Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Chive ("the Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, do not use the Service.

These terms also incorporate our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines.

2. What Chive Is

Chive is an AppView on the AT Protocol. It is a read-only indexer for scholarly eprints. This means:

• Your data lives in your Personal Data Server (PDS), not on Chive. Chive reads data from the AT Protocol firehose and indexes it for search and display.
• Chive never writes to your PDS. All record creation, updates, and deletions originate from you through your PDS.
• Chive stores index data and BlobRef CID pointers only. We never store the actual files (PDFs, images). Those remain in your PDS and are served directly from it.
• If Chive's database were deleted, you would lose nothing. Your eprints, reviews, and all other records remain in your PDS.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use Chive. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you meet this age requirement.

During the alpha period, access to certain features may require approval from the Chive team.

4. Account and Authentication

Chive uses AT Protocol OAuth for authentication. Chive does not create accounts, manage passwords, or store login credentials. Your AT Protocol identity (DID) is managed by your PDS provider.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your PDS credentials and for all activity that occurs through your authenticated sessions on Chive.

5. Acceptable Use

When using Chive, you agree not to:

• Submit plagiarized or fraudulent content
• Fabricate or falsify research data
• Engage in harassment, hate speech, or personal attacks
• Submit spam, excessive self-promotion, or off-topic content
• Publish others' private information without their consent
• Abuse the knowledge graph (tag spam, edit warring, authority vandalism, facet misuse)
• Attempt to circumvent access controls or security measures
• Interfere with the operation of the Service

For detailed behavioral expectations, see our Community Guidelines.

6. Intellectual Property

You retain all rights to content you submit through your PDS. By making content available on the AT Protocol, you grant Chive a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to index, display, and serve your content as part of the AppView.

Content displayed on Chive is shown under whatever license you assign to it (for example, CC BY 4.0). Chive does not claim ownership of your work.

Chive's own software is open source and available on GitHub.

7. Content Moderation

Chive may remove content from its index if it violates these Terms or our Community Guidelines. Removal from the Chive index does not delete content from your PDS. Your data remains under your control.

Chive uses a combination of community moderation (Wikipedia-style for the knowledge graph) and moderator review. You may appeal moderation decisions as described in our Community Guidelines.

8. Data and Deletion

When you delete a record from your PDS, the AT Protocol issues a tombstone event. Chive removes the corresponding entry from all of its indexes (search, metadata, knowledge graph) upon receiving the tombstone via the firehose.

Chive also removes content when your PDS returns a 404 response during periodic freshness checks.

9. The Decentralized Network

Chive operates on the AT Protocol, a decentralized network. Other services (AppViews, relays, and third-party applications) may independently index the same public content from the AT Protocol firehose. Chive cannot control, and is not responsible for, how third-party services handle your data.

Deleting content from your PDS removes it from Chive, but other AT Protocol services that have indexed the same content may retain their own copies.

10. Service Availability

Chive is an open source project provided on a best-effort basis. We do not guarantee uptime, availability, or completeness of the index. The Service may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time.

Because your data lives in your PDS, discontinuation of Chive does not result in loss of your data.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Chive does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any indexed content. Chive is not responsible for the content submitted by users through their Personal Data Servers.

12. Limitation of Liability

Chive is an open source project without a formal legal entity. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the project maintainers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses resulting from your use of the Service.

13. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising under these Terms shall be resolved in the courts of the State of New York.

14. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

15. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact the project maintainers through GitHub or email at legal@chive.pub.