Terms of Service
The following pertains to all of The American Genius network (The American Genius, Big Ass Social Happy Hour, Austin Digital Jobs, and all live events).
Content Validity:
The American Genius does its very best to bring its readers the most entertaining content under the stars, however, it is impossible to guarantee the validity, accuracy, and facts of every post and every comment- after all, wasn’t OJ found Not Guilty? Most would swear he done it, but even after all of the dust settled, he was acquitted and set free, yet convicted in a civil trial. Times change, things change, and new facts evolve, so posts are dynamically updated by commenters based on the popularity of the subject matter.
Content Accuracy:
We at The American Genius do our very best to validate all material we write in posts, and are believed to be accurate to the very best of our ability at the time of publishing. If we do make a mistake (which we will because we’re all human) we will do our very best to retract or update our readers in active posts. Blog comments are open and accessible to any bozo with an internet connection; this being said, we cannot speak for the accuracy, thoughtfulness, or intelligence of the commentator, and comments should not be taken as advice or suggestion- use at your own risk.
External Links:
There will be times that The American Genius links to other sites and we do our best to link check every link, but typos do happen. As a safeguard to you, we don’t allow links in comments but when we make exceptions, we strictly prohibit URL shorteners or tracking links by commenters in an effort to allow you to see exactly where you’re clicking with less worry of viruses or inappropriate material. We advise you to click carefully if you are in a sensitive area, around children, or your workplace, as not all content is guaranteed to be sensitive to your feelings, eyes, health, heart, or those of the nosy person looking over your shoulder, nor those lifeless IT guys that get off on snooping your hard drive.
Trackbacks:
If you need to leave additional links to related material, then please do so through trackbacks from your site! In order to protect our readers, links inside the comment text are permanently moderated due to comment spam and dangerous shortened links.
Photographs and Graphic Images:
The American Genius writers do their very best to either purchase stock photography or use creative commons images, but mistakes do happen. If you believe an image of yours was used and not given proper attribution, let us know, we’ll create proper credit.
Libel and Defamation:
The content on The American Genius or your feed reader is the opinion of the writer, and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or thing, especially those with the ability and desire to fight back.
Responsibility:
Each The American Genius writer’s content is their own, not their employer, volunteer group, membership organization, church, or other agencies which they might be seen as represented, including that of The American Genius . The American Genius itself is an outlet for each individual writer’s thoughts and opinions on whatever they wish to write, and The American Genius does no editorial review of each post prior to publication. Each writer writes and each reader reads at their own risk.
Personal Views:
Blogging is much like a street corner conversation over a hot dog and coke. All articles are views and opinions of the writers that receive like feelings, views, and opinions on the article subject matter. Both the writer and commentator are responsible for their own statements no matter how stupid or offensive you may find them to be.
Protection from Commenters:
The American Genius is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything anyone says on The American Genius in the post comments, nor the laws which they may break in their country or ours through their comments’ content, implication and intent.
Do No Harm:
It is not the [intention] of The American Genius to harm, it is our “intention” to do no harm. We have never and will never intentionally injure others, defame, or libel. “Harm” is subject to interpretation, not facts. Everything in or on The American Genius is opinion and advice, not counsel. What is written on The American Genius shall not to be taken as fact, nor absolute. If you accept the advice, tips, techniques, and recommendations, and are injured, we [The American Genius] are not to be held responsible- instead you should immediately seek professional medical, mental, or parental assistance, take two aspirin and never call us in the morning.
Disclosure of Paid-to-Blog:
The American Genius is a bootstrap success story which means we survive on ramen noodles and water. We [The American Genius] receive no monetary benefit from articles, reviews, or opinions.
Language Issues:
The American Genius will be held harmless from all issues relating to language, punctuation, or any other issue relating to grammar, characters, or formatting. The American Genius should be translated at your own risk and makes no ratings claims in any language- even English.
Advertisement:
The American Genius has to keep the lights on and we do sell ad space, however, we do not sell product reviews in any form or fashion. We do not control content or what topics our writers write about. Writers are required to disclose any financial relationships with us (The American Genius). Writers are prohibited from writing about products or services in the form of paid endorsement.
Copyright:
All material on The American Genius is all rights reserved.
The American Genius:
By the very nature of The American Genius, it is our intent to be a positive influence on the internet. We are not a so-called bubble blog, nor do we favor insults, negative spin, or intent to harm. We do our very best to provide entertaining, stimulating, fun, but insightful commentary that inspires positivity. If something on The American Genius is believed to have offended you, is incorrect, or you feel damages you in some way, send us an email at talk [at] The American Genius.com. We’re very approachable and want very much to provide our readers the most honest and factual commentary possible and are willing to listen to reason- just let us know and we’ll do our very best to resolve the issue. However, if the information is deemed true and accurate and you wish to give your input to the article or comments, then engage the conversation by commenting.
Comment Policy:
Automated moderation – The American Genius only moderates the first few comments made by a user in order to verify that it is (a) from a human, (b) that it is human, and (c) they’re still human. Once you have been approved x (not disclosed) times, you are free to roam about the cabin.
Administrative moderation: Administrators are the moderators of this forum and reserve the right to place in moderation comments they believe are offensive- such as:
- Personal attacks, slams, flaming
- Grandstanding, soap boxing,
- Comments that are not addressing the topic of conversation
- Threats of any kind, innuendo, defamatory statements
- Spam, excessive linking (more than two), signature links
- Attacks on commenters
We encourage opinions on all topics and believe open and free dialogue should take place even if a comment is contrary to the post in opinion as we intend to encourage productive dialogue. If you are an offender you will still be allowed to comment at The American Genius, however, your comments will be placed in moderation to be approved by a moderator.
