidelines are provided for both posting and responding to content within this Website. We encourage the use of these guidelines in helping to establish a safe and supportive environment within the Website.
Posted content on this Website is subject to review and moderation by the Hosts to maintain the quality of participation for this forum to remain productive, respectful, and inclusive. Participants may flag comments or content by reporting problems for administrative review.
Voicing differences of opinion within the context of the Website’s intent are welcomed—however, hate speech and attacks of a personal nature will not be tolerated.
The Hosts maintain the right to edit or remove content posted at our discretion if said content is unrelated to the general area of interest of the Website; if content are advertising products, services, or Websites; or if contents include racial, gender-based, or sexualized slurs or attacks, aggressive harassment or abuse of content authors or fellow Website members, or threats of violence.
About participation at the website
Educators, 18 or older, sign up and create “Sites” and “Groups” administrated by themselves or other 18+ educators. These educators then administer Groups and add youth or young adults, 13+, as “Members.” Members can add and edit their response(s); Group administrators approve members and responses by publishing.
Participation as an educator (teacher, librarian, OST educator)
This project is designed to support youth and young adults who are 13+ years old in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). If you are a teacher or other educator, you represent and warrant that you have permission and authorization from your school, district and/or organization to use the Services as part of your curriculum, and for purposes of COPPA compliance, you represent and warrant that you are entering into these Terms on behalf of your school, district and/or organization.
When posting any content that is created by or features students under the age of 18, you also warrant and represent that you have all the necessary permissions required by your district or institution’s acceptable use policy and that you are in compliance with protections afforded minors as per U.S. law. Furthermore, you warrant and represent that you have protected the privacy of minors in your content, including removing student names and other identifiers as per U.S. Law and your institutions acceptable use policy.
COPPA also requires that online service providers obtain parental consent before they collect personally identifiable information online from children who are under 13.
All participants
You promise to only use the Services for your personal, internal, non-commercial, educational use, and only in a manner that complies with all laws that apply to you. If your use of the Services is prohibited by applicable laws, then you aren't authorized to use the Services. We can't and won't be responsible for you using the Services in a way that breaks the law.
Site administrators promise to provide us with accurate, complete, and updated registration information about your Site. If you're agreeing to these Terms on behalf of an organization or entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to agree to these Terms on that organization or entity's behalf and bind them to these Terms.
You may not use the name of the Hosts (or any of the partner organizations) to endorse or promote any product, opinion, cause, or political candidate. Representation of your personal opinions as institutionally endorsed by the Hosts of the Our Towns, Our Stories website or any of its partners is strictly prohibited.
By posting any content, you warrant and represent that you either own or otherwise control all of the rights to that content, including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input, or submit the content, or that your use of the content is a protected fair use.
You agree that you will not knowingly and with intent to defraud provide material and misleading false information. You represent and warrant also that the content you supply does not violate these Terms and that you will indemnify and hold the Hosts harmless for any and all claims resulting from content you supply.
You acknowledge that the Hosts do not pre-screen or review posted content but that they shall have the right to remove in its sole discretion any content that it considers in violation of these Terms.
You understand that all content posted to the Website is the sole responsibility of the individual who originally posted the content. You understand, also, that all opinions expressed by users of this Website are expressed strictly in their individual capacities and not as representatives of the Hosts of the Our Towns, Our Stories website or any of its partners.
You agree that the Hosts will not be liable, under any circumstances and in any way, for any errors or omissions, loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of use of any content posted on this Website. You agree that you must evaluate and bear all risks associated with the use of any content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such content.
Rights to the content you submit
Except where otherwise noted, all content posted to this Website is owned by its author. Unless authors specify otherwise, any and all works posted by you to this Website (“Content”) are submitted under these default terms. If you, as the author, wish to provide a more open license, please indicate that by adding this information to your post. Please see Creative Commons licensing for options.
Please note that by posting your Content on this Website, you are granting the Hosts a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and worldwide license to use your Content in connection with the operation of the Services, including, without limitation, the license rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, and reformat your Content, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work.
When publicly displaying, publicly performing, reproducing, or distributing copies of your Content, or Content as incorporated into a collective work, the Hosts will make best efforts to credit your authorship. You grant the Hosts permission to use your display name for such attribution purposes.
Disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability
This Website is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. The Host and related partners make no representations or warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, as to the Website’s operation or the information, content, or materials included on this Website. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, the Hosts and related Partners hereby disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. The Hosts and related Partners will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of or inability to use this Website. You expressly agree that you use this Website solely at your own risk.
Additional
Privacy Policy
Please be sure to read the Website's Privacy Policy which is incorporated herein by reference.
Copyright Complaints
The Hosts respect the intellectual property of others, and requires that our users do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on this Website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or that your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please contact writingourfuture@nwp.org to report copyright infringements.
Your Agreement
Use of this Website constitutes acknowledgment and agreement of these Terms. We reserve the right to change all or part of these Terms at any time.
Modification of These Terms
The Hosts reserve the right to change, at any time, at our sole discretion, the Terms under which these Services are offered. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms. Your continued use of the Services constitutes your agreement to all such Terms. The Hosts will also send email updates to all Site and Group administrators in the event of a change to the Terms.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, please contact us at writingourfuture@nwp.org.