Terms of Service

1. Scope and acceptance

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of OpenClienting.org (“the Platform”), operated by Peter Hartwieg from Germany. By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years of age to create an account and use the Platform. By registering, you confirm that you meet this age requirement.

3. User accounts

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. You must not share your account or allow others to access it. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

4. User-generated content

You retain ownership of content you submit to the Platform (problem templates, requirements, pilot frameworks, solution approaches, success reports, comments, and suggested edits).

By submitting content, you grant OpenClienting.org a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display, store, reproduce, and distribute your content as part of the Platform's operation. This licence ends when you delete your content or account, except for content that has already been anonymised or shared by others.

You warrant that you have the right to submit the content and that it does not infringe any third-party rights.

5. Anonymous posting

You may choose to publish content anonymously. When anonymous mode is selected, your identity is hidden from other users on the published page. However, your identity is always stored server-side and is visible to moderators and administrators for content moderation and legal compliance purposes.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Post illegal, defamatory, or harassing content
• Submit hate speech, threats of violence, or content that discriminates based on race, gender, religion, or other protected characteristics
• Post spam, advertising, or unsolicited commercial content
• Reference specific startup or company names in solution approaches (technology categories only)
• Attempt to circumvent moderation, access controls, or security measures
• Impersonate others or misrepresent your affiliation
• Use automated tools (bots, scrapers) to access the Platform without prior written permission

7. Content moderation

All submitted content goes through a moderation process before publication. Moderators may approve, reject, or request changes to submitted content. If your content is rejected, you will receive a reason for the rejection.

We reserve the right to remove any content that violates these Terms or applicable law, and to suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly violate our policies.

8. Reporting illegal content

If you encounter content that you believe is illegal or violates these Terms, please report it to report@openclienting.org. We will review and act on reports promptly in accordance with the EU Digital Services Act.

9. Platform intellectual property

The Platform's source code is open source and available under its respective licence on GitHub. The OpenClienting name, logo, and branding are the property of the operator and may not be used without permission.

10. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The Platform is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any user-generated content.

To the maximum extent permitted by German law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Platform. Our liability for direct damages is limited to cases of intent and gross negligence.

We are not responsible for content posted by users. Each user is solely responsible for the content they submit.

11. Privacy

Your use of the Platform is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data.

12. Account termination

You may delete your account at any time. Upon deletion, your personal data will be removed and your published content will be anonymised (author attribution removed).

We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms. In such cases we will provide an explanation of the reasons.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via the Platform. Continued use of the Platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. Any disputes arising from these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Germany.