Having stated all of that, it has always been the policy of The American Genius to contact the commenter directly before moderation and request that they retract or amend their comment to fit within the tone and guidelines of The American Genius, however if abuse is sustained or overt, we reserve the right to permanently moderate without notification. That is why it is very important that the email address you provide us via comment form be accurate in order that administrative moderation not become necessary.
Lastly, The American Genius is not required or compelled to provide any explanation privately or publicly of any sort for moderation of any comment or commenter if we deem your tone to be abusive to the community. So, before you press submit, ask yourself, is this how I would enter into conversation if I were face to face with this individual?
Privacy Policy
Information We Collect
Information we collect may include automatic collection of your IP address, browser type, computer type, access time, which URL you came from, where you click on any of our sites, and the URL click to leave our page. This information will be used to diagnose any problems with our servers, to gather demographic information, and offer our free news services. Third-party advertising networks and servers like Google Ads may provide us reports with how many ads were presented and clicked, but none of your personally identifiable information is made available to us. At no time do we sell any of your contact information.
If you do not wish for any cookies to track you, we advise you to click away from this site now.
Passwords
Never share passwords. You may be required to login to use specific functions of the sites, for example, commenting. You are urged to never share any of your passwords or offer anyone access to your sign in information. Your login may be reset, but no one at The American Genius can see your password at any time.
Commenting
We do not like anonymous commenting, however we will tolerate it only ifthe email address provided is active. A courtesy email may be sent to the anonymous commenter, and if they respond, the comment may stand so long as it is in keeping with our comment guidelines and Terms of Service. We may verify email address accuracy because you the commenter are responsible for the statements you make, not The American Genius.
We will protect the privacy of all commentators at The American Genius. This means your identity is held in the highest confidence as well as your email addresses. We will not sell, loan, or use your email address for any other reason but to notify you of follow up comments or goings on at The American Genius.
The American Genius comments may be enabled to be connected to your social media accounts – we do not see your account information or password, nor do we store any of your personal social media login information when using this feature.
Language:
The The American Genius preference is an abuse free environment and appreciates your understanding. When commenting, please remember this as you choose your words. We reserve the right to revoke your use of any of The American Genius network if you abuse anyone on the site in any way.
Proper Linking & Signatures:
The link to your own website has a designated slot in the comment form and that is the only place a link to your site is necessary. Signatures should be two lines only and no linking is necessary.
The Name line in the commentform can be something fun and unique, however, we would really like to know who is commenting. Squeezing your name into your clever phrase is just good etiquette. Because the comment phrases are featured on the home page, we do reserve the right to place in moderation the attached comment.
Trackbacks are encouraged, in order to grab the correct permalink, simply click on the title of the article you’re linking to and copy it from the address line to ensure a proper ping takes place. Use of our content without a proper link is a violation of our copyright policy.
Comment Editing:
There are times that we spot horrendous typos in comments and will correct spelling from time to time, however, we do not believe that it is necessary to edit typos because it is a language most of us speak fluently. If however you really mess up a comment, contact us and we’ll do our speedy best to rescue your copy cred.
Comment Ownership:
Your words, you own them, and you’re responsible for them, however, by placing your comment on The American Genius you give us the right to republish your comment in any fashion we see fit. So comment carefully, the Internet can be a very permanent place.
Partial Feed Notice:
AG has always been a fan of full and free feeds, and although we can control the free part, we can no longer continue full feeds. We’ve calculated thousands of copyright violations and this number is growing by the day without even the smallest attribution. We are doing our best to fight against our content being stolen.
As of September 2010, all RSS feeds were converted to partial feeds. All content is exclusively written for The American Genius and is the property of The American Genius and may not be copied without our expressed written permission. All content is published with this digital signature (9618854d-86c0-4f33-a5dc-62c53ca89fc0) and removal of this signature is forbidden. We protect our content and will take every action necessary to protect and prosecute our rights to the fullest extent of the law.
Updates to Policies
We absolutely reserve the right to modify any of these terms at any time and without warning.
Ethics Statement
At hiring, staff is required to sign in agreement to the following ethical policies.
Core Ethics We Promote
As a company, we live and die by the First Amendment, and are privileged to enjoy that freedom. We never take it for granted, nor do we take it lightly, and for that reason, we hold ourselves accountable for our words and uphold the highest ethical standards.
Trust is imperative to our survival, and since our founding, our livelihood as a brand has been contingent on your trust. We believe that it is our only means of survival. This is why we vow that our reporters’ integrity is unparalleled, news is presented honestly and fairly, and no partner has or ever will be able to influence our coverage. Ever.
Integrity
We firmly believe that the best way to keep news pure is to keep staff writers separated completely from the business department and are therefore uninfluenced. We never favor any brand in our coverage, nor do we discriminate against them, and their status as site supporters is never a factor (and rarely even known by writing staff).
All information is professionally and honestly gathered, and inspires factual and fair coverage, be it positive or negative. We remain an independent voice, untainted by any venture capitalists or overzealous investors. Unlike other news sources, we refuse to endorse any political party, candidate, or race, as our news coverage is unbiased and never designed to put forth any political agenda.
How We Treat Sources
Again, we are staunch defenders of the First Amendment, and any conversation (electronic or otherwise) is deemed to be on the record, and our team may use all material from any interview. We do not prefer to use sources that are off the record, but at times, anonymity is the only way to obtain information, and protected by all on our staff.
Complaints
Any complaint submitted regarding any potential ethical standard violations are immediately sent to and handled directly by our Chief Executive Officer and Founder as a demonstration of how seriously we take these standards.
