Terms of Use

We're willing to bet that you've never read an entire Terms of Use document for any website, ever. Seriously, have you ever read one all the way through? If you have, respect. We don't read them and, as you may have guessed, someone is making us write this one. We just figure that's what lawyers are for, so they wrote the really dull version, which you'll find at http://www.mixx.com/terms_legalese. We think that our version is a bit easier to understand, but we must warn you: Just because you can read it doesn't mean that it isn't legal.

But enough chit chat.

Mixx General Terms of Use

By using the Mixx site, you are agreeing to play by our rules, which will govern your use of Mixx on what some Senators describe as "a series of tubes," or what we just call "the web." If you don't agree with these rules, we're sorry to say that you have to leave now.

Still here? Then you get to stay and play—after you read the rules, of course. Before we start, we must mention that we get to change these rules whenever we like. But don't worry—we'll let you know so you can decide if you want to keep playing.

General Use Restrictions—aka: If it's ours, don't mess with it

Most of the content you'll find on Mixx is user-generated, but the stuff that isn't submitted by other Mixxers belongs to us or to our partner contributors. This includes logos, graphics (site design) and images, as well as the scintillating text you'll find throughout (MixxBlog, Help and FAQ sections, error messages—no, really!), etc. We'll let you display or make—for personal use only—one copy of whatever you like. The only catch is that you have to agree to leave in its original condition any of the stuff that belongs to us.

Password

Some parts of this site require a password. Don't lose it, especially if you're one of those people who use the same password for every account. (May we suggest OpenID?) If your password is lost, stolen or otherwise misplaced, please let us know because, good or bad, anything done on your Mixx account will be blamed on you.

Privacy Policy

Basically, we will never, ever sell or share your info. But our lawyers made us include a longer document that says the same thing—you'll find it at http://www.mixx.com/privacy. They even put "Privacy Policy" in quotes. How cute is that?

Third Party Content

We have partners and other suppliers who provide us with their content. You can use it, but again, only for personal use and with no changes, unless you get permission directly from that partner. And no, we can't just get permission for you. That would fall under "not our job." We also can't take any responsibility for the truthiness™ of any claims, warranties or fitness for any particular purpose, whether stated outright or implied.

Links to Third Party Sites

Just because links shows up on Mixx doesn't mean that we're endorsing them or any of the content or other links you may find when you get there.

Submitting, Commenting, Voting and Groups/Communities

Submitting

To submit content, you must agree to the following:

You will not submit spam. We realize that one person's spam is another's treasure, so we strongly encourage you to ask yourself the following question before you submit content:

If the sponsored ads, links, copied/scraped/cut-and-pasted/used-without-permission content were removed from the page, would your submission have anything of value left? If the answer is "no," Congrats! You've just Mixxed spam!

You will not post links to any site whose sole mission is to sell a good or service, unless, of course, it's done for humorous reasons and contains no affiliate benefits. You will not solicit or post any sexually explicit images (actual or simulated). You will not post anything that exploits children or minors or that depicts cruelty to animals. You will not post any copyrighted or trademarked materials without the express permission from the owner. You will not subject other Mixxers to junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of such solicitation. You will not attempt to overload our system or clog our "Recently Submitted" section with multiple submissions from one source in a short period of time.

While we're at it: Let's try to keep the self-submitting to a minimum. Every once in a while is OK, but to be a good member of the community, you need to submit content from a variety of sources. Think of this as a dinner party with scintillating conversation; does anyone actually like the person who keeps interrupting and only talks of themselves? No, because that isn't actually "conversation."

Commenting

Our Mixxers are a very cool bunch of people, and to become a Mixxer you have to agree to play nice, especially when leaving comments. In a very large nutshell, this means that you will:

NOT defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, insult or otherwise engage in any type of creepy behavior toward others. NOT use offensive or derogatory language based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. If you have issues, get help, preferably somewhere else. NOT discuss or incite illegal activity of any sort. NOT yell, scream, slap, hit, kick, or use explicit and/or obscene language. NOT place links to off-topic or irrelevant websites in comments.

Voting

You agree:

That you will not conspire with others (or yourself) to create voting rings, fake accounts or use any other method to manipulate the rating or ranking of a submission. Those caught doing so will be shown the door immediately, no questions asked, no appeals. And yes, we do have ways of finding this type of behavior, though we'd rather not have to. That you will not change the ratings of any story, alter comments or give yourself or anyone else extra karma points. That would be antithetical to the meaning of karma, anyway. You will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access or manipulate Mixx, except for accessing RSS feeds or through accepted use of our API (coming soon).

We're sorry that we have to spell out all of this, but you must agree: While most people are inherently good, a few of them just suck at common sense, ethics, morals, etc. Which is why we also reserve the right to add to this list at any time. If we have to, we will notify legal authorities and/or cooperate with law enforcement investigations of illegal activity.

Groups and Communities

In using Groups and Communities you agree to the following:

Do not create groups solely for SEO purposes or to increase your page rank. Do not create duplicate groups. Do not create groups solely to sell specific products. Do not submit stories to groups irrelevant to the topic of the story.

Unauthorized Activity

Misbehave and you're the one who will be in trouble, not us. When you agree to play by our rules, you agree that no one employed by or in any way related to Mixx will be held accountable for your actions, legally or financially. And if we have to protect ourselves in court because of your actions, we will stick you with the bill.

Proprietary Rights

Mixx and our logo are owned by Recommended Reading, Inc., which is based in the United States. And, unless we've said otherwise, any and all content on Mixx, including the logo, site design, text—even the way they're arranged—belongs to Recommended Reading, Copyright © 2008 Recommended Reading. Any other trademarks, copyrights or logos you see on the site are the property of their respective owners.

Copyright and Trademark Infringement

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and we ask our Mixxers to do the same. If you are a copyright holder and believe that your work has been borrowed/stolen, altered, illegally copied or misused in any other way, please let us know. We'll need some supporting documentation, a list of which you'll find here. Once you have the information, send it to:

Recommended Reading, Inc.
8260 Greensboro Drive Suite 130
McLean, VA 22102

By phone:
(703) 356-6174

By eâ€‘mail:
info@mixx.com

Please note that reporting that something or someone is infringing on your copyright when you know that's not the case may subject you to liability under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act.

Disclaimer of Warranties

As much as we'd love to, we just can't vet every single submission to the Mixx. And even some of our stuff might have the occasional inaccuracy or typo. We are not responsible for any of these errors, either on Mixx or a third-party site. We offer Mixx to you on an "as-is" basis.

Limitation of Liability

If you misbehave while you're on Mixx—download stuff you shouldn't, make illegal copies, that sort of thing—we are not responsible; we warned you, but you'll have to take your lumps.

Local Laws; Export Control

Mixx and our parent company, Recommended Reading, Inc., are based in the United States. If you use Mixx outside of the US, you're gonna have to follow the local laws.

General

Trust us when we say that we understand that occasionally the rules get broken, so the first time we'll give you an emailed rap on the knuckles. Repeated violations of these Terms of Use (and yes, you are bound by the full-length version in all its glorious legalese) can result in a suspension of your Mixx account. If you've done something really bad there are no second chances; we'll boot you out right away.

And that's pretty much it. But if we think of anything else or need to make a few changes to these Terms of Use, we'll let you know so you can decide if you want to stay in the Mixx.